Family Resources
Children’s Learning at Home
Supporting your child’s educational needs at home can be in the form of school holiday entertainment, extension and stretching activities and home schooling. Whatever your needs, there are lots of support options available online. If you’re home schooling or looking for fresh screen-free ideas there is lots of available support and guidance, including the varied resources and ideas available.
State Government | Fuse
The State Government along with FUSE have developed a program for educators and students to access digital resources that can be used to support learning from home for young children. The Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) identifies five interconnected and overlapping learning and development outcomes for all children from birth to eight years. It also emphasises the importance of supporting continuity of learning and fostering a consistent understanding of children’s learning with families, colleagues and other professionals.
The Raising Children Network
The Raising Children Network also has a range of learning activities for pre-schoolers. It includes tips and ideas as well as videos of drawing, writing, storytelling, counting and other activities that can be done at home.
The Victorian Aboriginal Education Association
Aboriginal education activities have been developed by Victorian Aboriginal Education Association to support children and families who are staying home during the spread of coronavirus. We have developed these activities with Aboriginal community in mind and want to encourage connection to culture through educational activities that can be done at home using household materials. Here you can access a variety of creative activities that are connected to culture in various ways through physical activities, art, written activities, play-based activities, and more!
Scholastic
The Scholastic Learn At Home site provides 20 days worth of active learning journey activities for ages from pre-kinder through year 9.
KiwiCo
KiwiCo have created a great library of STEAM activities for 5-9 year olds as well as daily DIY activities.
Hands On As We Grow
Hands On As We Grow have heaps of free resources for all age groups.
Jump Start
Looking for STEM activities? Find exciting “Kindergarten Science Activities” on JumpStart! There are lots of free activities and activity sheets for kinder through grade 5 age children.
Sunsmart
Wahroonga Pre-School is a Sun Smart member. That means we promote a healthy approach to UV exposure. Sun Smart Season runs from mid August to 30 April. During these months children must wear a sun hat and suncream for all outdoor play.
Being Sunsmart can be promoted at home too!
You can print Sid Seagull’s poster (amongst others) here and refer to the Sun Smart UV app so you know when to be UV smart during the day. Or you can always visit the bottom of our home page to find out what’s happening with the UV.
Sustainability
Wahroonga Pre-School is committed to having a strong focus on sustainability. We teach our children about reducing, reusing, recycling, separating food waste and composting. We also try to minimise our use of electricity, where possible.
Worm Farms and Composting
Our worm farm is a favourite for some of our children and allows them to see what we can do with some food waste. The worms also provide us with an excellent nutrient-rich product that we can use on our veggie garden!
Thinking about creating your own worm farm at home? You can learn more about he benefits of a worm farm and why you would want one by visiting the sustainable gardening Australia website. It also tells you how to make one, what to feed your worms and even some trouble shooting tips.
https://www.sgaonline.org.au/worm-farms-and-composting-radio-interview/
Wahroonga Pre-School also has a compost, for further food scraps that can’t be given to the worms. This is one more way for us to reduce our landfill waste while producing an excellent source of free garden food and soil improver, for use in our veggie garden and elsewhere around our excellent outdoor garden space. You can find information about what composting is, how to make one and what to add to your compost on the sustainable gardening australia website.
Reduce Your Plastic Waste
We aim to reduce plastic waste within the program and it’s something that we teach the children. It’s something we all need to do for our children’s future. Try these tips from Unicef.
https://www.unicef.org/armenia/en/stories/9-ways-reduce-plastic-waste-home
Healthy Eating
It’s always good to look for great new ways to feed your family and keep them healthy.
GET YOUR KIDS EXCITED IN THE KITCHEN!
Wahroonga Pre-School enjoys getting kids involved with cooking, especially when it’s using produce grown in our very own veggie garden! But it’s still hard to find new recipes the kids will eat. Find inspiration at the following websites:
- Healthyfoodguide.com.au: Kids can cook
- Myfoodbook.com.au: recipes for kids
- Taste.com.au: Kids healthy recipes
- Kidspot.com.au: Lunch Box
- Womensweeklyfood.com.au: Kid Friendly
- Stayathomemum.com.au: Fast Food (30 minutes or less)
- Selfsufficientkids.com: Teach kids to cook by age and ability
- Healthykids.nsw.gov.au: Kid-Friendly Recipes