Glen Education Brady Road 

The Quality of Time

Stella Eizenberg and Yan Li

Early Childhood Teachers

We know that children learn best when they are interested and engaged. Using children’s interests as the basis for our curriculum decision making helps to ensure that learning is not only interesting but also meaningful and relevant to children. Time provided us the opportunities to engage in conversations with children, listen to their voices to find out what they are interested in and build relationships with them. 

Quality time for children can support them to grow to be more sufficient as they develop better focus, problem solving skills. Our focus should be on where an idea leads, rather than its source. A good idea usually becomes an interest, whether it comes from a child, a group of children, a family, an educator or elsewhere. At Glen Brady Road kinder, one of our children Coco shared her family beehive hobby in her back yard. Parents shared books and photos about their bees, and Children were very interested because they noticed the bees buzzing around flowers in our garden. 

To extend children's interest to know more about bees, we invited Talia, a beekeeper to talk to children bee cycle. Through this experience, children learned we need bees to help plants grow. If there is no bees, we would have no vegetables and fruit. Providing children opportunities to explore their curiosity and develop passion for learning is meaningful in their learning journey.

Coco: We need bees to make honey we eat. 

As educators we support children to recognise, they are part of ecosystems and care for local biodiversity. We value time spent on embedding a culture of care for Country and  creating a connection with animals, plants, lands and waterways. (Outcome2)