More than just child care

It has certainly been a crazy couple of weeks. Thankfully, it has ended with clear acknowledgement of the critical role played by early education and out of school hours care services in ensuring parents, particularly those working in essential services, are able to continue working.  The Australian government’s announcement that free child care will be made available to eligible families, has been welcomed.

Not only will this initiative provide care for children, it will also allow for continuity of early education.

Importance of quality early education

There is ample evidence that “High quality child care settings and pre-school education improve children’s development outcomes.”  (Have a read of this credible Canadian site if you’d like to know more: https://www.beststart.org/OnTrack_English/1-importance.html )

In their review of the research the On Track team found that children who received high quality early education and care not only scored higher on language, literacy and numeracy tests during their schooling, they also completed more years of school and had higher rates of employment.

So continuous access to quality early education during the next six months, is just as important to the children as it is to the parents.  So how can we support families who want to stay enrolled with our service, but care for their children at home?

EarlyWorks Home Activity Experiences

In order to provide continuity of education for all children, we have introduced the option of Home Experiences to EarlyWorks.  This allows educators to provide families with experiences to do at home. You can find out more from our website:  https://getearlyworks.com.au/home-activity-experiences/

The Home Activity Experiences allow services to:

  • Continue with the Planning Cycle for all children (see https://getearlyworks.com.au/home-program-planning-cycle/);
  • Keep the sense of community;
  • Ensure children stay connected with their child care friends by creating journals that include images shared by families in their Home Activity comments;
  • Support families in providing quality early education programs to their children at home.
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