Month: September 2016

Toddlers and the lessons we can learn from them

Toddlers are magical, mysterious, mischievous, and interesting characters. If emotions were seasons, toddlers would certainly live up to the saying “four seasons in one day“, except there would be many, many seasons that unfold in any day. They have mountains of energy, and they are the most determined beings, which all amounts to a lot of laughter, tears, and adventure....

/ September 28, 2016

Nature versus Nurture?

This is an age old question. Every year more and more studies are published to show that childhood development is influenced by a variety of factors.  Whilst parents supply the gene pool for children, everyday activities and environment have a major impact on childhood development. Everyone is born with a complex system of brain circuitry, but how that circuitry is...

/ September 27, 2016

One simple step to a smooth transition

With over 3,000 Early Learning Centres (ELC’s) around the world using Storypark it’s no surprise that children coming to your Early Learning Service may be bringing Storypark with them. Transitioning from one ELC to another can be a big change in a little person’s life, not to mention a big change for their family too. A new environment, new teachers,...

/ September 23, 2016

A recipricol learning community at Midlands Kindergarten

Midlands Kindergarten is situated in central Ballarat, Victoria. It is one of 24 learning services managed by ECKA (Eureka Community Kindergarten Association). “We have 95 families attending our service.  We have two four year old groups and 2 three year old groups.  Here at Midlands we see value in teaching children through the use of an inquiry mode and are...

/ September 21, 2016

100% positive at Wyndham Vale Kindergarten

  I recently did a Storypark survey to our families through survey monkey and the results were fabulous. 100% positive. Storypark is evolving at our service. The staff have really progressed in their programming using the Storypark tool. Our connections with families has improved dramatically and their contributions to our program have truly benefited the staff and the children. We...

/ September 21, 2016

The Damage of Gender Stereotypes At a Young Age

Parents gender stereotype their children before their baby is even born. If it is going to be a boy the room is painted blue and has airplanes, if it is a girl it is pink with princesses. Ironically Gender Spectrum report that at the beginning of the 19th century the opposite was true and blue was considered more feminine while...

/ September 20, 2016

Shyness in early childhood with Dr Robert Coplan

Developmental psychologist Dr Robert Coplan from Carleton University in Ottawa, discusses shyness in early childhood. What is shyness, and what are some strategies for supporting shy children?

/ September 17, 2016

The Power of the Word (Teaching inspiration from the voice of Blinky Bill)

“You can give children a life-sentence that is empowering, or a life-sentence that is disempowering.” For our early learning web series Mat Time we talked to Robyn Moore, who created the voice of the iconic Australian cartoon character, Blinky Bill, about the power of words. Robyn is an educator who is passionate about life long learning and has some truely inspirational stories...

/ September 4, 2016