Playdate Family Day Care Mernda

Most of our resources have found a new home 😊… Wathsie is warm, caring, and very enthusiastic about providing an inviting space for your little one to discover and learn!

Spread the word of you know someone looking for care. She is based in Mernda/Doreen.

TIKIRI FAMILY DAYCARE VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT 📣📣📣📣

A rare opportunity to join our Tikiri Family for your child’s early years education. A full time spot is open from 19th Feb 2024 . Pls contact Wathsie on [email protected] for inquiries. Alternatively you can WhatsApp ( message only ) to 0452526315 with your name , child’s name , age and your contact no to call you back .

I would like to find a new child/family that fits in well with our play based learning program/ educational pedagogy for this vacancy. Service tours can be booked from 13/2/24. I will be offering free orientation sessions for the suitable candidate.
The vacancy is suitable for a child age between 2yrs to 4yrs and available Monday to Thursday .

Thanks
Wathsie Silva
( Educator / TIKIRI FDC owner )

Life is an interesting journey with many winding paths... and on this occasion I took a path that led to a fork in the road... and now I am in a completely different field, yet still travelling in the same direction. How fun!

I say all that because when I first closed down Playdate Family Day Care, the intention was to open a Family Day Care Scheme... however instead of catering to preschool families I now have the opportunity to apply all that training with a mixed age co-cohort of families from babies through to pre-teens in a Homeschooling Co-Op. It is a very big change of plans by the look of it, but from day one I have seen how God has prepared our family for this next season. It has taken me by surprise, but we totally know that it is where we are meant to be.

So thank you to the many that have supported our journey. You are greatly appreciated and would never be forgotten. It is this season of life that has given me the confidence to believe in unschooling my children even in their schooling years; because it worked so well for them in their pre-school years.

So if you would like to continue with us on our journey, please join us at Unschooling VIC- Project & Activity Based Curriculum or as that is where we are keeping a record of the learning that unfolds as we live life.

For those who know us well, the mantra of "playing is learning" has now extended further into "life is learning".

Thank you once again, and stay blessed everyone!

Who knew that this type of play prepares your little one for reading?… well now you do!

A friendly reminder that trees and sticks provide some great learning opportunities for children.

* Understanding, remembering and following rules (eg. Sticks can’t be taller than them, climbing branches have to be as wide as their forearm)
* It teaches children to practice being safe themselves and watching our for others.
* Figuring out the right size of things for the activity they are engaging in is also a form of early math.
* It classifies as nature play, which is great for one’s physical and mental health.

Have fun while you are out in nature!

And just like that play-learning transitions to life-learning…

Lots of authentic learning on display here today:

ENGLISH - Alphabet
“my lama is shaped as an L”.

MUSIC/ DRAMA- She’s making up a song for the lama to dance to. The song is telling a story of what the lama is doing.

MATH - ordinal numbers
“Lama’s first name is Winter, second name is Blueberry, third name is Lama, last name is- I don’t know yet”.

EMOTIONAL- Understand how others may be feeling and how the feelings show up in behaviour.
(Her sister said to stop talking about her new lama because she is jealous she’s enjoying it so much 🤪. Said sister helped her pick it out for a gift 😉).

An example of what a newly minted 5 year old (who is 4-year-old kinder age) learned in her play today.

She covered the Primary School learning areas of Drama, Math, Physical Education, English story telling & Real Life Connection.

All while role playing having REAL tea with her teddies using a tea set she bought at the local Vinnies. There was counting of spoons of sugar (one Teddy had 12 spoons 🥄😱). This was vindicated by a chat about healthy choices when I noted that no more sugar was coming to the table 🤪.

There was also lots of opportunities to practice gross motor skills as she poured and mixed, and served the tea.

Authentic colour theory lesson in progress…

With three primary playdough colours at her disposal, this little learner has independently gone on to create the secondary colours and is presently making up stories about each of the characters she has made from them = pre- English story telling/writing skills ✅

ENGLISH: Reading (Grade 1), Spelling (Grade 3) & Writing (Prep)

While we were away, Prep was challenged by her cousin to spell and this has been her interest ever since we got back… the thing though is that she needs to do a lot more reading for the words to register as she only has mastery of the first few high frequency words at the moment.

Anyway, the activity that unfolded today captured all three learners at their level and so I thought I’d share.

READING (Grade 1)
I used a book to find words for prep to read, but she eventually took over the reading and instead challenged Grade 3 to spell words.

WRITING (Prep)
Prep immediately brought out her pen and paper, and tried to write out the letters and words that were being spelled. She couldn’t keep up with the speed though so we modified it to her copying from a book.

SPELLING (Grade 3)
Grade 3 found the level one reader held little challenge for his spelling skills and so we went to our Kmart sight words (which I found out were level 7-12!) where he requested five letter words and up… he finished all 6 levels in one evening! I can only credit his success to reading 😜… as we haven’t done phonics work all year.

NEXT LEVEL?
I suggested that he challenge himself further when reading by covering and spelling any new or challenging words that he comes across… and I think we may continue to reading-spelling challenges other evenings too 😉.

I absolutely love seeing Miss 4 engage in early math all by herself.

Here she is diligently spending time matching stickers to the pictures (I imagine it is to h**p her know what colours to use for colouring the pages in later).

Over Christmas she also paired up all the ornaments on nana’s tree 🌲… now this would require any perfectionist to see the learning vs the demise of their perfectly ordered ornaments 😜🤪.

How far is too far when it comes to your pre-schooler learning through play with real elements of your household possessions? Do you let them engage fully or do you manage their play like a hawk 😉?

As the business of Christmas and holidays ensues… remember that children are capable of learning while they play all on their own…

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Play Is The Greatest Threat To The Status Quo "Adolescence" was invented in the mid-1800's by the warlike Prussian nation. They had just suffered a humiliating military d...

“This can help me with my letters!”… says the little learner who is keenly practicing in preparation for her visit to the optometrist.

My children have never been interested in these educational toys as toddlers… but have ALWAYS gravitated to them when they are ready for school, always on their own steam and always using them the way they were intended… they are great educational tools.

Why do I mention them here?

It is just to say that if your child is not interested in the educational element now, it simply means that they are not ready to learn it… when they are ready they will naturally gravitate towards the toy.

In the meantime, you can put it out of site and it will be like new next time you bring it out… and may generate more interest and engagement.

Have fun watching them grow and enjoy learning!