Mother Duck Childcare Gaythorne

Our Approved Provider, Miss Mel, celebrates a huge milestone today - 10 years at Mother Duck! 🙌🎉 Miss Mel, thank you for all your dedication over the past years, from Mother Duck Petrie to now Mother Duck Eatons Hill and our very own Mother Duck Gaythorne. It's been inspiring to see your commitment and the difference you've made over the years. Your dedication, hard work, and positive impact are truly appreciated! Congratulations, and here's to many more milestones ahead! 🔟🎈🌟

Last week, Mother Duck's head of curriculum Miss Karina, came out to visit our centre and engaged in a cross studio meeting where a lead educator from each studio came together for a time of learning and reflection. These opportunities support all studios to work together and create a cohesive environment throughout the service.

When people think about early childhood education, they often picture play.

Building towers.
Painting.
Reading stories.
Singing songs.
Exploring outdoors.

Play is certainly at the heart of what we do.

But behind every meaningful learning experience sits something that is far less visible.

Karen Prestedge highlights the importance of recognising the invisible work that early childhood educators do to help our children thrive whilst in their care.

https://loom.ly/FclGGeU

The Thinking Work We Don't Always See in Early Childhood Education - Mother Duck Child Care When people think about early childhood education, they often picture play. Building towers. Painting. Reading stories. Singing songs. Exploring outdoors. Play is certainly at the heart of what we do. But behind every meaningful learning experience sits something that is far less visible. Thinking.....

The National Quality standard 1 highlights 'Educational Program and Practice". At Mother Duck Gaythorne, we deliver a program that is child and inquiry based. Through observations, we notice their interests and extend on these alongside their inquiries. Through this process, projects naturally form as we research answers to our investigations.

The Kindy studio have recently made some social stories to support children with knowing how to problem solve and navigate social situations that may arise while in Kindy. We have been introducing these stories during our morning meetings where the reflective questions have given the group opportunities to discuss different scenarios and respectful ways to communicate, interact or seek help.

At Mother Duck, we are dedicated to always strive for a better future for children, families and staff. Through our Quality Improvement Plan, our goal is to visibly and meaningfully demonstrate how quality is lived each day through our relationships, rhythms, rituals, and everyday ways of being and doing.

In the Senior studio, the children having been refining their fine motor skills and engaging in imaginative play through the language of clay. The children have been really inspired by the stories of different Australian animals they have been reading and snakes have been a popular figure to make out of clay by rolling a piece on the table with their hands.

There is a quiet emotional load that exists within early childhood education.

Not the loud or dramatic kind people often imagine, but the kind that can become so familiar within the profession that educators simply learn to carry it as part of their everyday work.

It is the constant stimulation.
The ongoing movement, conversations, questions, routines, and responsibilities that fill each day.
The responsibility of remaining emotionally available, calm, patient, nurturing, observant, and responsive for children throughout the day.

Katy Bloodworth shares a deeper insight as we acknowledge the extraordinary emotional commitment that educators bring to their work each day.

https://loom.ly/0xmD3ic

The Emotional Work We Don’t Always See in Early Childhood Education - Mother Duck Child Care There is a quiet emotional load that exists within early childhood education. Not the loud or dramatic kind people often imagine, but the kind that can become so familiar within the profession that educators simply learn to carry it as part of their everyday work. It is the constant stimulation. The...

The Kindy studio have been exploring colour mixing with paint and coloured water, discovering what they can create with different colour combos. They have uncovered that yellow and blue create green, and white makes any colour lighter 💙💛💚

The Junior studio have been engaging in a sensory experience surrounding taste! They tried some different items that covered the taste range of salty-olives, sour-pickles, sweet-capsicum and acidic-tomato. Can you guess which was the fan favourite??....Olives! 🫒🥒🫑🍅