Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Hi Lorina,
Thanks for your immediate reply, appreciated very much.
I browsed the editable version of Weekly Curriculum. Could you please explain further the "Current Interest". Is this a "Theme" for the week?? or ??, curious to know about this.
Regards,
Daisy

Hi Alia,

Welcome to the Aussie Childcae Network forum ! Glad to have you on board...

What exactly is a child initiated activity?

Basically, this means that it's a piece of equipment/resource or an activity a child has requested throughout the day. For e.g. if Little Mary came up to you and said "I want to do cutting with the scissors", this would be child initiated because this would not have been on your program and it's a child request. So on the program you would add "Cutting Using Scissors" and add the icon for child initiated or child input etc...

Last week I put out the Lego letter blocks and waited to see what the children would do with them. When they noticed them, they immediately began to look for the letters in their names and the names of their friends. Although I provided the equipment, I did so because the children have been very interested in the letters in their names

That's a really good experience that your children got involved in.... so the Lego Letter Blocks should be added onto the program as teacher initiated because like you said you provided the equipment however you could add "Using Letter Blocks to Write Our Names" as child interest, then you can expand on this further by using name cards at the writing table, playing name matching game etc...

If the children hazve asked for, selected, requested a piece of equipment/activity/resource that isn't on your program for that particular day then add it onto your program as "Child Initiated". Experiences that they come up with using the piece of equipment can be added as Child Interest if you can extend further upon it...

Hi Daisy,

"Current Interest" is like you said a theme or an interest that the children are interested in for the particular week... It doesn't have to be a specific theme exactly, you can just add what the children are interested in doing. For e.g. "Cooking in HomeCorner".

I hope these clarify your questions and hope you both enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Let me know if you need any further help,

Cheers ,
L.A

Thanks for your quick response L.A. This certainly clarifies things for me!

Alia

Thanks Lorina, now i apprehended much.
Daisy

Hi everyone,
This is just a general query on applying the EYLF outcomes. I have been working in early childhood education for many years using the developmental areas to program, observe and document. I am finding it difficult at times to relate the development skills and concepts I have been using to the EYLF outcomes. The outcomes are so wordy, repetitive and jargon-filled that I seem to spend too much time trying to work out which EYLF outcomes to relate to different activities, skills or concepts. A trainer at a session I went to said the authors of the framework didn't want to 'dumb it down', but I for one would have liked a more user friendly document.
Has anyone else found this? Does anyone know of a 'plain English' version of the outcomes?

Al

Thank you L.A. I appreciate your help.
Al

THANkYOU for this simplified information -it's wonderful!

Hi,
Thank you for allowing me to join this awesome network. We are just starting to implement a curriculum plan similiar to yours and also reflections that are similiar. Just wondering which you feel is more important for the parents to be seeing and getting involved in? We are trying to decide how to display teh plan in our service.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

Ta x

Hi BBear,

Welcome to Aussie Childcare Network! Great to have you on board!

Just wondering which you feel is more important for the parents to be seeing and getting involved in?

Throughout the EYLF it mentions the importance of family involvement which helps to shape each child's individual learning. I also feel that parent involvement is more important to support a child's learning. For example, a parent talks to you about her child's current interest of reading books about dinosaurs. You take that information and add it to your program by providing an experience based on this info and the parent can see how they contributes to their child's learning. I understand that at times it can be hard to get parents involved but by frequently asking them and showing that they are being heard will allow them to contribute more frequently. It is also important for the documentation to be displayed for others to see, however most of the time this goes unnoticed by busy parents. I say designate a wall for all documentations such as programming, reflections etc which can be easily viewed...

Cheers ,
L.A

I work in the toddler room, where the children don't speak, and often want to do the same activities each day. Is it possible to have an example of a curriculum plan for this age as my research only finds information for pre-school rooms.
Many thanks
Kat

I am so confused with all this. I understand EYLF but just dont seem to get all my paperwork done every day.
I dont know how as 1 person working with 5 children everyday (In FDC) I can get all this achieved!!

I agree. I am 1 person working with 40 children every day. My assistant doesn't do any paperwork. It overwhelms me.

I wish I was centre based. Unfortunately as a 1 person operation I am it!

I'd love to discover a 1 page doc that 'ticks' all the boxes. (Nothing wrong with pipe dreams lol)

Just wanted to say it is great to able to join a forum with ppl who have all the same ?'s as me and not really sure where to direct them!
Thanks LA for all the documents and templates that really give me a starting point for my own documentation.
I say the more people share, the better for all of us implementing the EYLF>
Thanks again.

Displaying info:
I was just wondering - does each centre/room have do display their weekly plan and philosophy? What else do we have to display to meet EYLF?NQS requirements? I know I have read it somewhere but I have read so much I am lost in paperwork.
Cheers
Cathiek

Hi Cathiek
I have included everything to do with EYLF. My assistant and I have have our profiles, personal philosophy, photos of children, daily diary/reflection which includes photos, centre philosophy. We also have group learning stories on the board for the week as well as an input poster on the wall for parents. These are just some of the things we have on display.