Roxanne's Home-based Childcare

Pretend play is where imagination, creativity and problem-solving come together! 🚓🚁🦸‍♂️

This month, our big police station became the centre of some very exciting adventures. We had police officers, a police dog, police cars and even a helicopter ready for action. But there was also a bad guy in striped clothes sitting in jail… which led to lots of curious questions and storytelling!

What did he do? Why did he end up in jail? Could he make a better choice next time? What rules did he break? 🤔

As the children created their own stories, they explored ideas about rules, consequences, right and wrong, and keeping our community safe. Of course, Batman, Superman, Minions, extra cars and even some dinosaurs also decided to join the adventure — because in pretend play, anything can happen! 🦖🚗✨

Through imaginative play, children are not just having fun. They are thinking, negotiating, solving problems, creating stories and making sense of the world around them. 💭💡

Who knows what adventure will happen at the police station next? 👮‍♂️🚓

🌿 One full-time space available from November! 🌿

I have one full-time space becoming available in November to join our warm, home-based childcare family. 🥰

We spend our days playing, creating, exploring and learning through meaningful experiences — all in a nurturing, home-like environment. 🧸🎨🌈

If you’re looking for a caring and welcoming place for your child, I’d love to hear from you! 💛

📩 Enquire today for more information or to arrange a visit.

🌿🐛 The Very Hungry Caterpillar came to life!🍎🍐🍓

Over the past week, our tamariki have been immersed in the wonderful world of The Very Hungry Caterpillar through stories, hands-on exploration, and creative play.

We began by reading this timeless classic using colourful felt food props, bringing each page of the story to life. After hearing the story several times, the older children confidently retold it themselves, using the felt pieces to sequence the events and recall the caterpillar’s journey.

The learning then extended beyond the book with a variety of creative experiences. Children coloured their own caterpillars, decorated them with circle stickers while practising counting from 1 to 5, and used air-dry clay to roll different shades of green into little balls, carefully joining them together to create adorable caterpillars.

These playful, hands-on experiences strengthened children’s language, early literacy and numeracy skills, fine motor development, creativity, and confidence in expressing their ideas. Most importantly, they discovered that stories can be explored in many meaningful and imaginative ways.

📚✨ Learning comes alive when children can see it, touch it, create it, and tell it in their own words.

🦷✨ Healthy Smiles, Happy Learners! ✨🦷

This month, our tamariki explored the importance of oral health and healthy habits through a range of fun, hands-on learning experiences.

Our learning space was filled with books about brushing teeth, along with a dental play kit, toothbrushes, pretend toothpaste, mouthwash, and dolls for children to care for. Through imaginative play, the children enjoyed brushing the dolls’ teeth, pretending to clean their own teeth, and even carrying out little “dental check-ups” on themselves and their friends.

We also used food flashcards to learn about everyday foods, discussing which choices help keep our teeth strong and healthy. These conversations encouraged children to think about making healthy choices while developing their understanding of how to care for their bodies.

The pretend dental resources were a huge hit, inspiring curiosity, confidence, and lots of meaningful conversations about oral hygiene. It was wonderful to see the children learning through play while building healthy habits that will support them for years to come! 💙🪥🦷

✨ Celebrating Matariki at Roxanne’s Home-based Childcare ✨

This July, we welcomed the Māori New Year through several weeks of meaningful, hands-on learning experiences inspired by the stars, whānau, and the spirit of new beginnings. 🌟

⭐ Loose Parts Play
Our tamariki explored a sensory invitation featuring wooden stars, paper stars, planet magnets, and shimmering balloon ribbons representing the Milky Way. As they arranged, sorted, and created their own starry worlds, they strengthened hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, problem-solving, spatial awareness, and imaginative thinking.

🪆 Māori Pretend Play
Children enjoyed discovering beautiful wooden nesting Māori dolls, exploring concepts such as size sequencing, matching, and spatial awareness while becoming familiar with traditional Māori clothing and culture. They also engaged in rich dramatic play with our Māori whānau soft dolls, creating family stories, conversations, and caring relationships through imaginative play.

💃 Poi Dancing & Singing
Music filled our learning space as we sang together and practised using poi. The children developed rhythm, coordination, bilateral movement, and confidence while experiencing a treasured aspect of Māori culture.

🎨 Creative Star Collages
Using recycled cardboard toilet paper rolls, we cut, painted, and transformed everyday materials into colourful star collages. This creative process encouraged sustainability, fine motor development, colour exploration, and artistic expression.

✨ Star Wand Creations
Each child designed and decorated their own sparkling star wand, adding colourful details and shiny ribbons that danced in the air. These magical creations inspired imaginative play long after the craft activity had finished.

Matariki reminds us to reflect on the past, celebrate the present, and look forward to the future with hope. We are grateful for the opportunity to learn alongside our tamariki while honouring the rich culture and traditions of Aotearoa New Zealand.

🌌 Matariki mā Puanga – Happy Māori New Year!

One of the most special parts of this experience was seeing Leelia enjoy being part of the group. Sitting side by side with her friends, she participated in the shared project in her own way, contributing to the pizza while enjoying the sense of connection and togetherness that comes from working as a team.

Through this experience, Leelia strengthened her fine motor skills, sensory awareness, and confidence in exploring materials independently. She also experienced the joy of belonging to a collaborative group activity, demonstrating that participation and communication can happen in many different ways.

It was lovely to see Leelia engaged, settled, and enjoying the company of her friends as they worked together to create their wonderful clay pizza.

Today we explored air-dry clay and experimented with 14 different clay tools to discover the unique patterns, textures, and effects each one could create.

Clay play is a wonderful sensory experience that supports fine motor development, creativity, imagination, and self-expression. It also provides a calming, mindful activity where children can focus, explore, and bring their ideas to life.

So much learning, creativity, and fun packed into one hands-on activity! ✨🧡

Today our activity table transformed into a little city of movement and imagination 🚂🚗🌳

Using train track-patterned washi tapes, the children worked together to design their very own transport world. They carefully positioned the tracks around the table, adding cars, trains, trees, and buildings to bring their city to life.

As the trains travelled around the tracks, wonderful conversations unfolded. Children shared their ideas about trains going to the town centre, mums and dads travelling to work, and even dinosaurs heading off to the playground 🦖✨

This playful experience encouraged creativity and imaginative thinking, while also supporting language development, social interaction, problem-solving, and fine motor skills through hands-on exploration and collaborative play.

It was lovely to see the children so engaged, confident, and excited to share their stories with one another 💛

A slow autumn walk through the reserve, wrapped in golden sunshine and crisp, gentle air 🍂☀️

The children ran ahead with rosy cheeks and bright laughter, exploring every corner of the playground as though it were a tiny world of its own. The swings became their favourite place — little legs kicking toward the sky as they took turns sending each other higher and higher, laughter drifting through the trees like music.

And sweet baby Leelia… completely unbothered by the busy world around her.

She sat quietly upon the earth, soft curls catching the sunlight, carefully gathering pieces of bark one by one. Each tiny treasure was placed delicately onto my hands, onto her little legs, with such tenderness and wonder, as though she had nowhere else to be and all the time in the world to simply exist.

For a fleeting moment, time itself seemed to stand still.

Only golden leaves, warm sunshine, children’s laughter, and the quiet beauty of autumn carrying us softly through the afternoon 🤎

This week for ANZAC Day, we explored learning through nature-based “junk play” 🌿

Using loose parts from our garden and recycled everyday materials, the children engaged with pinecones, cardboard rings, cardboard twine cones, and honey locust seed pods — which sparked lots of joy as they discovered the rattling, maraca-like sounds when shaken.

The children freely explored and created, organizing and displaying the materials in their own unique ways. Dinosaurs made their way into our little “jungle,” alongside moments of counting, music-making, and curious investigation — especially of the fascinating seed pods.

We also came together to make red poppies using paper, gently introducing their meaning as a symbol of remembering people who were very brave and helped protect us.

Through simple, age-appropriate language, toddlers are learning and repeating words like “poppy” and “brave,” building early connections to the meaning of ANZAC Day in a way that is meaningful to them ❤️

Anzac Day 2026
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.
Lest we forget.