Mission Australia, the charity organisation involved in child care service provider Goodstart Early Learning, has released an election manifesto which calls on the next Australian government to commit to a universal model of early childhood education and care while giving priority to disadvantaged families.

The manifesto claims that the benefits of investing early to ensure all children get the best possible start in life, irrespective of socio-economic or geographic factors are multiplied later through successful transitions to adulthood and resultant savings in welfare outlays.

Mission Australia claims that to improve the outcomes for disadvantaged and vulnerable children, the following actions are required:
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What improvements/changes to ECEC do you think the next Australian government should make? Share your comments here.

Another reason to encourage and enforce good eating habits in your service has come about as a result of research conducted in Canada, which has shown that a child's diet and eating habits at three could determine their risk of heart disease as an adult.

The researchers have shown that the effects of unhealthy eating start at an early age with children aged between three and five showing signs of high cholesterol.

Dr Navindra Persaud from the University of Toronto says the findings suggest interventions aimed at improving the eating habits of children should start earlier in life.

"Our results show that associations between eating behaviours and cardiovascular risk appear early in life and may be a potential target for early intervention," said Dr Persaud.

The researchers examined the eating behaviours of 1076 children aged between three and five and weighed five aspects of childhood eating behaviour: whether children could decide how much to eat, whether they ate while watching TV, the number of meals per day, the presence of gagging or trouble swallowing and hunger levels as a result of frequent drinking and studied the link between eating habits and serum levels of non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol a marker of cardiovascular risk in later life.
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Planet-eco is an Australian company based in Tasmania that creates great little growing kits for kids to get involved and interested in gardening.

The planet-eco household includes three growing boys who love being outside and getting dirty – rain, hail or shine and what better place to do that than the garden. They get a huge sense of satisfaction and pride from picking and eating something they have planted themselves.

It's becoming harder and harder to find fresh fruit and veg straight from the garden that hasn't been sprayed, processed or modified, so planet-eco's aim is to allow kids to grow veggies like granny and granddad did.

Not only do the kits enable kids to learn about gardening they also teach teamwork, responsibility and respect for the environment.

Planet-eco's Patch Kits encourage children and their families, as well as child care services and schools, to grow their own edible gardens and hopefully nurture a lifelong passion along the way.

Each kit contains:

• 5 packets of seeds
• 5 bamboo plant tags
• 10 organic biodegradable dotpots
• A planet-eco grow guide full of information on how to use the kit and how to start planting.

Find out more about planet-eco kits for fundraising for schools and early childhood education and care providers at www.planet-eco.com.au.

GIVEAWAY: planet-eco is giving away 4 x Vegie Patch Kits, 3 x Herb Patch Kits and 3 x Flower Patch Kits worth $24.95 each*.

For your chance to go into the draw tell us how one of these kits would help you meet Quality Area 3 (Physical environment) of the NQS.

* terms & conditions

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