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Child Care News for Parents & Carers
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April 8, 2020
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Welcome, this week research has shown that many early learning centres lack books with culturally diverse central characters, learn how this impacts children. Also, it's radical, we know, but we've also got six ideas for a chocolate free Easter hunt!
Plus, what you need to know about free child care.
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Free child care – What you need to know
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Around one million families are receiving free child care from this week, due to sweeping reforms introduced to save the vital early childhood sector from collapse.
With many families choosing to withdraw their children from care in the last few weeks due to containment measures introduced to slow the spread of COVID-19, early childhood services have been struggling to stay afloat.
The hastily drafted Early Childhood Education and Care Support package introduced last week means:
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The need for more diverse books in child care
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Books open up a world of imagination and wonder for small children. Page by page, they introduce youngsters to different people, places, cultures and experiences; and while little learners are busy expanding their vocabularies, books are also helping them widen their viewpoints.
The humble children's book has the power to challenge racial bias, prevent prejudice and help under fives think about themselves and others in a positive way, so it's worrying to see a bias in the kinds of books available in some child care centres.
According to a study by Helen Joanne Adam, a literacy lecturer at Edith Cowan University, most books in the early childhood education and care centres she looked at had white, middle-class heroes, and very few had main characters from a minority background.
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6 chocolate-free Easter egg hunt ideas
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Toddlers and preschoolers love a good ole' fashioned Easter egg hunt, and the good news is that this fun activity doesn't have to involve a sugar rush (and crash).
There are many hunts involving hollow plastic eggs, and a basket of these beauties will engage your under five all year round.
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