Not doing childcare?

As an educator that’s great! No really, keeping your child at home encourages a better child-parent bond. That attachment is critical to your Childs mental health lets explain.

Children of every age have emotions, part of growing up is learning how to communicate your emotions hence the ‘terrible twos’ but when we think about it, a happy content baby is a baby who’s fed, well rested and in a clean nappy right? A child will develop trust in its caregivers from birth. The more quality time they spend with them, the more attached they are.  This notion is called attachment theory, created by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby and suggests that a child need to develop a strong bond with at least one primary care giver to ensure proper development of social and emotional skills and ensure there own survival. its linked to a Childs confidence and mental health all the way though to adulthood, poor attachment to a child’s primary caregivers can result in a number of mental health conditions in later life due to lack of parental support. A strong attachment can be the catalyst to a child’s confidence knowing that they’ve got someone backing them up.

So we’ve covered parent child bonding but what about socialisation, well again there’s plenty of great options that don’t involve childcare. Whilst it’s highly recommended for your child to attend informal education for a year before they start ‘big school’. Childcare isn’t required unless both parents have to work to support their kids. Playgroups, are a great way to build connections with local families, often in local community centres. The great thing about playgroups is that there parent/grandparent/caregiver guided. There are learning experiences set up but it entirely depends on what you and the child in you care is willing to experience that day.

I’ve mentioned that a year of informal education is recommended prior to your child entering there first year of formal education this is to insure that your child is ready for school. In kindy as its known in Queensland they teach age appropriate skills, and pass though, with parental consent a clear picture of your child’s knowledge to whichever school you send your child to in terms that the school can adapt to, kinda like a final grade but for your child’s ability to use scissors safely and write there own name. This kind of thing can be taught at home to and there’s nothing stoping you form doing so but the report goes in-depth about a number of other things. As educators, every qualified professional is taught how to recognise early signs of leaning disorders, physical conditions and behavioural issues that might impact your child’s ability to learn. This never means that you child is lesser, but it may help get your child the extra support your child needs. For example a child with dyslexia may require extra assistance to learn how to read, a ECT (early childhood teacher) may be able to pick this up before a child starts school, meaning that they get the required aid from the start. This is important as early intervention in these situations is vital for better outcomes and at the end of the day, we all want every child to succeed.

So lets make a list of thing to consider, Childcare is a broken and in need of huge reform, a year of informal education is advised but not mandatory and there are other great ways to socialise a child without entering them in childcare. alternatives which are great ways to build essential bonds with primary caregivers and filled with ways for your children to socialise. I don’t know your child, but if I could make a recommendation, it’s to find your local playgroup and take part in it. There a good jumping off point in terms of socialisation an connections between families that attend, often well into the future. Another thing to consider is what’s convenient for you family. In this day and age, community kindygardens and programs in long hours care services aimed at the same age group are more or less the same thing. So do your research and think about your options, again, it will all work out in the end.

Last but not least, the activity of the week:

Playdough, it’s cheeper and easier to make yourself. Pair with kitchen cutters, play pots and pans rolling pins or dinosaurs and animals to let their imagination run wild. You will need:

3 parts flour

2 parts salt

1 part oil

A pinch of creme of tartar (optional)

Food colouring (optional)

Enough water to bring it together

Add all of your dry ingredients into a bowl and mix in your oil, if you want your playdough to be marbled with flecks of colour though out add it here to. If you want your playdough  to be one solid colour, add it to the water and add enough water to bring all of it together into a smooth elastic dough. You will have to kneed the dough for about 10 minuets before use you want your dough to bounce back slightly when pressed.