Programs

Tiny Tadpoles- 0-1.5years

At Mother Goose Day Nursery our Tiny Tadpoles have access to individual cot rooms. This means your child is less likely to be disturbed during rest periods. Happy and alert, your child can then learn through play, with quality interactions from our dedicated and caring educators.
While in care your child will learn through observation and interactions with other children their own age. Our aim in our Tiny Tadpole room is to emulate your child's home routine and provide support for you as a parent in raising your child.
The ratio of staff in our Tiny Tadpole rooms is 1:4 allowing our educators to provide the best care possible.

In our Tiny Tadpoles Room, we aim to work closely with families and closely follow each child individual home routine. We provide a balance of indoor and outdoor play experiences where childrens interests, strengths and goals form the basis of the program- maximize the learning potential of each child. Emphasis is placed on developing respecting, trusting a secure relationship between educators, children, and families in order for children to thrive in our environment. Play based, child-led learning is our focus and with open communication with families, we hope to provide a home-like environment that incorporates the childs interests, experiences, and culture so that they may thrive. Routine such as nappy change, bottle feeding, mealtimes and sleep are viewed as opportunities for learning as well as opportunities to develop meaningful connections with each child.

Curious Koalas- 1.5-2.5years

In our Curious Koalas room, play and child centered practice continues to format the basis of our program. Through close observation of the children, educators provide an environment for children to explore their ever-growing communication skills with language rich environment. We are continuing to build on childrens self-help skills and independence, using routine times as opportunities to learn- scraping their own plates, wiping our own faces, identifying our belonging etc.  Children in this room are often beginning to show an interest in toileting independently and we work closely with families to assist children with this as they are ready to do so.

We have 2 educators in this room with 8-10 children.

Leaping Frogs- 2-4 Years

Our Leaping Frogs room, children are becoming much more independent! Educators encourage and assist children to become more responsible for their self help and basic health routines as the increasingly become able to identify and take care of their own belongings, take care of their environment, take off and put on shoes and clothing, was their own hands, scraping their own plates etc. Toileting becomes a major focus in the leaping Frogs. Educators work closely with families to positively assist children through this stage. The Leaping Frogs are becoming more interested in socialising with other children and educators work closely with children to build strong social and emotional wellbeing. Children needs, interest and strengths are observed and form the basis of our program, with children building a strong sense of identity as they are able to contribute and see their interests, culture and communicate ideas catered for in their learning environment. As educators continue to adopt a play-bases, child-led program, building strong relationships with each child, they are able to ensure that learning is meaningful and aims to develop the whole child.

Brilliant Bees- 4-6years

In our Brilliant Bees Room, many of our children are at a stage where they are preparing to make the transition to Kindergarten. In order to best prepare our children for this transition, we strongly believe that our role is to support children’s sense of “being”- respecting the developmental stage that they are currently in and building a strong love of learning, sense-of well-being and dispositions for learning that will serve them well both at school and throughout life.

We believe that play is the best vehicle through which children learn. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia: Being, Belonging, Becoming- the curriculum framework used by all Early Childhood Services delivering pre-school programs, states that:

“Play is a context for learning that:

•   Allows for the expression of personality and uniqueness

•   Enhances dispositions such as curiosity and creativity

•   Enables children to make connections between prior experiences and new learning

•   Assists children to develop relationships and concepts

•   Stimulates a sense of well-being.”

Our Educators closely observe and interact with children in child-led play experiences in order to document and assess the children's interests, strengths and learning and then develop programs to further enrich the children’s learning- allowing educators to extend on prior knowledge as new concepts and experiences can be introduced that are meaningful to the children’s lives. Educators provide materials and plan teaching and learning experiences based on their observations and assessments and also with all of the EYLF curriculum objectives in mind.

Language, literacy, math, numeracy, science, engineering, technology, sensory experiences and the arts are all interwoven in a holistic manner into the children’s spontaneous play and group experiences. Educators provide a rich learning environment for the children to explore, manipulate and discover - allowing children to develop their emerging sense of autonomy and agency as they make their own choices, direct their own learning, share their own knowledge and experiences and cooperate with peers. Educators also plan a structured, but flexible routine that allows children time and space to really dive deep into their investigations and with an all day indoor/outdoor program, children are given ample opportunity to explore all of the programmed activities on offer.

"The experience of play changes the connections of the neurons at the front end of your brain," says Sergio Pellis, a researcher at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. "And without play experience, those neurons aren't changed," he says.

It is those changes in the prefrontal cortex during childhood that help wire up the brain's executive control center, which has a critical role in regulating emotions, making plans and solving problems, Pellis says. So play, he adds, is what prepares a young brain for life, love and even schoolwork.

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/08/06/336361277/scientists-say-childs-play-helps-build-a-better-brain

Small and large group experiences are planned throughout the day to allow the children to acknowledge the country they are on and pay respect to the Wonnarua people, deepening our connection to country and developing appreciation for and acknowledgement of the First Nations people who came before us. We use such opportunities to share our own interests and experiences, as well as consulting with the children about what they would like to learn about or see in their environment. This also helps form a springboard for the learning experiences that are planned by the Educators. These group times are also opportunities to read, sing, brainstorm and investigate in a collaborative setting- developing the ability to talk and listen, focus and appreciate the perspectives of others- becoming “confident communicators”. In order to ensure we honour our promise to the Wonnarua people to “work together to care for our sacred ground” and in order to empower our children to make a positive difference in their world, we have a strong sustainability program- encouraging children to actively participate in experiences that contribute to their environment- saving scraps from meals to feed to our worms or the chickens; ensuring rubbish goes in the correct bin; reducing our waste; recycling as much as possible and being aware of the small things we can do to make a positive impact on our world.

We provide a language rich environment with meaningful examples of literacy and numeracy throughout our room. A real calendar to record events such as birthdays and other meaningful events in our lives is written on with the children and checked daily. A variety of texts are always available to explore, with opportunities for children to explore writing/mark making/communicating always being provided.

In addition to encouraging responsibility for one’s own belongings, to strengthen children’s independence and self-help skills, and also reduce interruptions to children’s involvement in play, we offer progressive lunch times- where children have the opportunity to choose when they eat their lunch within a set time frame. Children are learning to listen to and respond to their own bodies. Children are given the utensils to serve their own meals, deciding how much they will eat and serving themselves. We view children as capable and confident and allowing children opportunity to do such things promotes their own view of themselves as capable and confident as well as enhancing a child’s sense of wellbeing as they become aware of their own needs and become more proficient at using the utensils provided (this is also great for naturally strengthening fine motor skills in preparation for writing).

This program does not just begin in the Brilliant Bees, but starts in the Tiny Tadpoles and moves through the Curious Koalas and Leaping Frogs as well. At each stage, children are supported to be self-motivated, curious and active participants in their own learning. Educators provide opportunity and support children to develop a strong sense of identity; to connect with  and contribute to their world; to develop a strong sense of wellbeing; to become confident and involved learners and to become effective communications, all in line with the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia.

Through developing strong relationships with children and families and supporting a child’s right to play as written in the United Nations Convention on The Rights of the Child, we hope to inspire all children within our care at Mother Goose Day Nursery towards flight.