Southern Highlands
Joeys Room
In the Caterpillar room, our 2 – 3.5 year old children have a busy and creative day. As your child’s educators, we pride ourselves on catering to every child’s individual interests and needs, as we know your child will be eager to learn and discover in an environment that is rich with opportunities.
To ensure we provide all children with the chance to fulfil their natural desire to learn and explore, our program is centred on the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). That is, it is our goal to ensure our Caterpillar children are prepared for their journey to our year before school room by ensuring all children have:
A strong sense of identity
The children are connected with and contribute to their world
Children develop a strong sense of well being
All children are confident and involved learners
Children are effective communicators.
We achieve this by ensuring our indoor and outdoor learning environments are specifically planned to extend your child’s development. We challenge their ability to extend on their own interests, in an environment that caters to every child’s age and individual range of skills.
Fostering learning and life skills through play
Social play is a big part of our Joeys age group, and as such, our educators strive to provide your child with the skills and confidence to develop and form relationships with their fellow peers. We achieve this during our structured group times, and also during our free play time, where the children are encouraged to interact, share, turn take and participate in group experiences.
In the Joey room, we know the importance of encouraging your child to become independent learners. This begins with teaching them basic self-help skills such as, feeding, toileting, dressing them-selves and gaining the skills to pack and un-pack their own bags. Such skills are an essential part of our school-readiness program in our Kangaroo room.
Keeping first steps in learning fun and varied
At Best Kidz SHL, we have a wonderful music program that is supported by a professional music teacher who attends our centre on a fortnightly basis.
Our Joey children are also involved in group times, where your child will be encouraged to reflect on the topic of the week, and to ask open-ended questions based on this theme. The topic of the week is chosen from an interest displayed by the children, and is generally changed fortnightly. It is during these group times and free play opportunities that we further develop your child’s skills to be ready for our school readiness program.
During the last few months of the year we provide your child with the opportunity to spend transition time in the Kangaroo room.
Appreciating and engaging with the world around us
The Joey children are always actively embedding sustainability practises into our daily curriculum.
The Joey educators use many opportunities throughout the day to discuss and further develop the children’s understanding of this topic. It is our aim that by the time your child transitions to our Kangaroo room, these sustainable practices are embedded into their daily routine.
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Tracking development and parental engagement
Throughout the year, the educators at Best Kidz SHL document daily the activities your children are engaged in through our daily journals, along with individual observations of your child. This is always available for you to read when picking up your child. All families also receive a beautiful individual learning journal as a keepsake at the end of each year.
At Best Kidz SHL we know parent input is paramount to ensure our program is diverse and individualised, and as such, encourage any suggestions from parents, and regular discussions regarding your child’s development.
