September 2021

There are so many benefits of sandpit play for children. It is not only fun and engaging it is also incredibly beneficial for children’s development. If you ask most of the children at preschool what activity they like the best, they will usually name the sandpit as their very favourite. Children just love scooping, digging, building sandcastles, mixing sand with water, and cooking. Sandpit play is such a fun open-ended activity that also promotes wonderful developmental benefits. Some of these benefits are Sensory Development Gross Motor Development Fine Motor Development Develops Social Skills Develops Creativity and Imaginary play Language Development Social and Emotional Sensory Development Children can explore their sense of touch by playing with sand. Additionally, they can also learn about important things like temperature. Children will be able to feel the warm sand that has been under the sun compared to cooler sand that has been under shade. Mixing sand together with water means that children are exploring different textures. Firstly they can discover that wet sand is incredibly sticky whereas dry sand will run through their fingers and feels very grainy. Gross Motor Development Movements such as digging, lifting, scooping, pushing, and pouring will give children’s large muscles a great workout. Their little bodies are being strengthened by all these movements. Children will also come to develop an awareness of their own bodies when they are engaged in the sandpit. They will work out how they can use their bodies to achieve certain tasks such as lifting heavy buckets of sand and tipping it over to make sandcastles. Fine Motor Development Children will find controlling a pencil and writing so much easier when they have well-developed fine motor skills. Sandpit play gives children an excellent opportunity to strengthen the smaller muscles in their fingers. Every time they dig with their fingers or manipulate wet sand to form shapes, they are actually increasing the strength in the smaller muscles found in their hands. Even doing little things like adding details such as small stones, gum nuts, or twigs to their creations means they are using their fine muscles. Develop Social Skills Playing in the sandpit is a perfect opportunity for children to develop their social skills. At preschool, we have found that sandpit cooking is a great activity that keeps kids focussed and engaged for a long time. So we provide the children with pots, pans, cooking utensils, and a play stove. The children have such an amazing time mixing the sand and water together to make everything from soups to cakes! While they are busy doing this, children are learning important skills about playing cooperatively. They are exchanging ideas and suggestions as well as learning to share and take turns. Develops Creativity and Imaginary Play Children really enjoy mixing sand and water. This is such a simple activity that is so beneficial when it comes to helping them develop their imaginations and creative thinking. Children can create new structures, find new ways to transport the sand around the sandpit. They can also think of new and exciting ways to use the sloppy sand and water they have so joyfully made. In the sandpit, kids are able to create freely. There is zero pressure to make anything that has a specific result. There is no right or wrong when it comes to sandpit creations. So children will feel a real sense of accomplishment and success no matter what they make in the sandpit. Language Development Children are often chatting with each other when they are busy playing in the sandpit. They might be talking about what they are building or cooking as well as exchanging their ideas. Sandpit play is a great time for educators or parents to jump on opportunities to help children increase their vocabulary. You can ask them questions about what they are doing or building. This is such a fantastic way to open up two-way conversations with kids. Interactions such as these while playing in a relaxed atmosphere such as the sandpit are so important. The reason for this is because it gives kids the perfect opportunity to improve their speech and language development. Social and Emotional One of the reasons why I love sandpit play for children so much is because it can even get the shyest kid to talk. Sometimes children struggle the first few days or even weeks when they start preschool. They are missing their parents and they really don’t know anybody yet. The sandpit will often be a place where they can relax. Children can become so engaged in what they are doing that they start to enjoy themselves. This will often lead them to feel safe enough to open up and start talking to their peers and educators. Final Thoughts Playing in the sandpit provides children with so many wonderful learning opportunities. They will be able to learn many important physical skills as well as social skills. Sandpit play gives children a full-body sensory experience as well as a place to socialize and play with their friends. I hope you have enjoyed reading about some of the benefits of sandpit play for children. One Last Thing If you would like to read about the benefits of playdough in early childhood you can find this here.

How to Pack a sustainable lunch box- There are many things to consider when packing your child’s lunch for preschool and school. Firstly, you want to pack something they will eat happily. Then, you also want to make sure that it’s nutritious and healthy. Plus it’s always nice if it is presented in a way that is appealing for your child. To add to this list there is also another very important issue. That is the importance of reducing plastic wrapping and packaging. Unfortunately over the many years of working at a preschool, I have seen some lunchboxes containing more plastic packaging than actual food! Recently the Government Of Western Australia conducted some research with astonishing results. They found that a child’s lunch box containing ordinary food items, pre-packaged food and snacks creates approximately 3 Kg of waste per child every year. That is an incredible amount of waste that is going to landfill!! However, there are many practical eco-friendly things we can do to reduce waste. And we need to remember that small changes can mean a big difference when it comes to looking after our precious earth. How To Pack A Sustainable Lunch Box So What Can We Do? The Lunch Box Lunch boxes are usually made from plastics. For the sake of the environment consider using sustainable products instead. There has been a huge explosion in the variety of lunch boxes available on the market. These days it’s quite easy to find lunch boxes made from stainless steel or bamboo. Both of these materials are a much better and healthier alternative to plastic. Bento Boxes Many children come to preschool with large, fancy, and super expensive bento boxes. While these can be a good idea, children don’t need to have these overwhelmingly big bento boxes. They really aren’t necessary and parents shouldn’t feel the need to fork out so much money for these. It seems that parents try and fill every one of the compartments with a different type of food. In our experience at preschool what ends up happening is this. The children feel so overwhelmed by the quantity and variety that it actually ends up turning them off their lunch and they don’t want to eat. We’ve had children in tears sitting there in front of these huge bento boxes. Please consider the size when you are purchasing your child’s box. Bento boxes can be easily and affordably found in department stores and supermarkets like Kmart, Big W, and Aldi Alternatives to Bento Boxes Of course, it’s not necessary to have a Bento box at all to pack a sustainable lunch box. You can easily use any lunch box and divide it up yourself. I have seen this done very effectively by using things like silicone patty pan cases. In order to reduce food waste, it’s also a really good idea to separate your child’s lunch from their morning tea or recess. So instead of having everything in one huge overwhelmingly scary lunch box, provide two smaller ones. This makes it so much easier for your child to manage and know what to eat. You can also use beeswax wraps and silicon or fabric snack bags. These are not only environmentally friendly but they are really a whole lot easier for little fingers to unwrap than the sticky plastic wrap. They don’t call it cling wrap for nothing!! Thermoses are also great to use and you can go to town with the delicious things you can give your child in a thermos. Think about those yummy leftovers that they can have for lunch the next day. Lunch Bags Remember to choose lunchboxes that can fit into an insulated lunch bag. By adding an icepack you will also ensure that your child’s food is maintained at a safe temperature. How To Save Money And Reduce Waste With The Foods You Purchase For Lunches When we go to the supermarket we are constantly bombarded with a huge variety of pre-packaged snacks. These snacks are usually covered in unnecessary plastic packaging that will ultimately end up in landfills. Have you taken the time to actually consider the cost of these convenient pre-packaged foods? Trust me, if you do you will be horrified. Take for example the cost of cheddar cheese. A 250-gram block of cheddar cheese costs around $4.00- that’s $1.50 per 100 grams. A pre-packaged cheese and crackers pack costs $1.60 that’s $3.20 per 100 grams. Interestingly, I have noticed that many children don’t even like the cheese in these pre-packaged snack packs. They will happily eat the crackers and yes you guessed it. THEY THROW THE CHEESE OUT! An individual yoghurt pouch costs $1.20 per 100 grams or a 900-gram tub costs 64 cents per 100 grams. Now if you are buying the occasional yoghurt that may not seem very significant. But if you are purchasing a pouch every single day per child for school lunches, this ends up costing you a significant amount over the course of the whole year. Now, this is just the cost to your pocket but think about the environmental cost when you add up all those millions of yoghurt pouches and lids being thrown out every day. I buy my snack foods in bulk sizes and package them myself into eco-friendly lunch boxes and containers. I save a lot of money doing it this way and I am also doing my part in reducing waste to help the environment. What To Pack It is incredibly important for children to develop healthy eating habits from a young age. There are so many negative health consequences from eating foods that are high in fat, sugar, salt, and additives. Children also need good healthy natural food that will fuel their bodies ensuring that they are ready to focus and learn. While children are at school or preschool, they are spending long periods of time away from home. It is so important that they are consuming nutritional foods. Foods such as fruit, vegetables,

Making friends is one of the most rewarding experiences that can happen for children when they go to preschool. Having that one special friend or a group of friends makes the preschool years so much fun. I have to say that one of the nicest things about working with children is seeing them make friends over the course of the preschool year. I remember one particular sweet little girl who was yet to make a special friend. She had been coming to preschool for well over a year and her mum was a bit worried that she was yet to find a friend. Sure enough, she ended up being good friends with another little boy after playing a fun game of chasing. They played chasing for weeks and weeks until they were finally firm friends. These two had known each other for a long time. But it took that one game of chasing to form a connection. Interestingly, one of the most common questions I get asked by a parent after their child’s very first day at preschool is “Have they made any friends”. I get it, as a parent myself we all want our kids to form good fun friendships and be happy. What Do Children Need To Make Friends? However, forming friendships takes a whole lot longer than one day at preschool. To form friendships kids need Time Social Skills Good Role Models Children Need Time To Form Friendships Young children need time to learn what friendship is. They have to work out what it means to be and have a friend. Once they have an idea of the complexities of friendships, they then need time to cultivate and nurture these friendships. Just like we do. Even though we are adults, we still need time when it comes to making friends. Maybe it’s helpful to try and put ourselves in our preschoolers’ shoes. When we go to a social function where we may have never met one single person there before. Do we leave that function after one night with a best friend? Not usually. We may have clicked with some people more than others. We might have even made plans to catch up with these new potential friends. But we probably couldn’t really say “Hey I made a friend today” after just a few short hours. So why do we expect our children to? Children Need Social Skills To Make Friends As children play with others they will learn and build skills that will help them make friends now and in the future. They need to learn super important skills like sharing, turn-taking, listening to others, cooperating, and how to resolve conflict. That’s a lot of skills!! Not long ago PJ Masks was the big ‘thing’ at preschool. A lot of children were right into pretending to be the PJ Masks characters, running around fighting crime in the playground. But every day there were arguments because everyone wanted to be Catboy. I had no idea who this Catboy was because my own kids are much much older and I’m still stuck back in the late ’90s and early 2000’s when it comes to kids’ popular culture. Ask me anything Pokemon and I’m all over it. But Catboy ??? not at all. All I knew about him was that he was causing a big fuss in the playground for us. I had to google who this Catboy was. Anyway, my point is that not everyone could be Catboy. The kids had to learn to take turns being Catboy and they had to work it out with help and encouragement from the teachers. The kids had to be willing to negotiate and listen to the cries of unfairness from their peers at not being given a turn to be Catboy. They had to understand, show empathy and finally agree to take turns.  It’s hard to be friends with a bossyboots or children who don’t take turns, so learning skills such as these are so important. Good Role Models Parents are their children’s greatest role models. Children will learn and copy everything you say and do. It is so important to show children through your words and actions how to interact appropriately and how to treat others with kindness and respect. Parents and educators need to teach children the skills they need to make friends. This could be done by using puppets or toys to do role plays explaining and demonstrating skills such as listening, cooperating, and sharing. Have discussions with children about how to make friends. Suggest to them the language they can use if they want to play with someone. Teach them to say “Do you want to play?” sounds simple enough but often kids need to learn important phrases like these so they can initiate play with other children and eventually make friends. If kids don’t have the language necessary to get along with others and make friends they might sometimes do inappropriate things. I’ve seen kids shove other children as a way to get attention and hopefully get them to play with them. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work, kids need to learn what to say to other children if they want to play with them. But Why Does My Child Have No Friends? One of the reasons why you’re preschooler may not be forming friendships is simply because they may be too young. As adults, we have so many years of experience when it comes to the art of making friends. Yet a little preschooler is at the very beginning of their lifelong journey of forming friendships. They have yet to learn so many skills that will equip them to make friends. Sometimes kids might have all the necessary skills to make friends but still, you find that they struggle with forming friendships.  This is sometimes the case and a source of worry for parents. But we need to remember that all children are unique and different just as we adults are too. Different Personalities Some