Childhood is a funny thing for parents. Fleeting overall, but peppered with so much colour and drama and so many milestones that it can become hard to remember when first words were said, what early favourite toys were, and how much they truly wanted to be a fireman. This of course is in contrast to long days and often longer nights, and an overwhelming feeling that starts with, "can I cope?" and ends with, "time is running out".

How to capture those special memories of childhood

• Always choose to participate in the event before stepping back to take photos.

• Take LOTS of pictures. It seems like a contradiction to point number 1, I know, and the priority should be to live life, but never forget to take your camera with you. Set up your computer to automatically upload pictures from your phone to your computer, and once a year throw those images onto a USB or, better still, get them printed and file them.

• Be in the photo. Consciously make an effort to ask the stranger to take the photo. If you aren't in any photos, were you really there? Remember you are one of the most important people in their childhood.

• Buy a newspaper on the day of the birth of your children and put it into tissue and plastic to preserve it. I still have all the newspapers for my kids from their birthdays, and already it is something Master 9 finds fascinating. This idea is more about giving your child an essence of the time, which is sort of like a memory, but from a different perspective. I also give this idea to friends and family when they have their babies.

• Take a Christmas photo of your family every single year on Christmas Day. It's the one time of year you are assured to have some family members or friends around to take the picture. Commit to this one-you won't be sorry.

• Take a Christmas card photo each year. If Christmas Day is usually stressful, then dress up prior to Christmas, take a photo and use an online photo service to convert it to a Christmas card. Order an extra one for yourself. Bonus points here if you dress up in costume!

• Buy a box for each child from a stationery store and fill it with their artwork. As each year ends, decide on keeping only the most precious and take a photo of the rest.

• Create an email address for each of your children and email the photos to their email address.

• Use a wall in your home to record the kids' growth. If you move, simply make note of the heights and transfer.

• Email memories to their email address as a way of recording funny things they do, milestones, records, school newsletters that feature their name, etc. Imagine the joy when they begin using their account and find special messages from you dating back years!

• Keep their favourite book. Even now when I see a book from my childhood it brings back so many memories.

• Use an online photobook company to record all the main food you cook in the home and all the recipes that have been passed down. Keep adding to it, and when the kids move out of home you can give them the family cookbook. Food is always such a big part of memories, and this is a great way to capture another part of childhood.

• Frame your children's artwork. This is something I have done for all my kids since they were little. Only the best pieces make the cut, but it is almost like achieving 'pool room' status if they get framed. One day, I will pass some of this onto my children, and one day, of course, they will get to keep it all.

• Create a time capsule. I am doing that this year. It is hard with multiple kids, but I think I would wait until the youngest could consciously choose something to add to the capsule as the ideal time.

• I save the kids' most beautiful loved clothing (3 or 4 pieces for each child), and pop them into tissue paper along with 1 or 2 treasured toys. They will eventually be transferred into a blanket box and become a treasure to pass on when they are older.

• Create a memory jar. On New Year's Eve, have each family member add a favourite memory from the year to the jar. Add a different colour piece of paper for every year and, when the kids are older, you will have a jar of wonderful life memories to reflect upon.

• Record their dreams and aspirations. This is something I never really thought of doing before.With each of my three children, I took the time to ask them "What is your dream?". When asked recently, Miss 3's dream was to be a cowgirl (inspired by Sheriff Callie), Master 6 wants to be a policeman, and Master 9 just dreams of being happy. The word 'dream' is such a wonderful word, and the answers will never be confined to occupation. Because of that, it is probably the ideal question to ask your child, on video, each year. Walt Disney once said "It's kind of fun to do the impossible. "Dreams are kind of like that. Sometimes impossible in real life, but fun to try nonetheless. You won't regret asking this question.

Welcome Valued Centre Families.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our new families and introduce some new team members to Kidi Kingdom Child Care Hillcrest.

We have a new Early Childhood Teacher Miss Nilusha who is very experienced and excited to join our team. We also have a Second ECT/Educational Leader Miss Salma and a new Assistant Educator Miss Alexis.

As we all transition into our new rooms and roles, we welcome any feedback you may have. Miss Julie is always available at the centre. We are all looking forward to caring and educating your children as we begin a new year of learning experiences.

This term the children and educators will be focusing on The National Quality Standards of Quality Area 1 - Educational Program and Practice to enhance and enrich our educational program across the service supporting all children's individual strengths, interest and needs. How can families be more inclusive with educators in decision making for your child ? Communication is key. We value and wish to know how your child is progressing at home and in the community to ensure we can establish target goals and achievements for your child throughout the early years. Families can keep up to date with information through our Hubhello / Educate APP. A how to use our hubhello APP has been issued to families to support your learning journey with our Educate system.

Please like our Facebook page and we always appreciate our loyal families helping our centre by sharing your positive experiences to the local community by writing a quick Google, CareForKids or Facebook review. Thank you for the families that have already taken to the time to write a review.

Miss Julie Centre Manager	Click here to visit our pages at Facebook and Instagram

Welcome Valued Families of Kidi Kingdom Child Care to our First Newsletter of 2022.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our current and new families for choosing our services and how excited I am to be the Educational Programs Leader for Kidi Kingdom Child Care Hillcrest. My new role will consist of ensuring all children are receiving the best high quality education and care and supporting our amazing educators to enhance each and every child's strengths, interest and needs. I will be working with the educators to provide support and guidance. I look forward to reaching new goals with our educators for 2022.

Kind Regards, Miss Salma Educational Program Leader.

Dear Families of the Early Learners Room.

I would love to welcome our new friends to our Early Learners family. Parker, Kody, Jagger, Oliver and Isabelle. We hope you're enjoying making new friendships and developing new skills.

The children have been very busy these past few months celebrating different events and working towards their own milestones and their skills and knowledge. The Early Learners have been working on their fine and gross motor skills as well as interacting and communicating with their friends and educators during play. We started to explore the different animals of the world such as ocean animals, we then transferred into habitats, then into the world around us as we learnt about space. We had so many fun activities to explore as our Early Learners learn new things every day!

In November, December and January the children participated in Recycling Week and Remembrance Day, Christmas Celebrations where we saw Santa, a fun puppet show, New Year celebrations and taking part in lots of fun activities to celebrate these events.

What a fun-filled few months it has been in our Early Learners Room.

Kind Regards, Miss Emily & Miss Maddison.

Welcome to the Junior Early Years Room.

It is with great pleasure that we are joined by our new friends Esi, Harry, Marlie, Jax, Emily and Phoebe to be part of the Junior Early Years family. In the last few months we have been busy celebrating various special events and creating amazing artwork during Recycling Week. Remembrance Day, World Kindness Day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Australia Day. We have also been focusing on good hygiene practices and self help experiences, developing language skills by learning new words through nursery rhymes, alphabet letters, colours, shapes and saying their names. The children's interests have been role playing in home corner and baby dolls, sensory play with play dough and sensory bins with water and sand. Thank you to all our families for your amazing support and please feel free to contact us anytime if you would like to discuss your child's development and learning.

Kind Regards, Miss Jill, Miss Sandy & Miss Maddison.

Greetings Parents, Friends and Caregivers.

What a busy past few months we have had in the Early Years Room, including birthdays to national celebrations and enjoying various activities and craft experiences to celebrate each occasion. In our Early Years Room, we continued our focus on the children's interests in dinosaurs, animals and sensory play through encouraging various experiences and creative activities for the children to engage in as well as keeping up with encouraging shape, colour and number identification. We have slowly started the children on name recognition as we have completed the children knowing their full names and will continue observing and extending on the children's interests weekly. Miss Cheri and Miss Christina are available to discuss your child's learning journey. If you would like to discuss your child's development and provide any feedback or require further support. We look forward to having a wonderful association with you and your family in 2022.

Kind Regards, Miss Christina, Ms Cheri, Mr Hayden & Miss Shania.

Welcome to our new Pre Prep Children for 2022 as we sadly farewelled all our Pre Prep children who have begun their new journey into Prep. Our graduation ceremony was an amazing success, our children performed a song and dance that they had worked on in the months leading up to this special event. Our swimming lessons have now commenced at Ducklands Swim School and the children are very excited to be learning about water safety and developing confidence in the pool.

Our new early Childhood Teacher Miss Nilusha primary goal is to support the children in achieving their full potential with a holistic approach with their development. Miss Nilusha looks forward to meeting you all individually and discussing your children's needs.

Kind Regards, Miss Nilusha, Miss Kara & Miss Alexis.

Welcome to the New Year in the School Care Room.

We have been focusing on the children's emerging interests based on learning experiences through school. The children have engaged in play in many areas showing an interest in the garden area planting vegetables and flowers. Lego has been used to create many spectacular creations showing concentration and imagination. Over the holiday period art and craft played a major part of our program. The children made Christmas gifts for their loved ones and also many creations with clay. We look forward to the New Year and new challenges and experiences.

Our Hubello Educate App is available for families to access your child's learning journey and we look forward to receiving your feedback.

Kind Regards, Miss Anthya.