PALS

Casual PALS sessions now available.
Fridays 9-11.15am during term time. No need to book.
$10 per session (plus $35 Playgroup WA membership)
Crafts, stories, songs, and show and tell.

That’s a wrap for 2021
We’ll be back in 2022.
Stay posted for which day we will be having our session and what date we’ll be back.
Merry Christmas Everybody! 🎄 🎅🏼 🎁

Due to Lockdown announced for Perth and Peel regions from midnight tonight, there will be NO PALS this week. We hope everyone keeps safe and has a wonderful break. We look forward to seeing you all next term.
Maggie and Natalie x

CANCELLED DUE TO LOCKDOWN IN PERTH

Please join us at our Open Morning on Thursday 1st July. Playgroup WA Nedlands, Western Australia

Consultation The Australian Curriculum

This is a crucial issue, particularly in Western Australia where they don’t tend to allow a later start when parents don’t feel their child is ready. WA tried to rectify this in the 90s by pushing the start date for children back by six months but then took two steps backwards by making pre-primary compulsory and pushing the curriculum down a year, so now children are 6 months younger when starting formal learning than they were a decade ago.
If you have school children and feel they are being pressured at school, it’s difficult as a parent to feel like you can do anything, but one way is not to add to the pressure. The philosophy I have taken with my children is if they want to do their homework, great, if they don’t then I’m not going to force it. My non-negotiable is reading though, they have to do that, but it helps to find something they enjoy reading, sometimes it may not be the book they bring home from school; particularly with boys, if they get turned off early by being forced to read ‘boring’ books, it’s almost impossible to get them to enjoy reading again.

At PALS we can help ease the pressure of formal schooling by introducing children to routine without forcing, and providing a play-based wnvironment where children are not pressured to take part in things that they are not comfortable doing.

As an aside, Dr Whitebread was one of my lecturers at Cambridge, I am very lucky to have had incredible scholars to learn from at my time at University.

Natalie



https://www.maggiedent.com/blog/still-stealing-childhood/?fbclid=IwAR0v7r4KoHoiq4Gc44KlAZnQfgUmVVsKoe2nQPj6QaPHqLlH6kiNpEMbhuI

Why are we STILL stealing childhood? | Maggie Dent As one of Australia’s leading parenting educators I regularly travel the length and breadth of this country including cities, remote communities, rural communities and of course the digital world. Everywhere I go I hear about the distress of many young children who are struggling — kids struggli...

When children are having a tantrum they can’t reason. Use the Three Rs to help them through.

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At PALS we give our children time to explore the many options available for them during the session. If they want to explore outside while we’re having a mat session, that’s fine; if they want to stray away from the craft we have set up and make their own creation with the materials, that’s great; if they need to come inside to have some alone time while everyone else is playing a game outside, let them. We don’t need to be teaching them formally so young, they learn more by exploring and moving at their own pace than we can ever teach them with formal methods.

This is good to teach children but it’s also good for us to remember too. Especially when our children can be so good at knowing what triggers us!