Crystal's Little Gems Family Daycare in Grafton, New South Wales, Australia | Nursery

Crystal's Little Gems Family Daycare

Locality: Grafton, New South Wales, Australia

Phone: +61 434 613 455

Address: Bundjalung 2460 Grafton, NSW, Australia

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• Nursery

24.01.2022 Over the past few days I have seen many articles and comments applauding Scott Morrison one headline read, Morrison has rescued childcare from COVID-19 collapse- but the details are still murky. Let me fill you in with some of them murky details and help you understand in no way has he rescued us. Our government has announced free childcare for more than one million families across Australia but here is one of them major murky details; educators have to take an unwilling 5...0% pay cut, yes that’s right 50%! The government, which normally pays a percentage of parents fees any where from 50%-85% based on your means test known as Child Care Subsidy now will only pay 50%. The remainder of this fee parents are usually required to pay. But as of Monday the government will only pay 50% of the daily fee but this is capped at an hourly rate ($11.10 for family day care which means each educator can only be paid $5.55 per child per hour). This is half price for the same service. Early Childhood is already an industry that is underpaid with many hours spent doing unpaid work. The behind the scenes work that is required is enormous! Let me just put some information into perspective for you as a childcare worker it is near impossible to meet the strict isolation requirements; we are still required to change nappies, help children clean their faces or wipe their nose, and comfort upset children. We are working with children of essential workers; family day care educators are welcoming them into their homes. We are required to take a pay cut when many of the essential items we need to provide care are on the rise; cleaning products, nappies, toilet paper, wipes, gloves, paper towel, etc. How does this make our business viable? Everything for our business and daily life comes from this 50%. Our compliance and responsibilities are HUGE! We are responsible for the life of many children. We face huge fines if we don’t meet these compliance requirements for example if our premises do not have enough ventilation, natural light, and maintained at a temperature adequate for the children we face a $2,000 fine. At what point do we just give up? We don’t want a hand out, we understand we are not alone there are many in a hard position right now but what we do want is to feel heard and valued for what we do and the care we provide. We also don’t want the free childcare being offered to come out of our pockets. This is not an economic solution for our sector nor will it increase the longevity of it as we are all loosing out here! SCOTT MORRISON SURE AS HELL HAS NOT RESCUED US!

24.01.2022 Len absolutely loves the outdoors. He loves spending time outside observing his surroundings. As he is currently unable to navigate around his environment we created a frame with sensory materials to encourage movement. Simple experiences like this one can be so beneficial. The first year of life is a critical time for outdoor exploration. During this time a child is making rapid neurological connections and connections between their senses, creating meaning, and helping to u...nderstand the world around them. Starting outdoor exploration early assists in laying strong foundations for life and academic learning later in life. The outside environment is the ideal environment to develop a babies sensory system as they can experience varying sensations. It also provides a way for babies to master new skills. When born babies have most their neurons, all their senses, bones, muscles and ligaments in the right place to effectively move and make sense of the world babies need access to a varied sensory environment. Being outside provides the perfect environment, as the sensory input is not overwhelming for babies. Having tummy time outside allows babies to develop core, lower, and upper body muscles. As babies work against gravity they develop their postural control and strengthen their proprioceptive senses. It assists to lay the foundations for stability, gross motor coordination, and later fine motor skills. Other benefits include developing of neck and eye muscles, and concentration (Hanscom, 2016) #outsideplay #babiesoutside #sensoryplayideas #fivemonthsold See more

24.01.2022 As spotted in the @colessupermarkets catalogue by one of the children were Halloween theme chips. I assisted the children to peel and wash the potatoes and they used our children safe knives to slice up the potatoes. Once complete we made faces in our slices, flavoured with some herbs, and placed into the air fryer to cook. The children enjoyed the chips saying they were delicious. This activity allowed the children to develop basic cooking skills, fine motor, hand-eye coordination, cognitive, and sensory skills whilst developing the confidence to use kitchen utensils #cookingwithkids #montessoriactivity #lifeskillsforkids

21.01.2022 Each week we drop our scraps off to the sheep. The children love it and this week we noticed they have no more winter coat #sustainability #sustainabledaycare #familydaycareaustralia #farmvisits

21.01.2022 Using interest based learning to respond to children’s strengths, abilities and interests. Today we used interest based learning to develop our fine motor skills, cognitive thinking, creativity, and turn taking skills through the interest of tractors whilst we made our tractor crafts #interestbasedlearning #followingthechild #childledlearning #familydaycare #craftideas #craftingwithkids

21.01.2022 Risky Play as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible When children are exposed to risky play opportunities they are able to understand their personal competency, there level of comfortable risk, and moderate their risky play to internal boundaries. Children have a natural desire to explore risky play some more than others but none the less. In order to keep children safe we need to allow them to explore and learn to manage risks, this will lessen the likelihood of them... seeking risks elsewhere in a more dangerous environment. Injury prevention plays a key role in keeping our children safe but imposing too many restrictions on children, particularly in the outdoor environment can have hindering effects on their development. Two of the main influences on these restrictions are parents and society concerns. Unintentional injury takes the life of nearly one million children each year this makes it more evident then ever that injury prevention is important! Providing children with an environment that limits the risks leads to an unchallenging and uninteresting environment which encourages them to use equipment provided in unsafe ways to seek a challenge. Imposing a high level of restrictions can also encourage children to seek dangerous risks once they have more independence. Eager and Little have coined the term Risk Deficit Disorder to describe a set of problems that children can experience resulting from attempts to remove risk from their lives. So what would you aim for, as safe as possible or as safe as necessary? Thank you to @moovbaby for their risky play blogs encouraging us all to consider the benefits of risky play #riskyplay #thisisfdc #familydaycareaustralia #playmatters #benefitsofplay #outdoorplay #outdoorclassroomday

20.01.2022 Merry Christmas from our family to yours. I hope you got to spend it with the ones who mean the most

20.01.2022 Learning the ability to mirror, repeat and practice the actions of the older children, whilst demonstrating special awareness skills in order to orient themselves moving through the environment confidently and safely. Does anyone else have a child who loves to climb anything and everything? #riskyplay #riskyplaymatters #grossmotorskills #raisingboys #raisingconfidentkids #outdoorplay

19.01.2022 Are you seeking care in the Grafton area? We are currently taking expressions of interest for our vacancies which will be available for 2021. We don’t often have vacancies and I will only be working Tuesday - Thursday so these spots will be limited. Our philosophy is to provide individual quality childcare in a family day care environment, which is comfortable, welcoming and fun filled. We value the importance of a child lead program and environment in order to pursue and en...hance individual children’s interests and learning. We believe it is important for children to develop life skills. We believe each child has the right to play in a challenging outdoor environment, which includes healthy risks in order to extend on all areas of development. We focus on resilience, independence, perseverance, and happiness which is nurtured through play. If this sounds like it will suit your family needs please contact me. Thank you, Crystal Registered with Clarence Family Day Care.

19.01.2022 Swinging on a swing; such a simple play experience right? And what child doesn’t like to swing? But did you know that most children are drawn to swinging, spinning, twirling and rolling naturally and it helps develop their vestibular senses. Vestibular movement assists in brain development, it also assists in recognising the bodies connection to the earth as it allows children to understand if they are falling, leaning forward, standing etc. and leads to balanced and coordinated movements #simpleplayideas #benefitsofplay #playathome #fivemonthsold

18.01.2022 Spring has sprung! We have had such beautiful weather here which has made our plants sprout the children were so excited when they returned this morning to make this discovery #gardeningwithkids #discoverygardens #springhassprung

18.01.2022 Our veggie garden is starting to produce. Maybe we should stick to cucumbers though our carrots just aren’t working out for us #veggiegarden #gardeningwithkids #thisisfdc #stemeducator #trialanderror

17.01.2022 Loose Parts Loose parts are defined as: materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. They are materials with no specific set of directions that can be used alone or combined with other materials. Loose parts of encourage creativity, and engagement, perspective, and collaboration. ... Today one of the three year olds told me she was off to make some ice creams. She found the tooth picks which she lined up nicely, and the container of felt balls. She then stuck tooth picks into the felt balls which created an ice cream that she lined up all in a row. #looseparts #loosepartsplay #curiosity

17.01.2022 Children need lots of unstructured #play time to benefit their developing #brains, and they tend to have a natural awareness of what they need to naturally grow... up healthy and strong. Every child develops in a particular pattern. For example, they have to be able to sit up by themselves before they can crawl and eventually walk. And this is part of why a child naturally progresses to loving swinging sensations when they are in the midst of developing coordinated motor movements. Their sensory system is ready to organise and interpret moving information, and swinging is a fun way to do that. The #proprioceptive system, located within muscles and joints, provides a child with a sense of body awareness and also detects force and pressure while they swing. Meanwhile, their developing #vestibular system, located in the inner ear, detects movement and gravitational pull. The timely development of these senses can help a child learn to calm down if they are easily overwhelmed by sensory stimulation, or can help bring alertness to a child who needs sensory stimulation to facilitate attention and learning. The balance that feels so natural to an adult is a complex process where large groups of muscles work together to maintain postural control. It's very easy to forget how much we all loved swinging when we were little, or to minimise it as frivolous play without serious and necessary developmental benefits. If your child loves to swing, try to make some extra time for them to explore this super-activity. You will be helping their little brain grow in harmony with their body, and they will love you for it. #neurochild #childdevelopment #letthemplay

15.01.2022 Garden progress Here is a before and after of giving our garden beds are new lease on life. We are slowly making progress #gardeningwithkids #sustainability #fdcideas #thisisfdc #sustainableeducation

15.01.2022 With all that is happening right now many families have been effected, this includes their financial stability. If this includes you you are able to apply for Additional Child Care Subsidy from Centrelink. For more information on this please visit the link below. If you would like to apply please contact Centrelink or apply for it on your myGov account. I hope everyone is doing okay in these hard times. If you are struggling in any way financially or emotionally please ensure... you reach out to someone. We will all get through this! https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au//applying-during-temp

14.01.2022 Some excellent sensory ideas

14.01.2022 One of the children have been asking for weeks about getting pumpkin seeds after seeing one growing at the farm. We were gifted a pumpkin so we took this opportunity to cut up our pumpkin, remove the seeds, wash the seeds, and sit them aside to dry before planting. We also baked some pumpkin to taste. This experience allowed the children to develop an understanding of the propagation of foods, where seeds comes from, healthy eating, and the plant life cycle. This experience provided the children to opportunity to explore their senses, develop fine motor skills, and develop an understanding of life skills. Thank you Sharon Hall for our pumpkin! #gardeningwithkids #propagation #familydaycareaustralia #sustainableliving

14.01.2022 We officially have seeds in our garden beds! Today I emptied all the bags of soil into the garden beds and the children used the shovels to make two lines in our garden beds. Which they placed all our seeds and finished off with a water. We currently have carrots, cucumbers, spinach, and capsicums. The children are so excited to see something grow. We are following the children’s interest whilst developing vital skills such as responsibility, self-confidence, reasoning, discovery, and cooperation skills whilst developing a love for nature learning about nutrition #gardeningwithkids #fdc #familydaycareaustralia #childhoodunplugged #montessoriathome

13.01.2022 DON’T JUST UNENROL YOUR CHILDREN FROM THEIR EARLY EDUCATION AND CARE CENTRES PLEASE !!!! There is so much help out there. There is so much uncertainty in the world at the moment and so many people are losing their jobs, please don’t add your child's educators (or mine) to that list. I am NOT saying you should send them if you don’t feel comfortable. What I am saying is DON’T UNENROL THEM.... Talk to your centre/educator first. There are a number of things in place from the government to help families and to stop services from going bankrupt but these measures are only helpful if the children STAY ENROLLED. Firstly, if you or your partner has lost their job or had your wages cut, you can go on to your MyGov page and apply for temporary financial hardship. This means that the government will pay your childcare fees in FULL for 13 weeks. The government has also committed to paying the CCS portion of the fees in the event that the services do go in to lock down. What this means for services is that we can keep paying our educators, our rent, etc etc etc. It means that at the end of all of this, there will be services (FDC services and centres) to send your children to. I implore you, please speak to your centre director and Family Day Care Educator. Find out your options, BEFORE just pulling your children out. It will make the world of difference to our sector. To all my friends, can you please share this as much as possible

12.01.2022 Useful to help explain to children

11.01.2022 The children wanted to paint a picture of our friends. We found a book to explore friendships before our painting. We chose ‘We are together’ it was a book that celebrated the power of love and friendships which seems quite relevant to our times right now. One quote from this book which seemed relevant was On our own we’re special, and we can chase our dream, but when we join up hand in hand, together we’re a team.After our story the children changed their mind and decided... to paint a picture of a place where people can come together. One child painted a picture of his house with a verandah and a dog house and one painted herself at day care. This experience allowed the children to develop respect for others, develop fine motor and creativity skills, and dexterity #weareallinthistogether #wewillgetthroughthis #familydaycareaustralia #painting #childrenscrafts See more

11.01.2022 I love the diversity of a mud kitchen such in-depth curiosity happens for children of all ages #mudkitchen #thisisfdc #outdoorclassroom #sensoryplay #curiosityapproach

11.01.2022 The recent rain and humid days have sent our plants into over drive #gardeningwithkids #fdcgardens #thisisfdc #sustainableliving

10.01.2022 Our day care is well and truely due for a makeover, first up is our market stand with a more natural look #fdc #diy

07.01.2022 I AM AN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATOR All they do is play all day (play is significantly important!) Your job is so easy! You get to play in the sand pit all... day! (if only? ) It’s just like baby sitting! () I have heard them all before! Let me tell you, I did not study for four years at University to learn how to babysit. So here’s a little food for thought for those who still don’t understand why Early Childhood Educators are always fighting to have their voices heard and be respected. I studied English, maths, science and technology, history, PDHPE and Creative Arts for both Primary & Early Childhood ages. I studied multiliteracies, society and environment, Aboriginal education, policies and issues, diversity and inclusion and more! I engage in professional development courses often, to ensure I provide the most up to date, best quality care and environment for the children. I studied an abundance of Theorists in order to understand a child’s development. I studied linguistics but I’m not a speech pathologist. I studied psychology to learn about behaviour and emotions, how to support and understand them, but I’m not a psychologist. I studied nutrition and safe food handling but I’m not a nutritionist. I studied special education but I’m not a disability support worker. I plan an abundance of events throughout the year, but I’m not an event planner. I design many spaces and experiences, set ups and costumes, but I’m not a designer. I do a child protection course 2 yearly to identify a child at risk of physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, psychological harm or if I have concerns for the carers health and wellbeing. I’m not a social worker or welfare officer. I do my first aid and CPR training, medication forms, medical management plans, incident/illness/injury forms, but I’m not a nurse. I may not be a psychologist, speech pathologist, nutritionist, event planner, designer, nurse or social worker but - I AM AN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATOR WHO WEARS MANY HATS WHAT I DO MATTERS I AM GUIDING THE CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE I AM MUCH MORE THAN A BABY SITTER Our days consist of so much more than playing, feeding, changing and rest time (repeat). We don’t just wipe tears and noses, tie shoe laces, read stories and sing. We don’t just create amazing learning experiences, extend on children’s interests, development, skills and knowledge. We don’t just help a child achieve a milestone. We don’t just clean and sanitise all day. We don’t just teach children how to read, write and count. We don’t just teach children about sustainable practices and looking after the environment. We don’t just teach children to listen, share, be kind and show respect. We don’t just teach children about diversity and culture. We don’t just post photos and learning stories. We don’t just do paper work. We don’t just do art. We don’t work 9-5, we work overtime and take our work home. We do it all and SO MUCH MORE! A shoutout to fellow early childhood educators - I see you, I hear you, I stand with you Artwork - bored teachers Written by - Coby-Lea White #earlychildhood #earlyeducation #childcare

06.01.2022 We have spent our weeks gardening which lead us to creating some garden friends with play dough, some citrus slices and spices. It was a whole sensory experience #playdough #sensoryplay

06.01.2022 We had a lovely visit from our CDO today which the children look forward to. She brought us some rosemary and bread mix. The children used their senses to explore the rosemary by smelling, feeling the textures, sweeping with it, and even swinging it around to explore the sounds it makes. When it came time to make our bread we discussed the ingredients we were adding and discussed the role of the yeast. A little fun fact is that it is actually a fungi. The children were intrig...ued at each step of making our bread and observed the different forms at each step. They were amazed at the yeasts roll and how much it changed our dough when left to rest, making our dough so big and very soft. The children were so patient throughout but once it was in the oven they couldn’t wait to try it! Many comments were made of how good it tastes. Through this experience we also discussed the roles of workers in our community and that someone who cooks bread is called a baker. This was an excellent activity for the children to explore scientific concepts through the reaction yeast has with grain products, it also provided opportunities for developing bilateral coordination, fine motor, sensory, and sharing skills #cookingwithkids #sensoryplay #thisisfdc #familydaycareaustralia See more

05.01.2022 The weather is heating up real quick here so today the children enjoyed some water play to help cool off. We had both the flisat table and the tuff tray on offer so all children could have access to water. The children used the droppers, sneezy bottles, funnels, and cups to fill, tip, measure and squeeze the water developing those ever important fine motor skills whilst exploring mathematical concepts and trial and error. It ended in everyone soaking wet and having a good time #sensoryplay #flisattableplay #tufftrayideas #waterplay

01.01.2022 We have officially started our veggie garden. Today we planted some vegetable seeds which we will transfer into our garden when they have sprouted. Through this experience the children are engaging their senses, enhancing fine motor skills, developing an understanding of scientific and mathematical concepts, and understanding a respect for the environment, responsibility, and patience #gardeningwithkids #sustainability #discoverygardens #thisisfdc #vegetablegarden