Month: September 2014

Nature Play Week and Nature Play SA

At Flinders, we love being outdoors. All our houses run indoor-outdoor programs and winter play programs. Sturt House runs nature play sessions. Our environments are filled with plants, trees, bark, sand, mud, rocks and sticks, and we encourage children to play with these elements. Because our gardens are natural, we are visited by a range of local wildlife, such as birds, koalas, lizards and bugs. But not all children have the opportunity to access natural play spaces, and contemporary research is showing that children are spending increasingly less time outdoors. This trend has sparked international concern, and a dramatic social response from experts in a range of fields, such as education and health. In South Australia, Nature Play SA has recently been launched to encourage children and families to spend more time outdoors, in nature, in unstructured play. Among their many initiatives is Nature Play Week, running from September 27 to October 4. Nature Play Week has a range of experiences planned in partnership with a range of local councils and organisations, all focused on getting children outside in their local environments. You can find out more about Nature Play Week here: Nature Play Week Noel Probert has also written a great article on Nature Play SA, published last weekend in The Advertiser. You can read the article here: 51 things your kids should do before they turn 12 We would love to hear about how you and your family get involved in nature!

Benefits of Quality Childcare

Adelaide University PhD student Angela Gialamas has recently published a study finding a link between high quality childcare and later success in transitioning to school, specifically in relation to children’s attention to task and ability to regulate their emotions. You can read the article summary here; Benefits of Quality Childcare This study emphasises the importance of relationships between educators and children in the care environment. At Flinders, development and maintenance of strong, reciprocal and trusting relationships between educators and children is paramount to our practice. It is exciting to see local, contemporary research supporting research undertaken internationally (for example, the EPPE Project in the UK) and current practices within early childhood education.