Welcome to existing and new families into our Geelong Childrens Centre community, this is our Termly newsletter, we all hope that you have settled well into the Babies room. We will be providing our newsletter at the end of each term, this will be shared onto Educa, the centre website and also sent via email. We welcome any feedback regarding the room, transitions and care for your family and children. We continue to provide and advocate for all children in the room, with respect and care at the for front of our curriculum, experiences and written journeys. Feedback regarding the program is welcomed via email or when fortnightly reflections and individual learning stories are shared via Educa. 

What a start to the year it has been for everyone! As we navigate normality with families heading back to the office, children have been transitioning into the babies’ room with expected ups and downs. Drop offs in the room have been easier as the days go by and children have settled into the room with such ease. Educators have been working hard to build bonds, connections and understand the routine of all children in the room, which can be a challenge as children are changing and growing every day. With children settled into the environment the exploration and boundaries that seem to have been set only a couple of months ago are being pushed as we assist and follow the interests and milestones each individual children have been achieving. 

Over January the children and educators begun their journey together, forming connections with children and families, we learnt routines, cues, bottle time, meal times and interests of each of the children. Primary caring was the main focus for January to ensure a room that each family walked into become a safe environment for children to be left in the care of educators and with fellow children. We cherished the moments of feeding our primary care children, to comfort them to sleep, to offer reassurance when unsure and to offer a helping hand when faced with a challenge. 

By February we noticed drops off become easier and the children were beginning to really move and be completely settled into their environment. We took this to continue to form connections, this time with other educator and peers and not just our primary ones. We saw routines fall into place as children were able to predict what was next to come with the help of educators. We become more involved, more hands on and more adventurous when it came to exploring our own senses and the children and educators we are faced with daily. We took this challenge and we explored it, with extended from in and we continued to welcome more friends into our community. 

This curiosity has continued to explore to March as we understand the world around us, we see some of our friends move on to bigger and better things in the Toddlers room, we see children that were once stationary wriggle their way across the room and we see crawlers move to walking then to running. With all this happening around us, educators continue to support these ever growing milestones to venture into our next challenge. 

This term has also seen us venture out of our safe space to explore what else the centre has to offer, we went for a community walk and group time to the three to five room for Harmony week. We invited some kinder friends into the room to share their knowledge, assist our play and to continue our connections with others, and we marched our way around the centre as a whole for our annual Easter parade. 

With all this in one term we ask ourselves what milestones will we achieve next? What connections will be made? And what else will we explore individually and as a community? 

What’s in your bag? With the weather starting to cool down we ask all families to recheck bags to ensure there is sufficient number of clothes to change into, we also ask that jackets begin to be packed so we can continue to rug the children up on the cold days, socks or soft shoes are a must through the cooler months. Wet bags are back at the office to purchase for $8, this will help us to prevent plastic bag waste. Sunscreen is still needing to be applied when the Uv is three and above, educators will continue to monitor this and apply sunscreen when required. 

Illness’ in the room. We understand coming into the winter months that illness’ are a given, we just like to remind families to continue to wash hands in the bathroom when dropping your children off. We ask that any siblings do the same thing this will prevent any illness’ coming in from outside of the centre. Any illness that are present in the room will be communicated via Educa and email, we ask families to read over illness and keep an eye out for any symptoms. We as educators want to prevent any illness from spreading through the centre to families, children and educators, we will continue to wipe surfaces and toys various times throughout the day. 

Feedback We as educators strive to achieve the upmost respect for children, while providing learning opportunities for each individual child, we pride ourselves on the feedback that is received to better ourselves while caring for you children. We would love to hear any feedback, whether via email, communication or via Educa on individual or shared stories. 

Again, we would like to say a warm welcome to all our wonderful families this year and we ask that if there is anything that we can do for you please don’t hesitate to have a chat with us. We are all very excited to continue this learning journey as a community. 

Educators in the Room:
Madi - Room Leader
Bradley - Second in charge
Brooklyn - Program planner
Yuko - Educator
Rachel - Educator
Christine - Educator
Brooke - Educator
Maddy - Educator
Heather - Training Educator