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Arghgh!... There's No Place at the Kindy!

4/20/2012

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Parents are going stir crazy trying to find a kindy or child care facility which has vacancies, while other centres are struggling to keep afloat. Some believe that it's where the new kindies have been built that is causing dramas for parents, with critics of the program — and even some beneficiaries — pointing to glaring inefficiencies.
By Freya Petersen
IN BRISBANE'S inner southeast, child rearing has become like a competitive sport, so scarce are vacancies in some day care centres and kindies.
An uneven spread of child care and kindy services in Brisbane is causing anguish for parents and business owners alike, with some centres hopelessly oversubscribed while others struggle to survive.

In Bulimba recently, dozens of parents were queued up from before dawn in an effort to get their children a berth at a local kindergarten for 2014.
Meanwhile, in other suburbs, early learning and day care businesses are struggling to survive because of competition against state-built centres they say weren't needed.

Critics have blamed poor analysis and political interference with creating a problem they say could have been avoided.

Starting from scratch

After its re-election in 2009, the Bligh government sought to increase participation of the state's 53,000 kindy-age children in some form of early learning program from 29 per cent in 2007 — the lowest in the country — to 100 per cent (or "universal access") by 2014.
Since then, they've built 102 new state-owned kindergartens, out of 240 originally promised by 2014.
By 2011, the government announced that it had exceeded its targets, with 69 per cent of four-year-olds already enrolled in an early education program delivered by a qualified teacher.
But it's where they've been built that is causing dramas for parents, with critics of the program — and even some beneficiaries — pointing to glaring inefficiencies.

Early one Sunday morning

Bulimba mother-of-three Felicity Donaldson knew from experience what to expect when trying to enrol their daughter Claire at the once-yearly sign-on day for the 88 berths at the local C&K kindergarten.
"My husband got up at about 5.30 on Sunday, and he was probably there a bit after 6," Ms Donaldson said.
By the time he got there, the line was already stretching up the block. Still, they got their spot.
"We went at about the same time for each of them… For Emma (their older daughter), we were about 65th on the waiting list, whereas for Claire we're 28th.
"The local recommendation has been that if you don't go to the sign-on day then you probably won't get a place for your child because of how popular the kindy is."
Popular, and the only purpose-build kindergarten program within a 10-minute drive, which for busy mums and dads (often with multiple care- and school-age kids) can mean the difference between a busy morning and a breakdown-inducing one. Adrienne Webster said her middle child missed out on a place at Bulimba C&K after making a flood-delayed move to the suburb from Adelaide, despite her eldest child securing a place at Bulimba State School, a less-than-one-minute walk from the kindergarten.
"So for an entire year, I had to drive to Coorparoo, and it almost broke me," she said.
Mrs Donaldson said it was neighbourhood lore that before the centre added places a few years back, parents had even camped out overnight to ensure their child a place at the kindergarten — one of a critical few in an area has seen its population of well-to-do young families multiply in recent years.
Bulimba C&K director Sue Reynolds said the centre actively discouraged camping outside the night before sign-up, and while it did have a "healthy waiting list", all those who lined up on sign-on day for the past three years had secured a place at the kindergarten for two years later.
The Logan-Woodridge area was one area where C&K kindergartens were filling “much slower than (in) other areas".
“That would suggest one of two things — either the government got their formula wrong, or more likely the community doesn't understand yet — or doesn't appreciate yet — the benefit of a proper kindergarten program.”
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The flipside of the coin

Meanwhile, just across town, Moorooka C&K director Simone Sullivan said their centre had six vacancies out of 22 places offered.
Karen, who works at Moorooka Early Learning Centre, says of the area's many child care and early learning centres that "everybody's struggling. I don't think there's enough children to spread around".
C&K chief executive Barrie Elvish, whose company was contracted by the Department of Education and Training to operate many of the new state-school-based kindergartens, said both kindy and regular child care services were unevenly spread across Queensland generally, and the Brisbane area in particular.
So much so that C&K recently commissioned Access Economics to assess of the government's funding model for the new kindergartens.
“As soon as the election is over we'll go and talk to the government, whoever it may be, as to the deficiencies that have been identified by this independent review,” Mr Elvish said.
He said while the majority of C&K centres in the state were full, “there are some which aren't full and which are struggling for numbers and they're primarily in areas where there is an oversupply of long day care services”.
Mr Elvish said that in some areas of the state, "you could suggest that the infrastructure's got ahead of the demand, whereas in the past, demand exceeded supply".
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Dozens of parents were queued up from before dawn in an effort to get their children a berth at a local kindergarten for 2014.

"After its re-election in 2009, the Bligh government sought to increase participation of the state's 53,000 kindy-age children in some form of early learning program from 29 per cent in 2007 — the lowest in the country — to 100 per cent (or universal access) by 2014."

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"Queuing overnight for a spot in your closest kindy can mean the difference between enduring  busy mornings and breakdown-inducing ones."

Numbers game

In planning the roll out of new services, the state government said it relied upon a combination of 2006 census data and Office for Economic and Statistical research, which estimated the population of four-year-olds in a statistical local area.
It also used vacancy rate data from the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
Meanwhile, Childcare Queensland — an umbrella body for many of the state's privately run long day care centres — provided its own research that suggested vast disparities in the vacancy rates of centres across Queensland.
An acute example was in Cairns, where the group's research — relying on respondents to an annual survey — showed at least 470 vacancies per week.
"We're just surviving," said a spokeswoman for the private Sunshine Child Care and Learning Centre in Aeroglen, who gave her name only as Dawn.
"We have 72 per cent occupancy. But Cairns is not a very big area."
A spokesman for Childcare Queensland, Peter Price, said the group initially welcomed the government plan to improve access to early childhood education in Queensland.
"We thought, this is great because in all the areas of need there will be more (centres) being built," Mr Price said, adding that politics could have played a part in decision-making.
"Politicians lobby, particularly with a state election coming up. (And) they don't look at the reality.
"And you get silly situations where there are a lot of vacancies and the government announces that they're going to build a centre.
"It's another ABC debacle all over again, essentially," Mr Price said, a reference to the collapsed child care group run by entrepreneur Eddy Groves.
Child care Queensland's president, Gwynn Bridge, warned in 2008 of the impact of the new centres on existing services, writing in an editorial on the Care For Kids website that, "should these centres begin to appear in areas where services are experiencing low occupancy rates, it is a concern that we will see market failure of existing services. Already some state/territory governments are building early learning services next door to or in close proximity to existing services."
Graham Sagar, the group's treasurer and himself a centre operator, agreed that while investment in child care was to be encouraged, poor planning posed risks to existing services.
"If an area needs a centre and doesn't get one, that's an issue. What's a bigger issue is if an area doesn't need a centre and the state government decides to put one there."
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How to Hug A Baby

4/18/2012

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Sizzlin' Sausages!

4/15/2012

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Sausage Sizzle outside Officeworks in Milton! What a Blast!
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KindyNews Sam sorts out a sausage roll for a customer!
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Such a good sport Sam!
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Sarah the Pirate from Imagine That Parties got to work painting faces.
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Young people are far more technically savvy than their parents!

4/14/2012

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MORE than half of Australian children are smarter than their parents when it comes to going online, enabling them to outwit adult restrictions.

Fifty nine per cent of children have ways of hiding what they're doing online - and their parents know it, a survey by internet security specialist McAfee has found.
Of all age groups, children are the most adept at managing their "digital footprint", or how they appear online.
"Children are far better at managing their profile controls and what their identity looks like to others," Young and Well Co-operative Research Centre CEO Associate Professor Jane Burns said.
In a the telegraph.com.au survey, one in four people said they had been left behind by their children's online knowledge and one in three were worried they weren't able to protect their children from web dangers.
Associate Professor Burns said that, rather than be embarrassed about asking for help, parents should embrace their children's cyber smarts.

"Young people are far more technically savvy than their parents."
"There is a great capacity for them to be a teacher for you," she said.
Building trust and rapport early was the key to being a parent in the online age: "Young people are far more technically savvy than their parents.
The reality is, even if parents think that they have control of what their children are doing online, they are pretty savvy and eventually the shift will occur. Children will tell them to back off."
She said parents should treat internet conversations the same way they first taught their children to cross the road or play in the park.
"The first time you do this you make sure they're with you and they're holding your hand and you explain to them why it is important," she said.
"If you've got the rapport it becomes a lot easier to ask your children to show you how they keep themselves safe - and they can teach you things as they get older."
She said parents trying to start a conversation with their children should understand that they saw the web in completely different ways.
"Technology is now so embedded in children's lives that they don't differentiate between online and offline worlds," she said.
"There is no distinction - you are creating relationships, full stop - and they can teach you things."
"If you've got the rapport it becomes a lot easier to ask your children to show you how they keep themselves safe - and they can teach you things as they get older."
"If you've got the rapport it becomes a lot easier to ask your children to show you how they keep themselves safe - and they can teach you things as they get older."
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Associate Professor Burns said that, rather than be embarrassed about asking for help, parents should embrace their children's cyber smarts.
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In the Swim... with your Kids

4/13/2012

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Sue Ward,
KindyNews Swimming Coach

The most important safety tip, As our Swimming Coach Sue Ward reminds us, is being alert and knowing exactly where your child is at every moment. Here are some more:
  •  Never leave children unsupervised near any body of water, even for a minute. A child can drown in less than 60 seconds.
  • Keep your child at arms length (also known as “reach supervision”), ready to grab quickly if he or she suddenly takes off towards the pool or lake.
  • Never leave an older child in charge of watching smaller children.
  • Never depend on lifeguards alone to watch small children.
  • If with a group, have one adult watching no more than two small children at a time.
  • If several adults are taking turns watching the children, have something such as a whistle or a ribbon that can be passed from one adult to another, so there is no confusion as to who is “on guard”.
  • Don’t get distracted. Even in a wading pool if you turn to talk to a friend, your toddler could slip under water.
  • Don’t depend entirely on flotation devices that could deflate suddenly.
  • If a child is missing, look in the water first. Seconds count in rescue efforts.

More of Sue's Column's


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Never leave children unsupervised near any body of water, even for a minute. A child can drown in less than 60 seconds.
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Who's Protecting YourTwitter Baby?

4/8/2012

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Everything your child publicly posts online is being recorded and archived. And that information could wreak havoc on your child’s future.
In the past, decisions to hire an employee were based on the information listed on their resume, a few phone calls, and an in-person interview. That’s about it.
Today, I don’t know a single HR department that doesn’t conduct a thorough Google and/or Facebook search on every job applicant — before they even read the entire resume.

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Guideline suggestions

What sort of social media guidelines do you need to create in order to protect your children and ensure their successful future? Here are some suggestions to get you started. Decide what social media networks your children can use. Networks come and go so you’ll need to make periodic adjustments to what’s on the “approved” list. As a starting point, the current top social networks you can start looking at are; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare, What topics can they talk about? Or to simplify, what topics can’t they talk about?

  • Which social networks can they post to?
  • What type of photos and video can they post online?
  • Will your guidelines discourage them from using profanity?
  • Can they post their email address online (I’d personally recommend against this)?
  • What about your home address, and phone number?
  • What about posting family details (names, photos, birthdate’s, announcing when and where they’re going on vacation, etc.)
  • Announcing vacation details (when, where and how long)?
  • Who else are they unknowingly revealing information about?

Aside from the information they personally post online, think about establishing guidelines for the types of situations your children should avoid. Situations where other people (friends, bystanders, and even boyfriends and girlfriends) can easily take photos, audio, and video of your children and post it on a social network. Even if your children aren’t the subject of the photo, their mere presence could still be damaging.

Monitoring is your friend Once you’ve decided on some ground rules, it’s time to think about how you’re going to monitor their social media travels.

Are you going to Friend them on Facebook? Follow them on Twitter? Set up Google alerts or perhaps use a social media monitoring tool?

You have a lot of options and tools available to you — and you should consider using them. Because your children will be online. They will be connecting with friends and posting more information in the future than we can even imagine.

And as much as the Internet can provide a wealth of knowledge, interaction and entertainment. It can also be the equivalent of digital quicksand that consumes everything that falls into it — including your child’s online reputation.

Have you considered creating social media guidelines for your children? What suggestions do you have?

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More Stories
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How much information are we sharing?
  • By 2011, 20.2 million children under 11 will go online at least once per month — rising to 24.9 million kids by 2014. source
  • 66% of US children and teens ages 8 to 18 had a mobile phone. (2009)
  • Kids under 18 send and receive roughly 2,800 texts per month source
  • 35 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute source
  • 95 million updates posted to Twitter every hour. source
  • 2.5 billion photos uploaded each month to Facebook source
  • According to two Pew Internet Research survey’s of 700 and 935 teens, 38% of respondents ages 12 to 14 said they had an online profile of some sort.
  • 61% percent of those in the study, ages 12 to 17, said they use social-networking sites to send messages to friends, and 42% said they do so every day.
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Additional Reading:
  • Social Screening: How Companies Are Using Social Media To Hire and Fire Employees
  • Young Children Consuming More Digital Medias
  • [Infographic] How Social Media is Reshaping College Admissions
  • Internet Safety and Security Tips for Parents
  • 80% of Children Under Age 5 Use the Internet [STATS]
  • 9 in 10 Teens Have Witnessed Bullying on Social Networks
  • [REPORT] Always Connected: The new digital media habits of young children
  • When Should We Introduce Social Media to Kids?
  • A Pocket Guide to Social Media and Kids
  • Social networks and kids: How young is too young?
  • Too Young to Text?
  • Corporate Social Media Policies: The Good, the Mediocre, and the Ugly
  • Parents need to stay aware of kids’ use of social media, warn about predators
  • Connecting with Kids Online: The playground goes virtual
  • Seven Ways to Keep Your Kids Safe Online
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What's Eating the Kids?

4/5/2012

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LOOKING for an effective head lice treatment can be a little confusing and frustrating. For some,
successful head lice treatment for nits and lice relies on a three-step process: Treat, Comb and Defend – three steps to win the fight!

Step One: Treat
A head lice treatment is designed to either suffocate the lice or interfer with the lice’ central nervous system, causing paralysis and eventually death.  The treatment should cover the entire scalp (as the adolesent nymphs live directly on the scalp) and all of hair and be left for 30 minutes. Massage the treatment into the scalp and hair for five minutes to ensure the treatment cream or foam penetrates the head lice and then you’ll need to comb.

Step Two: Comb
Combing is probably the most important step in the fight against nits as there is no other way to remove the head lice and eggs from the scalp. Some products may suggest removing these with your fingers, however, it is best to use a specialised comb to ensure complete removal. Eggs that are left in the hair will hatch in 10 days and breed a new generation of head lice.
Tip: Use a conditioner or detangler to help unlock knots and make the combing process easier.

Step Three: Defend
Don’t wait for an infestation or even an outbreak in your school, look to protect your children from head lice. Be vigilant and check for head lice in your kids’ hair regularly.
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Is Co-Sleeping a No-No?

4/5/2012

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By Pinky McKay
ABOUT 80 percentof Australian parents of babies under six months will take their babies into their bed  and share sleep. This may be a conscious choice to have a family bed, it may be an early morning snuggle to get some extra zzzs or it could be a matter of survival - taking an unsettled baby into bed to get sleep for everyone!
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We can’t simply say ‘sleeping with your baby is unsafe’ because the reality is that it happens - and for most of the world’s population, it’s a reality that wouldn’t be questioned. In some countries such as Japan where co-sleeping is common place, deaths from sleep accidents are rare. I know many parents who have or are sleeping snuggled next to their babies, perfectly safely.  My own five babies slept with us until they eventually they outgrew the need to ‘wander in’.  
The thing is though, when parents sleep with babies on sofas, if they are smokers, on medications or drugs, including alcohol that impair their awareness of their baby it isn’t safe to sleep with your baby.  So, please, discuss with your partner whether you can both accept responsibility for sharing a bed with your baby and please take care to create a safe sleep space wherever you plan to put your baby to sleep.

Pinky is a best-selling author and sought-after public speaker.   She also regularly appears on major network TV stations.
  
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Pinky Writes for KindyNews

4/5/2012

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CELEBRITY parenting expert, public speaker and best-selling author Pinky McKay is now part of KindyNews' growing family! Her engaging and informative columns will be regularly appearing in KindyNews. Pinky is a sought-after keynote speaker and author with 4 titles published by Penguin, including Parenting By Heart, Sleeping Like a Baby, 100 Ways to Calm the Crying and Toddler Tactics, She also regularly appears on major network TV stations.  
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