Category: News

1. Get organised early
Taking care of practical things like lunches and clothes labels the night before (or earlier) will reduce the stress of trying to get out the door. This means you can focus on your child and how he’s feeling on child care mornings.

2. Allow plenty of down time at home
Child care is very stimulating. Your child will probably be tired and need recovery time at home. This might mean an earlier bedtime or longer naps. Or maybe just quiet play in a familiar environment.

3. Make special time at home with you
Now that you have less time with your child, you’ll want to make the most of the time you do have together.

Breastfeeding or bottle-feeding before and after child care can be a good way to connect. You might also be able to build special time into your evening routine, with songs and play at bath time, or cuddles and stories at bedtime. Or plan for relaxed family time together on the weekends – for example, a regular play at the park.

4. Make time to stay with your child the first few mornings
Try staying with your child for five minutes for the first few days. You could read a book together or watch your child do activities. As you and your child become more comfortable at child care, you might take your child in and leave more quickly.

5. Say goodbye
When it’s time to go, let your child know you’re going and when you’ll be back. Give your child a hug and a kiss, say goodbye to your child’s early childhood educator and leave.

6. Build a relationship with your child’s early childhood educators and carers
Your child is more likely to feel secure in the new child care setting if she sees that you have a good relationship with early childhood educators and carers. If your child can see you trust the educator, she’s more likely to trust the educator too.

7. Plan for breastfeeding
If your child is still breastfeeding, and if it’s possible for you, you might want to think about visiting the centre during the day to give your child a feed. Many centres encourage breastfeeding mothers to visit, and it might help your child settle into care.

Choosing and getting ready for an early childhood education and care service can be an exciting and overwhelming time for you and your child, considering there are so many options out there. So, the earlier you start preparing, the better.

Choosing an option that suits your needs

Start with thinking about your child care options before you need it, including the days and hours you might need it for.

There are various types of early childhood education and care services and you can choose the one that suits your lifestyle best. Most are regulated under the National Quality Framework (NQF) including:

• Family day care
• Long day care
• Kindergarten/preschool
• Outside school hours care

Other services like occasional care, crèches, mobile services and some school holiday care programs are not regulated under the NQF, but may be regulated under other state legislation. If you’re not sure if a service is regulated or not, it’s best to ask the service.

Read our factsheet on types of child care or watch this video for more information on these services.

Most services have a waiting list so it’s a good idea to put down your child’s name for more than one place to better your chances of finding a service you are happy with.

Understanding quality

All the regulated services across Australia are required to meet high national standards to ensure your child is safe and is given opportunities for learning and development on a regular basis.  These services are given quality ratings to help families choose the best service for their child and family.

These ratings are for the services that are regulated under the NQF.

There are seven quality areas which services are rated against under the National Quality Standard:

1. Educational program and practice
2. Children’s health and safety
3. Physical environment
4. Staffing arrangements
5. Relationships with children
6. Collaborative Partnerships with families and communities
7. Governance and Leadership

For each of the seven areas, most of the services will be rated either:

• Significant Improvement Required
• Working Towards NQS
• Meeting NQS
• Exceeding NQS

Services can also be given an overall “Excellent” rating when they exceed in all seven quality areas.

Finding a service

Research shows quality early education and care leads to better health, education and employment outcomes later in life. So, it’s really important for you to know if the child care service your child will be attending provides quality experiences that will cater for your child’s overall growth and development.

You can find your nearest regulated services and their quality ratings using our Find Child Care search.

Asking the right questions

• What hours do you operate?
• What times can I drop off and pick up my child?
• Do you close throughout the year and how long for e.g. Christmas or Easter time
• Will I be able to visit my child or call them at any time?
• Will I be charged fees for public holidays or when my child is not there?
• Do you provide things like nappies and meals, or do I need to bring them from home?
• What is the ratio of staff to children?
• What skills, qualifications and experience do the staff have?
• Has your service been quality rated and what was the rating?
• What ages do you care for? This is important because you might need to think about future child care options if they only provide care for children aged from birth to five.
• How will I know that my child’s learning and development will be encouraged?
• What are your internal policies and procedures?
• Will I be eligible for any subsidies or other financial assistance?

You can also refer to Starting Blocks’ resource on what to see and ask for at your service.

We celebrated World Storytelling Day on 20^th March, this day was originally introduced to highlight the importance of children reading every day! This was celebrated in many different ways at KinderPark with some centres reading their children’s favourite stories or re-enacting scenes from books – ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ is always a popular choice for this experience! Some of our centres had families share cultural stories with their children and their peers.

Reading to your child every day provides so many benefits, some of the most relevant are:

• Helping your child get to know sounds, word and language, and develop early literacy skills
• Learning to value books and stories
• Sparking your child’s imagination ad stimulate curiosity
• Helping develop your child’s brain, ability to focus, concentration, social skills and communication skills
• Helping your child learn the difference between ‘real’ and ‘make-believe’
• Helping your child understand new or frightening events, and the strong emotions that come with them
• Helping your child learn about the world, their own culture and other cultures

In addition to the benefits above, reading a story with your child is a time to cuddle, feel connection and share interests. These are times that children cherish and create positive interactions with their most valued people!

At KinderPark we encourage literacy in all different ways, reading stories one on one and in groups is just one way that literacy is introduced to the children in our centres. By talking to children about stories or making stories with them we begin building the foundation of a lifelong love of reading and stories. This feeds into singing songs, rhymes and describing routines that we are following and what we are doing. An example might be reading the menu for the day, this creates an understanding that by reading we can gather and share information.

As children grow and move into older rooms we begin to focus on their recognition of letters and use ways to engage their curiosity in the written word without set expectations of outcomes. By teaching literacy through play children integrate themselves into play and begin to show understanding, some experiences you may see us include are pads of paper in a shopping experience where children may write a ‘list’ of what they are buying, construction areas with blank paper so that children can write their plans for the buildings they will create or locker tags with their name clearly labelled so that they can begin to recognise their own names. All these examples are ways that we embed and encourage literacy while enabling your children to explore and discover at their own pace.

We can definitely see that literacy and story telling is an important part of early childhood so share a story with your children today! If you are looking for a recommendation just speak to one of our Co-workers the next time you are in one of our KinderPark centres, we all have a favourite!

By Antonette Neri (KinderPark Co-worker)