The Family Learning Journey

The Australian Federal Police is warning parents NOT to post photos of their children on their first day of school without locking down their privacy settings.

School returns next week in Tasmania, with the AFP saying images with children in school uniform, their name or indicators of their location in the background can be used by offenders to build a profile and groom parents and children.

"The AFP is continuing to regularly seize images of children in the collections of online child s*x offenders," they wrote.

AFP Commander of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation and Child Protection Operations Hilda Sirec said the back to school period was a timely reminder to implement safe online practices.

“There’s no reason why parents and carers cannot continue to take those wonderful happy snaps and post them online. However, we are urging parents and carers who are sharing those images to make sure they’re using secure privacy settings and only sharing images with people they know and trust," Command Sirec said.

“If sharing content of children online, check the privacy settings and make sure that your social media accounts are using the most secure settings possible."

More on the return to school: https://ab.co/3ad656y

We all know that play dough is fun and popular with young children, but apart from making a mess what is it really good for?

https://theimaginationtree.com/benefits-of-playing-with-play-dough/

You'll find my roundup with lots of lovely hands-on Nativity activities here: https://livingmontessorinow.com/montessori-inspired-nativity-activities-and-focus-on-the-nativity-blog-hop/

I loved you enough...

This is a lovely festive activity.

Test different strength icing sugars or icing sugar and liquid glucose to investigate which stick a mini gingerbread house together the best!

https://www.science-sparks.com/gingerbread-house-test-for-strength/

Young People with disability spoke directly to the UN today. Mel Tran: “The world we live in was not built for inclusion, but education has the power to change this. It creates a platform for us to be bold and brave, to step out of our comfort zone and to accept that it is okay to make mistakes because that only creates more opportunities to learn.” Disability Royal Commission

So many great books on this list from Center for the Study of
Multicultural Children's Literature and some great gift ideas just in time for the holidays: https://www.csmcl.org/best-books-2020

Have fun with these pine cone christmas tree fine motor activities using simple everyday items and painted cones!

https://theimaginationtree.com/pine-cone-christmas-tree-fine-motor-activities/