Nature's Nest Community Childcare Centre
Nature's Nest is a community run, not-for-profit childcare and learning centre, located in Moruya on the South Coast of NSW. Based on Rudolf Steiner’s principals of early childhood, our curriculum is rich with early learning experiences that lay the foundations for class room learning including pre literacy skills, social abilities, problem solving, and critical thinking. We also house craft groups, parenting groups and playgroup.
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Steiner in theEurobodalla
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Tuesday, 17 December 2013
Thursday, 27 September 2012
Spring Festival 2012
Our Spring festival this year was held at Nature's Nest Community Childcare Centre. We started with some lively spring songs and a game of "Lady Spring", then we all sat down to make some flower garlands.
Our Seasonal festivals are enjoyed by all ages. Steiner playgroupers past and present along with those who come to the Nest.
….it was more than one it was more than two and when he saw what was in his hand he knew
Friday, 31 August 2012
Winter Lantern Festival 2012
Each year we hold a lantern festival at a local camp ground in Moruya Heads. We gather in the afternoon by a roaring campfire. Everyone brings something to go into the big soup pot and while we are playing the soup boils away on the fire. We sup on our shared soup and whatever other treats that may be available. At dusk we all join together to sing songs and then as darkness falls we are treated to a magical story told by candle light. We walk a spiral and have our lanterns lit, then they become our guiding light as we journey on our lantern walk.
Mother Earth appeared in this years story knitting away in her Earthly home
Here are some pictures of some of the little lovelies with their lanterns..
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Play
Free Play
Play
is the serious work of the child
"Creative
Play is like a spring that bubbles up from deep within a child."
It is
refreshing and enlivening
The importance of play
Child
doesn't have the goals of the adult. Play
is a time when there are no goals beyond the activity itself.
Play
helps children weave together all the elements of life as they experience it.
It is an outlet for the fullness of their creativity, it is an absolutely
critical part of their childhood.
A
child playing is:
•
Perceiving and exploring situations
• Learning
about self and world
• Initiating
and exacting possibilities
Play
is an experiment into the nature of reality. Play is like a brave adventure
into the possibilities and limitations of things. It is the true basis of
problem solving.
Adults
who are convinced to "teach" children, instead need to set an
example in all kinds of activities. They should create appropriate spaces to play and
learn and honour the innate capacity for learning that fills the souls of
every healthy young child. Young children are born with a wonderful urge to
grow and learn. If allowed to set pace, they will work in a tireless and
playful way.
Look
at toys as "tools" of play - 90% chid, 10% toy. A toy can have an infinite range of uses rather than one purpose.
In
children under 3, the play is realistic - they imitate the world around them.
They need the involvement of adults to imitate or to play with and are involved
with the activities of adults around them. They play repetitively - with joy,
each time before emoting onto the next thing and interact enthusiastically with
their surroundings, finding each experience fresh and exciting.
In
ages 3 to 5 play is stimulated by the toy or object. Play is stimulated by external events. That is
why it is so important that there are toys or objects available to the children
that can be transformed by them into anything they wish it to be - multiple uses.
Play is more social - stimulated by each
other's ideas and experiences. They begin to negotiate, learn boundaries and
limitations, investigate possibilities, build their language and communication
skills and hopefully learn to empathise and care for each other. Being involved
with domestic activities also stimulates play at this age.
Around
or after age 5 - play begins to change - "boredom" - don't know what
to do - as if no ideas left. This is when they can be stimulated directly by
the adult work. They can be encouraged to join in with the work in the room -
cutting up veggies
for fruit, tasks such as sewing, weaving or woodwork - always tasks which need
to be completed. It doesn't take long
for this phase to pass - hours or days and the transformation from one type of
play to another takes place. Now the initial idea comes first, followed by the
attempt to find the right materials. They have a mental image of what they want
to do or be. Imagination is ready to work again. For children who are getting ready
for school it is important that they begin to take responsibility for
themselves, their actions and for others. Children have tasks which contribute
to the well-being of themselves and of others and of the works around them.
They tidy, clean, cook, sweep, decorate, take care of plants and animals, run
messages, help the "little ones" and develop skills and co-ordination.
Play
is most beneficial for child if it is initiated and directed by the child and
accompanied by a play facilitator who is on a path of self-development.
The
ability to facilitate this kind of play is not a natural gift, but to be
learned. The involvement of the teacher alongside the playing child is to facilitate
play through structure of appropriate space and time and with specific materials
and toys in which this play can unfold in an undisturbed manner. Play needs
facilitation or "guidance". Guidance does not mean adult initiated or
adult-directed
play activity.
To
help facilitate / guide children's play, the educator’s role is to:
⁃ set up a well-structured play area
⁃ work with a focus and presence of mind
⁃ observe and listen to children and make an effort
to understand children's play
⁃ reduce intervention
⁃ Have trust and empathise with the children
"There
are precious places where children can freely develop their own culture and
where the creative spirit of childhood can perform its magical transformation…
A Steiner kindergarten tries to be such a place, a place where the echoing
voices of children at play can still be heard" - Sally Jenkinson
Article by Vanessa Cole
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Our Autumn Harvest Festival
On Sunday we celebrated our annual harvest
festival. We hold our festival at our
local community garden, where as a group we manage a plot. It is a beautiful space, and an amazing
project that is an education and demonstration site for sustainable
agricultural and horticultural practices.
Read more at http://sageproject.org.au/
HARVEST
It was golden, golden, golden, as the
harvest table was laid
We started with some songs and the story
of the Giant Turnip
An egg hunt yielded some welcome surprises
Then we all sat down to find some fairy silk amongst
the corn
Impromptu corn dollies were born while we
waited for our cobs to cook
Garlic Bulb planting
And Time just seemed to stand still…….
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