GEKA Orrong Road

Discussing difficult topics

GEKA Orrong Road Educators

The bushfires across Australia during the summer holidays were unprecedented and many children, including those in our community were affected, either by directly seeing the fires, from smoke in the air, news reports, cancelled holiday plans and hearing others speaking about the fires.

Several children in Blue Group began a conversation this week about the fires, discussing what they know and asking questions like, “Were the fires in Australia?  Are the fires out now? What happened to the kids?”  Some of the children had lots of information about what happened and donations their families have been making to bushfire appeals.

The picture included here was drawn and written by Elsie (with a drawing of herself and her brother).  Her drawing shows two children and their school – “they’re happy now cos it’s raining and that made a rainbow and there’s sun out and I want to write them a letter that says ‘Sorry you got hit by the bushfires’.” She told me that “some kids had their school burnt down” so “they would be sad not to see their friends” and she would like to help them by giving them a new school.

I recently travelled to the NSW Far South Coast and witnessed the devastation of our landscape and how hard it has been for communities along the coast that rely on tourism for their economy.  It is wonderful to hear of the donations GEKA families made to many different bushfire appeals in January, as well as the holidays and trips families are planning, to visit and support affected communities. 

At GEKA Orrong Road Kindergarten, we would love to explore Elsie’s idea and look at directly helping a kinder or school in need during the year.

If you would like to know more about talking to young children about difficult topics, please check out these links:

https://emergingminds.com.au/resources/traumatic-events-the-media-and-your-child/

https://blogs.rch.org.au/news/2020/01/08/talking-to-children-about-what-is-happening-in-australia/