Home Hot Topics Articles Directors' Choice Awards About Us / Contact Us Activities & Curriculum Activities for Outcome-Based Learning Arts & Crafts Music for Learning Recommended Reading Sharing Boards: What Do YOU Think? NEWSlink Current National News Conference Calendar Topics In Early Childhood Education Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education Job Sharing Board State Licensing Requirements Stay Connected! Each month we'll send you an email filled with articles and ideas for your classroom. Subscribe Now Date: 5/13/2006 8:14:00 AM Author: Abbey Subject: Australia. The toddler room in the ce... Australia. The toddler room in the centre which I work (10 children - 2 caregivers) do not have group times, they only have spontaneous or incidental small group times that can occur throughout the day, indoors/outdoors Art experiences only offered to children over 18 months. Otherwise offering sensory experiences where there is no 'product' involved, are not adult led or do expect children to wait or take turns. e.g. water play, goop, mud are trialling the use of the floor space for ALL of the children's activites. They have removed all tables from the room except two they use for meal times. The areas are defined using colourful material or rugs, cushions, natural materials, shelving or room dividers use open shelving with various open ended resources for the children to choose from, often using natural materials e.g leaves, shells, pine cones, flowers and offer small baskets or bags for carrying them around in Children can choose when they go to sleep, the staff offer mats for sleeping in the corner of the room. Sheets are changed accordingly. The room is programmed for fortnightly and the children's interests and strengths form the basis of the resources or activities that are provided. There are never big changes made to the program as this unsettles toddlers easily, only new things added or simply modified. Things can be added daily as new things are identified as interests of the children e.g. child talks with you about horses they saw on way to centre - add books with horses, posters of horses to walls, plastic farm animals to shelves etc The staff have permenant learning centres e.g blocks, puzzles, book corner, dramatic play area that are available to the children at all times Children are split into 2 (5 in each) groups for routines e.g. washing hands, toileting procedure, undressing for bed etc with a primary caregiver OVERALL, I think with toddlers we seem to provide them with a 'watered down' 3-5 years program and expect far too much of them and this is when nothing seems to work. Children of this age cannot wait, take turns or remember long instructions and carry them out. Expecting them to do so is challenging in itself! Providing them with an environment that is flexible, relaxed and child initiated is a pretty good start. There you go, an Aussie approach to toddler taming. Good Luck! Name: Email: Subject

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