As adults we all know the importance of finding ways to cope with any form of stress, anxieties or depression, because let’s face it – there is nothing more nerve-wracking than having a mental breakdown or feeling as though your head is going to explode…We have all been there.
Naturally, as you get older or should we say you grow ‘more life experiences’ instead, we did not all learn to cope with our stresses and anxieties at an early age or have the opportunities to practice modern mindfulness techniques like we do today. So, that is why at Little Scholars, we believe it is absolutely fundamental to bring this Mindfulness Program into our Little Scholars lives at a young age.
There is nothing more blissful than watching your little ones learn to understand and manage their own internal worlds. Whether that be learning to cope with overwhelming situations that arise in their day-to-day lives, or approaching interactions with other children or even siblings in a more positive way. There is so much our little scholars can learn and benefit from adopting mindfulness into their lives on a consistent basis, and we believe that this program compliments our existing holistic learning model which is in place across all of our childcare centres.
Our Mindfulness Program is a toolkit which has been implemented into the daily learning program at our centres across all ages, and consists of exercises such as the ABC’s of Mindfulness, Yoga Flashcards and Memory Card. These thoughtfully crafted exercises have been created by Founder of ‘Mindful & Co Kids’, Jacqueline Yeats, who is a Child Psychotherapist and has developed these mindful exercises based on scientific research. There is numerous research that emphasises how mindfulness in early childhood can improve the capacity of a child’s brain to manage cognitive processes and helps increase their overall wellbeing.
What brings us the most comfort with teaching our Little Scholars mindfulness, is knowing that as they grow older we have equipped them with valuable tools and life skills to help them deal with emotions and stress calmly and constructively. Oh, and what proud (and sad) adults we will be when the day comes and our super ‘zen’ little ones are not so little anymore and can go on through their educational journey and teach their mindfulness skills to younger children.
Stay zen, and treat yourselves to a beach sunset walk a couple of times a week because we promise you, that is therapy. We would love to hear about your family’s favourite mindfulness activities.
We are so excited to share with our community the launch of our George St Valet Service, our first ever Valet service for the hard-working families of Brisbane CBD who are looking to save some hours during the week, or are hoping for a more convenient drop off on the way to work. We know how time consuming it can be every morning when you are stuck in traffic or stressed looking for a park during ‘drop offs’ but do not worry! We are here to help and make your life easier.
After completing a survey with our George St fam, it became clear that the most challenging element of their daily commute was finding parking, an elevator trip, hand over of belongings and the anxious goodbye – which can all take 30 minutes every morning. To create a less stressful childcare experience for both children and parents we thought it was only necessary to introduce a smoother drop off alternative for those parents who need it. Particularly now that more parents have returned to work in the city since the second wave of lockdowns, we can only imagine how busy the roads have become and that alone is stressful so we hope to bring some relief to our parents busy work schedules.
At Little Scholars, we try to make the lives of our children and parents as enjoyable and smooth as possible, and so far, our Centre Manager, Ricky Glasson, has reassured us that they already have numerous parents using the valet service on a daily basis, and the families utilizing this service has made their mornings more enjoyable, and for some families it meant they had more time to read with their children in the mornings, or even a spare moment grab a quick coffee before starting work. The most important thing is making sure you and your children feel secure and we can assure you that our valet service implements a safe ‘drop and go’ meeting point on a nearby main road, with our campus educators assisting children out of their cars and then into the centre.
We hope our lovely George Street community enjoy this new valet service, and if you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Looking for play ideas for your little one? There are many ways for your two year old to play, explore and learn that don’t involve store-bought toys. With creative use of everyday things around the home, you can inspire your toddler to use their imagination, develop their curiosity and learn through simple, inexpensive fun!
Items around your home that you use every day can make wonderful toys for toddler play. Your kitchen holds lots of fun for your two year old (but lots of potential danger too so always supervise and ensure the items they choose to play with are appropriate). Pots and bowls, plastic or wooden spoons, colanders, cups and even dried pasta can be lots of fun. Show your two year old how these household items could be used to make music, stack up or collect things in. Watching you have fun and be silly will inspire them to do the same.
You can include ‘loose parts’ in your child’s play to encourage early learning. These are items that are often found around the home. New sponges, scrap fabric, paper, cardboard and empty boxes and bottles of different sizes. Often items that are in your recycling box are perfect for loose parts play. Go through and find some suitably safe and clean pieces then sit with your two year old with some masking tape and create something special.
What about toys for two year old greenies? Nature provides a wonderful sensory world for you to explore with your toddler – no batteries required! Leaves, rocks, shells and sand can be used to make patterns with, or why not collect and compare colours and sizes. Try painting your nature play items or gluing them into a collage.
Sensory fun is great for toddlers. Your two year old will delight in exploring new smells, textures, sights and sound with you.
Why not try playing with sand together? Whether you’re at the beach or simply at home with a small container of sand, there are so many opportunities to engage your little one. Add some water and build a castle or make sand pies for pretend eating! Even the simple feeling of scooping up the grains of sand in their little hands can keep a toddler entertained for an extended period. Rice or pasta can be used as a substitute for sand. Filling up a cup with rice and then pouring it back out again is great fun!
Water is another easy way to play together. Try washing some plastic dishes together or give some toys a bath. But prepare to get soaked – that’s half the fun!
There are many ways to teach your child to play and explore without toys – and you are the most important part! You are your child’s first teacher and everything is more fun when you’re involved. Take some time to sit in the sand, bang on a pot with a spoon or go for a walk and collect leaves with your child. Guide, explore and inspire your child to play with the world around you. You’ll both have lots of fun!
Looking for quality childcare for your two year old? Our unique and engaging curriculum is designed to bring the best out of every child. Contact Little Scholars today! Contact Us
Put away your canning equipment and bags of sugar, my friends. There’s a new jam in town at Little Scholars and its name is chia. Yes, by using the gelling power of these tiny little seeds we can transform a few cups of ripe fruit into a low-sugar, spreadable, spoonable jam in about 20 minutes.
If anything is a superfood, it’s chia seeds. They’re packed with omega-3 fatty acids, rich in fiber and protein, and — most important for our jam-making purposes — they turn any liquid into a thick gel. That’s right — chia seeds will absorb several times their mass in liquid, creating a jelly-like substance in the process.
When making fruit jam with chia seeds, the seeds do all the work. Instead of cooking fruit down, relying on pectin, and adding sugar to help it set, like traditional jam, all we need to do is mash up some fruit and stir in a few tablespoons of chia seeds.
Getting rid of visible chia seeds:
If you’d prefer not to have visible chia seeds in your finished jam, puree the jam in a blender or with an immersion blender. If you’d like to keep a somewhat chunky texture, blend just a portion of the jam with the chia seeds, then stir it back in with the rest of the jam.
Our Kindergarten children had the opportunity to visit The Volunteer Marine Rescue at Jacobs Well recently.
This was a great opportunity for us to further engage with the people and services within our community. The children got to visit the control room and listen in on some communication, they also got to explore one of the rescue boats that was parked in the rescue office. The children had a fabulous time and learnt lots about the great service that the VMR offer.
We have an exciting new program coming to our centres on Fridays… Bush Kinder!
Our bush kinder will provide a valuable natural kindergarten experience for 4-year-old kinder children enrolled at Little Scholars.
A forest kindergarten is a type of preschool education for children held almost exclusively outdoors. Whatever the weather, children are encouraged to take the lead in playing, exploring and learning in a forest or natural environment.
Bush Kinder is a special part of a Little Scholars’ total kinder experience. A model to suit our community’s and children’s specific needs. It recognises the place the bush has in Australian folklore and the significance of the land in aboriginal culture. It draws upon and extends the existing philosophy of Little Scholars to offer a unique educational program.
No toys, No tools, No art supplies
The children and adults benefit from using only what nature has provided.
“Outdoor spaces with plants, trees, rocks, mud and water invite open ended interactions, spontaneity, risk taking and a connection with nature” (NQS, QA 3 Physical environment).
Please speak to your Little Scholars Kinder teacher or Centre Manger for more details for your centre.
Parents spend countless hours trying to make sure their kids are behaving, eating their dinner, and doing their homework. But how often do we take the time to focus on how to boost your child’s confidence?
Yes, most kids are far more interested in the eating rather than the preparing of foods, but you’ll be surprised by how much one experience can turn things around. One morning we asked our son to be the “assistant chef” when we were preparing blueberry pancakes. Many mornings later, he now often insists on being involved in the kitchen, and he’s always incredibly proud of the end product.
Like adults, kids want to be taken seriously. When they get the sense they’re being mocked (or laughed at, to their face), their instinct is to get angry, shut down, and not share more ideas for fear of more of the same treatment. After all, kids naturally see the world through a different lens than we do. You might be surprised what you hear once you show your child that you’re listening and that you take their ideas seriously.
My 6-year-old expressed a legitimate interest in football, so I invited him to come with me to a friend’s Super Bowl party. No other children were coming, and I made him aware of that. He hesitated for a moment, but then agreed to join me. At the party, it was clear he wasn’t completely comfortable and was unsure how to act, especially since he only knew me and the host. But after a while, he was talking about “Star Wars” and lounging on the couch like one of the guys. The only way to establish a level of comfort is to first experience discomfort.
While I don’t believe in forcing your own personal interests or hobbies on your children, playing an instrument yields too many positive results for it to be ignored. Once they’ve reached an age where they’re dextrally and mentally capable, learning to play an instrument not only relieves stress (yes, kids have stress, too) but it can also boost self-esteem in a major way.
Yes, most kids are far more interested in the eating rather than the preparing of foods, but you’ll be surprised by how much one experience can turn things around. One morning we asked our son to be the “assistant chef” when we were preparing blueberry pancakes. Many mornings later, he now often insists on being involved in the kitchen, and he’s always incredibly proud of the end product
I’m not talking about giving them a gold star every time they eat a carrot. I’m not an “every kid gets a trophy” believer. But in my experience, children react favorably to receiving praise for going above and beyond—naturally, anyone does. However, it’s even more important to show children that extra effort will yield benefits in order to instill the idea within them that they’re capable of greatness and that hard work pays dividends.
Very little empowers a child more than having them believe they know something you don’t. A beginner’s card trick, a scale on the piano, or anything that positions them as the subject matter expert will work. Encourage them to share their knowledge (without bragging) with you and others. Odds are they’ll be brimming with confidence with their head held high.
I’ve found that most people don’t think they’re creative because they were never encouraged to be. I once overheard my wife reading to my son, and she stopped turning the pages and simply asked him, “What do you think should happen next?” His eyes lit up. Simple questions like this are what awaken a part of the brain that might otherwise sit dormant.
This one seems intuitive, but often gets overlooked. Whether we know it or not, we’re our child’s most pronounced role model. So, how can we expect our kids to have confidence when we’re the ones they look up to and we don’t even have it?
If you have a 7-year-old who recently started throwing a fit every time you make eye contact with her, odds are it’s for a reason. The easy, instinctive thing to do is to punish her and be done with it. The more forward-thinking approach also includes sitting down afterward to talk and figuring out the exact reason for the anger (or what I like to call “The Danny Tanner Method,” you know, from “Full House”?). It lets them know you’ll actually listen to them, which provides a certain stability within a household that children need in order to feel secure.
While success is pretty easy to deal with, learning to cope with failure is no easy task, especially when you’re not used to it. And in order to get used to it, you simply have to experience it, time and time again. It doesn’t come naturally to me, but I let my kids fail sometimes—while trying to build Legos or attempting to ride a bike without training wheels. It may anger them at first, but as Ann Landers said, “It’s not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.”
Wondering how Little Scholars can help boost your child’s confidence? Contact us today for more information.
Wondering how Little Scholars can help boost your child’s confidence? Contact us today for more information.
We are excited to announce the release of our 1st Edition of our Little Scholars Family Cookbook. In Conjuction with our families and the Little Scholars community we have gathered all of our favourite recipes for everyone to share. From our schoolies, to our Chinese teacher, everyone has been involved. We wish to thank everyone for their input and we hope you enjoy our Little Scholars Family Cookbook.
For your copy of the Little Scholars Family Cookbook, please speak with Tayla or Rachel today.
Our recently created nature walk at Yatala is a hit for all classes to engage in group time, gatherings and exploration.
The natural environment is an integral part of our program at Little Scholars, our educators plan a wide range of experiences outdoors to allow children to explore nature and the environment.
There is a lot of information on social media of late about the importance of yoga and wellbeing for children. For many people it is often seen as ‘alternative’ or ‘new age’. However, there is real proof that yoga can improve academic performances, de stress children and encourage healthy food choices and eating. Yoga has so many health benefits, mental, physical and emotional, so it is no wonder more schools and kindergartens are making it a priority in their classrooms. At Little Scholars we have weekly yoga lessons for our toddlers. All children enjoy this weekly activity as much as the Emma our mums and bubs specialist yoga instructor.
Here are some reasons why we love yoga:
When we practice the physical postures or exercises (called asanas), we learn how to move more freely and with greater ease and awareness. These postures help our bodies become strong and flexible.
When we breathe deeply and fully (called pranayama) and become more aware, we can bring peacefulness or energy to our bodies.
When we practice yoga, we learn how to use the life force energy in our bodies (called prana) to feel more relaxed, focused, or motivated.
When we practice yoga, we learn how to be still. This helps us to listen with attention and make good decisions.
When we practice yoga, we learn to be more aware about the need for balance in our lives. This could mean equal stretching on the left and right sides of our bodies or making sure we balance our very busy time with equal quiet time and relaxation.
Yoga teaches us to listen to our bodies by modifying or changing poses that are too hard or cause pain. (We will talk about how to modify poses in a later section.)
Yoga is a great way to move our bodies and feel healthy. And teaching children how to take care of themselves is one way to show love. As with all forms of exercise, a good yoga practice can mean a good night’s sleep!
At Little Scholars School of Early Learning, we’re dedicated to shaping bright futures and instilling a lifelong passion for learning. With our strategically located childcare centres in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, we provide tailored educational experiences designed to foster your child’s holistic development.
Let us hold your hand and help looking for a child care centre. Leave your details with us and we’ll be in contact to arrange a time for a ‘Campus Tour’ and we will answer any questions you might have!
