The holiday season, particularly Christmas, holds a special place in our hearts. It's a time for reflection, gratitude, and it’s also a chance to extend a helping hand to those less fortunate.
This sentiment is widely shared among Australians, as evidenced by the significant number of people planning to contribute to charitable causes this Christmas (47%). This makes the holiday season an optimal period for our childcare centres to perform philanthropic activities and community support work.
Since 2014, our Grow Early Education Centres have actively participated in the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal, or selected local charities to support. This annual tradition serves as a valuable connection to our local communities, fostering a sense of unity and shared responsibility.
In November of this year, we launched the Grow Early Education 'Annual Christmas Food and Toy Drive.' This initiative involved selecting charities, creating donation hampers, and gearing up for the generous contributions of books, toys, and non-perishable food items.
While supporting the Salvation Army and their Christmas Appeal remains a priority, some Grow Early Education centres have chosen to back other not-for-profits, such as Angel Paws, Ronald McDonald House, Give a Little Hope, Defenders for Hope, and Act for Kids to name a few.
With our childcare centres spread across Australia in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, each hosting their own Christmas Appeal, the collective efforts of the Grow Early Education childcare centres can make a significant and positive difference.
Moreover, our Annual Christmas Food and Toy Drive demonstrates our commitment to making a positive impact locally and instilling a sense of community contribution in children. It serves as a crucial opportunity to initiate and expand conversations about generosity and gratitude with the children in our childcare centres.
At Grow Early Education, we firmly believe that it's never too early to instil the value of giving back in little ones. Nurturing generosity and teaching children about the significance of charity from an early age empowers them to have a meaningful impact on the lives of others.
For parents wondering how to introduce charity to their children, simple actions like dropping money into charity boxes, involving them in selecting canned foods for a drive, or taking them to fundraising events can be impactful. Plus, these moments offer an opportunity to discuss the importance of giving and the joy it brings.
If you're interested in joining your local Grow Early Education centre's Christmas Appeal, there's still time to get involved. You will need to be quick though, as donations and hampers are set to be collected by December 12th from all centres!
The journey began with Simon Kerle, the visionary behind Yoga Bears Kids Yoga, pondering the benefits he reaped from his yoga practice. The question echoed in his mind: "Why not extend these advantages to children?"
Fast forward to 2023 and Grow Early Education to date has eight (8) of its long day care centres across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria with children’s yoga provided as an extra-curricular activity - offered through Yoga Bears of course!
Simon speaks about the collaboration between Yoga Bears and Grow Early Education, “We believe that you’re never too young to benefit from and fall in love with yoga. This is why we formed a strong partnership with Grow Early Education and their long day care centres across Australia. We place our accredited children’s yoga teachers into their childcare centres to host yoga classes for 1 to 5-year-old children,” said Simon.
Children's yoga is gaining popularity as a holistic approach to fostering physical fitness and nurturing emotional and mental well-being in children. Simon thinks that providing children’s yoga as an extra-curricular activity in our centres is a great reason for parents to choose a Grow Early Education centre for their child to attend.
“If parents see the benefit of yoga for children and realise that they (Grow Early Education) are offering something unique in their childcare centres and that it will really help their kids, I think it would be an easy choice for them,” he said.
Children's yoga is more than a physical activity—it's a holistic approach to nurturing the mind, body, and soul of a child.
The Yoga Bear classes for children are of course, very different to an adult yoga class. They incorporate games, storytelling, singing, and other engaging activities tailored to captivate young minds with shorter attention spans.
Simon describes their Yoga Bear classes as “A mix of song, dance, yoga postures, stories and games, all designed to keep children engaged and aware. Relaxation time with breathing & meditation techniques brings about mindful behaviour at the end.”
Despite the difference between an adult’s and a child’s yoga session, the benefits are evident—higher engagement, a regulated nervous system, improved concentration to name a few…
The Benefits of Children's Yoga
Physical Health: Children's yoga poses are designed to enhance flexibility, balance, and strength. Through these gentle exercises, children develop better coordination and body awareness, laying a foundation for a healthy lifestyle.
Emotional Regulation: Yoga encourages children to connect with their emotions and understand them better. Through breathing exercises and mindfulness, they learn how to manage stress, anxiety, and anger, promoting emotional resilience.
Improved Concentration: Yoga teaches children to focus on their breath and body, enhancing concentration and mindfulness. These skills can translate into improved behaviour.
Boosted Confidence: Mastering yoga poses boosts children's confidence and self-esteem. As they achieve physical milestones, they develop a sense of pride in their abilities, fostering a positive self-image.
Social Skills: Children's yoga classes often involve group activities, encouraging social interaction and cooperation. This collaborative environment helps children learn important social skills like communication, empathy, and teamwork.
Certified yoga instructors visit Grow Early Education centres weekly to deliver the yoga program as an extra-curricular activity. Best of all, this is included as part of our daily fee so there is no extra cost.
We are proud to provide children’s yoga as an extra-curricular activity at the following childcare centres:
- Grow Early Education Frankston, VIC
- Grow Early Education Narre Warren North, VIC
- Grow Early Education Kelso, NSW
- Grow Early Education Riverton, QLD
- Grow Early Education Maroochydore, QLD
- Grow Early Education Toowoomba, QLD
- Grow Early Education Darling Heights, QLD
- Grow Early Education Bridgeman Downs, QLD
By integrating yoga into the weekly routine, Grow Early Education equips children with invaluable tools to navigate life's challenges with grace and resilience, guiding them toward a healthier, happier, and more balanced future. Namaste!
If you are interested in finding out more about our children’s yoga program and other extra-curriculars we offer as part of our service, please phone us on 1300 934 769.
From the 13th to the 19th of November this year, National Recycling Week took centre stage at our Grow Early Education centres.
As is customary every year, our long day care centres actively participated in this event and utilised it as an important tool for educating the children in our care about reducing waste.
Initiated by Planet Ark in 1996, National Recycling Week stands as one of Planet Ark's flagship campaigns. Its annual mission is to educate and empower individuals to make environmentally responsible choices, especially when faced with the decision of what goes into the bin.
National Recycling Week strives to encourage Australians to contribute to making our country a greener and more sustainable one. Each year, this week serves as a reminder to all Australians that "waste isn't waste until it's wasted."
Our Educators at Grow Early Education focus on helping children develop genuine connections and contributions to caring for our natural world, through their Sustainability Programs. The recycling stations, worm farms and composting bins at our Grow Early Education Centres, also assist children to learn through practical application.
By educating children in our care about recycling, up cycling, use of sustainable materials, and water and energy conservation, this all assists with developing a deep appreciation for our natural world.
“Sustainability empowers children to construct knowledge, explore values and develop an appreciation of the environment and its relationship to their worlds.”
In this blog post, we are thrilled to share some of the fun educational activities our centres engaged in during National Recycling Week 2023!
Grow Early Education Dalby
In addition to their amazing recycling station set up in the foyer of Grow Early Education Dalby, the children in the Toddlers Classroom used recycled materials to create some amazing artwork! Combining paint with used boxes, the children used a combination of items as paint brushes to create their group masterpiece… including wooden pegs!
Grow Early Education Hervey Bay
At Grow Early Education Hervey Bay, their Sustainability Station is filled to the brim with recycled and used items donated by families for the children to play and learn with. Egg cartons, glass jars, cardboard boxes, plastic containers and bottle lids in every colour of the rainbow! Grow Early Education Hervey Bay has a strong focus on sustainability in their programming as they support the children to understand the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling.
Grow Early Education Kelso
At Grow Early Education Kelso, the Toddler Classroom expanded on their interest of trains by using train wheels and paint to express themselves creatively. A plastic tray from their Recycling Station was used to hold the paint they were using, which is a clever way to reduce and reuse. Grow Early Education Kelso are always looking at ways to be sustainability conscious and share this value with the children in their care… including holding a Weekend Treasure Hunt as part of their Sustainability Program!
The aim of the Weekend Treasure Hunt was to encourage more donations of used and recycled items from their families. On the Friday, families were asked to take a Woolworths paper bag from the centre home with them and over the weekend, place all the treasure hunt list items in it, before returning it full on the Monday!
Grow Early Education Tarneit
During National Recycling Week, the Kindergarten Classroom at Grow Early Education Tarneit explored recycling through a new learning area set up within their classroom. As a learning extension to this, they took all the collected recycled items with them to the local container deposit station.
Through all these fun and creative activities, the children explored the concept of reduce, reuse, recycle!
Do you have a recycling system in your home? Or perhaps you would like to find out how you could be doing more? For more recycling tips and tricks, visit www.recyclingnearyou.com.au/nationalrecyclingweek/
In the ever-evolving landscape of education, early childhood Educators are tasked with shaping the minds of the future generation.
This responsibility goes far beyond imparting knowledge; it involves fostering critical thinking, empathy, and adaptability. One powerful tool that aids in this process is critical reflection.
At Grow Early Education, we believe that it is vital for all staff to continuously and critically reflect on our practices and our curriculum to benefit the children’s interests and needs. The voice of the child and the voice of the parent are main components that influence our critical reflections and promotes ongoing learning.
In this blog, we will explore the significance of critical reflection in early education and understand why at Grow Early Education, we believe it is indispensable in nurturing young minds for a brighter future.
Promoting Deep Learning
Critical reflection encourages deep learning by prompting Educators to delve into the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of their teaching methods. By questioning their approaches, Educators can identify what works best for the children and adapt their strategies accordingly.
This reflective practice goes beyond the surface, allowing Educators to understand the underlying principles of early education and tailor their methods to meet the diverse needs of the children in their care.
Enhancing Self-Awareness
Critical reflection enhances self-awareness among Educators. It encourages them to examine their beliefs, biases, and values, which can significantly impact their teaching styles. By recognising their own predispositions, Educators can create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment. Self-aware teachers are better equipped to identify areas of improvement and continuously work on refining their teaching techniques.
Fostering Problem-Solving Skills
Incorporating critical reflection in early education nurtures problem-solving skills among both Educators and children. When Educators critically reflect on their teaching practices, they can identify challenges faced by their children.
By encouraging children to reflect critically on their own learning experiences, Educators empower them to become active problem solvers. This skill is invaluable for real-life situations.
Encouraging Lifelong Learning
Early education is the foundation upon which a child's lifelong learning journey is built. At Grow Early Education, we understand that children learn in different ways, and therefore we support each individual child’s learning needs, ensuring that every child feels and experiences success and accomplishment. Through this process, we aim to inspire all children and instil a love for learning that they will take with them through life.
Critical reflection instils a sense of curiosity and a love for learning. Educators who engage in reflective practices are more likely to seek out new teaching methodologies, educational theories, and research findings.
This continuous pursuit of knowledge creates a dynamic learning environment that stimulates young minds and prepares them for a future where adaptability and continuous learning are key.
Promoting Empathy and Understanding
Critical reflection encourages empathy and understanding among Educators. By reflecting on their teaching methods and the outcomes, Educators develop a deeper understanding of the children's perspectives, needs, and challenges.
This understanding allows them to tailor their teaching approaches, ensuring that every child receives the support they require. In turn, children learn empathy by reflecting on different viewpoints and experiences, fostering a compassionate and inclusive learning community.
In the realm of early education, critical reflection serves as a guiding light, illuminating the path towards a more effective, empathetic, and inclusive teaching practice.
By promoting deep learning, enhancing self-awareness, fostering problem-solving skills, encouraging lifelong learning, and nurturing empathy, critical reflection paves the way for a generation of young minds that are not just academically proficient but also compassionate, adaptable, and open-minded.
Grow Early Education will continue to champion critical reflection in early education, investing in a future where every child has the opportunity to thrive and contribute meaningfully to the world.
Children’s Week is an annual event in Australia, which celebrates the right of children to enjoy childhood. It is also a time for children to demonstrate their talents, skills and abilities!
As early childhood education providers, Grow Early Education is privileged to partner every day with families to celebrate and support children. It is also our responsibility to provide a safe, loving, and stimulating environment where children can thrive emotionally, socially, and intellectually.
The Children’s Week National Theme for 2023 is based on UNCRC Article 31:
All Children have the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.
We love this year’s theme, because at Grow Early Education we embrace the Early Years Learning Framework’s definition of play based learning and intentionality! Children learn through play, and through spontaneous and planned learning experiences and interactions. With this in mind, we have designed large inspiring play spaces that allow children to learn through exploratory play.
Our inspiring learning environments are set up with a variety of indoor and outdoor learning spaces. Children are encouraged to move freely between the two environments to explore their individual interests. We provide active and quiet spaces, and areas for messy, wet, and creative play.
Extra-Curricular Activities to Enhance Learning
At Grow Early Education, we also maximise the learning opportunities available to children by providing a variety of extra-curricular activities (all included in our daily fee). This extends on children’s interests and enhances their learning experience.
These specialised learning programs include; Yoga, cooking classes, language programs, community gardening, sports programs and science and technology experiences delivered through our state-of-the-art interactive whiteboards and individual computer stations.
Our Approach to Rest & Sleep Times
One of the many ways we support the children in our care is to promote regular routine and ensure they are well rested. Rest time is an essential part of the day’s program and we comply with National Legislations and ACECQA (The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority) recommendations.
At Grow Early Education, we adopt a flexible approach to sleep and rest at our centres, which is individualised to each child’s needs. We partner with the families to learn and follow their at home schedules, in addition to watching each child for verbal and non-verbal cues to assess their individual needs.
Each classroom creates a relaxing and peaceful environment by playing soft music, turning off the lights, and allowing children to have their own personal cuddle toy or comforter from home whilst resting. Each classroom has been designed to ensure adequate ventilation, and that the temperature, lighting and ambience of the sleep room or area encourages sleep and rest. Depending on the age and developmental stage of the child, we offer cots or beds during sleep and rest times. We also provide bed linen as part of our daily fee, which is a huge convenience for our families!
Older children who do not wish to sleep, are provided with opportunities for play so they are engaged in restful and quiet activities. This ranges from relaxing in bed, to yoga and reading books in our quiet reading nooks.
We are pleased to say that Grow Early Education is compliant with the new sleep and rest legislative requirements from ACECQA that commenced from 1 October, 2023. This includes having conducted a risk assessment of our centres in relation to sleep and rest for the purpose of preparing sleep and rest policies and procedures (regulation 84C).
Child Safety is Our Priority
Grow Early Education is committed to providing safe, clean and welcoming environments for all families. Our centres are accessed only through a single entry with key pad technology and our sign in and out kiosks provide families with a secure and convenient drop off and pick up system.
Our Educators at Grow Early Education all hold a current working with children check and relevant Early Childhood qualifications including first aid, asthma and anaphylaxis training. Regular audits of our safety systems, staffing and play environments are conducted to ensure the highest protection of your children.
Cultural Experiences
We are deeply committed to embracing the cultures and heritages of our families, Educators and local communities and celebrate the rich diversity that this brings to our early learning curriculum.
Each of our Grow centres strive to create an Educational Program that truly reflects the lives of children, families, staff and the wider community. Educators will have an open, caring attitude to diversity and inclusion within the centre. Cultural sameness and diversity is celebrated!
Our Educational Programs include the provision of a range of multicultural activities, books, toys and games for all children at our centres. This creates an opportunity for Educators to raise awareness and positively affirm differences on an ongoing basis with these multicultural resources.
At Grow Early Education, we celebrate diverse festivities to educate ourselves and the children on different cultural celebrations. Some examples include Diwali, Chinese New Year and NAIDOC week. Educators will program activities around these special days as one approach to raising cultural awareness, which creates opportunities for child-initiated exploration, extending conversations and creating teaching moments.
It is important to note, that our Educational Programs also reflect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. This is done through posters, books, play equipment, music, language, displays, celebrating NAIDOC Week, proudly displaying an acknowledgement of county in our centres and making connections with local Elders (to name a few).
If our approach to early education and care sounds like the right fit for you and your family, give our friendly team a call on 1300 934 769 and book a tour of your closest centre. We are currently taking enquiries for 2024 enrolments!
If you would like to get involved in Children’s Week, there are a diverse range of events and activities organised at National, State and Local levels. These focus the attention of the wider community on children, their needs and achievements. You can find out how to get involved by visiting the Children’s Week Council of Australia’s website at www.childrens-week.org.au
Say hello to carrots, capsicum and cauliflower! From October 15th to 21st 2023, it’s time to pay tribute to vegetables and the important role they can play in our health and wellbeing.
Nutrition Week is all about encouraging Australians to learn about making healthy food and lifestyle choices to improve their overall health.
As an early education and childcare provider, we play a big part in shaping many children's eating and drinking habits. At Grow Early Education, we take this responsibility seriously as developing healthy habits in childhood also leads to healthier decisions, actions and habits throughout life!
A child’s physical and mental development depends largely on the nutrition they receive during their formative years. Proper nutrition is essential for children’s health, development, and wellbeing. It helps them grow, learn, and build strong immune systems. A balanced diet that includes a variety of nutrient-rich foods is the key to optimal health for children.
At Grow Early Education it is our priority to work with families to support and encourage healthy eating for children in our care. We provide nutritious and super delicious meals every day for your little one to enjoy and this is included in our daily fee.
Our centre menus, prepared by professionally qualified Chefs are age and development appropriate and include a wide variety of nutritious food of different tastes and textures consistent with the Australian Dietary Guidelines.
We also use seasonal and local produce and ensure that our menus provide more than half a child’s daily nutrition requirements!
At Grow Early Education, we recognise the important role we have in promoting healthy eating and good food choices to the children in our care. We proactively do this by using the following strategies:
- Engaging children in activities based around creating healthy menus and cooking experiences with our Chefs. This includes providing cooking classes as an extra-curricular activity, which is included as part of our daily fee.
- Promoting mealtime routines and foods from different cultures, to expand children’s experience with different foods.
- Engaging in conversations about nutritious food and making healthy food choices with children during mealtimes.
- Modelling healthy eating practices and leading by example during mealtimes.
- Making mealtimes happy, social and pleasant occasions, where conversations around healthy food choices and nutrition are encouraged.
- Promoting ‘Paddock to Plate’ by growing a range of delicious vegetables, herbs and fruits in our gardens, which the children help to grow and harvest to use in our centre meals. This is part of our gardening lessons as an extra-curricular activity included in our daily fee.
Wondering how you can get involved?
Check out Nutrition Australia’s ‘Try for 5’ website at www.tryfor5.org.au.
‘Try for 5’ is an annual awareness campaign by Nutrition Australia during National Nutrition Week in October that celebrates vegetables and the important role they can play in our health and wellbeing.
If you find it hard to get your little one to eat their vegetables, our hot tip is to head to the ‘Recipes’ section of this website. You are guaranteed to find one that suits your family’s tastebuds!
If you would like to know more about our approach to health and nutrition at our Grow centres, visit the Health & Wellbeing page of our website or call our team on 1300 934 769.
‘Good nutrition is necessary for the active growth and development that takes place in early childhood. Good eating habits and a well-balanced diet support children’s health and wellbeing, and minimise the risk of illness. Eating habits developed in the early years are likely to have a lifelong influence.’
(Get up and Grow: Healthy Eating and Physical activity for Early childhood p 20. 2013 Dept. of Health. Aust. Government)
