Newsletter | March 2025
What’s On This Month
Key Dates
3rd March | Clean up Australia Day
8th March | International Women’s Day
10th March | Labour Day (VIC)
20th March | Very Hungry Caterpillar Day
21st March | Harmony Day
21st March | Holi (India) Festival
Recipe | Pesto Chicken Tray Bake
Prep 30 mins | Cook 20-25 mins | Serves 5
Ingredients
1 carrot, 1 red capsicum cut into batons
1 zucchini, cut into rounds
1 eggplant, halved and cut into half moons
1 red onion, cut into thin wedges
1 small bunch asparagus, ends trimmed and cut into three
200 grams cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt and pepper
500 grams chicken breast
1 tablespoon basil pesto
sea salt and pepper1 cup (250 ml) Greek yoghurt
1 tablespoon basil pesto
1 teaspoon olive oil
to serve: a small handful of fresh basil leaves
1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C and line an oven tray with baking paper. Place the carrot, zucchini, red capsicum, eggplant, red onion, asparagus, cherry tomatoes and olive oil onto the prepared tray. Season with sea salt and pepper and toss to combine. Pop into the oven for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, place the chicken and pesto into a large bowl. Season with sea salt and pepper and toss to combine. Nestle the chicken breasts into the vegetables and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. To make the yoghurt sauce, place the yoghurt, pesto and olive oil into a small bowl. Season with sea salt and pepper and gently stir to combine. To serve, pop the yoghurt sauce into the corner of the tray, sprinkle fresh basil leaves over the gorgeously golden chicken and vegetables and enjoy.
Image and recipe from mylovelylittlelunchbox.com
sustainability Corner
Ride to Daycare and Work
Improve physical fitness and mental health. We’re all aware that riding is a great way to help keep your body fit and healthy, but did you know it can also help to support your mental wellbeing, too? One study reveals that riding is the second best form of exercise for a lower mental health burden, just behind participating in team sports.
Improve productivity. Riding has been shown to improve brain function, with it increasing blood flow to the brain by 28% compared to resting, according to one study. As a result, this can help your children ride to daycare and you arrive to work in a more positive frame of mind, and help to improve productivity throughout the day.
Helps the environment. If you’re passionate about sustainability, riding is a great way to play your part and help create a greener local environment. By replacing a car for a bike, not only will you be saving on harmful emissions, but if more people chose to cycle, it would reduce congestion on roads, helping to cut pollution even further.
It's National Ride ‘2’ School Day on March 21, why not join in this year and start a new tradition with your family or better yet begin a new weekly routine. Follow the QR code for some awesome National Ride2School day ideas!
Source: BQ Bicycle Queensland
Send Us Feedback
Want to have your say and improve our services?
Email us at contact@kidsfamilydaycare.com
Noteworthy
Educators Webinar
Stress-Free Programming: Achieving Quality without the Complexity
Thursday 27th March 7.30PM
Learn how to create high quality engaging programs for children that are easy to implement and stress free. We’ll explore practical strategies for educators to balance creativity and simplicity, ensuring programs are both effective and enjoyable for children and educators alike.
Family Connect
We are excited to introduce Family Connect, our new online platform designed to enhance communication and engagement between families and our service.
Family Connect will now be our central platform for sharing important forms and documents with our families. We have also updated some of our forms to make them more intuitive and user -friendly.
https://www.kidsfamilydaycare.com/family-connect
Australian Government Payments
Australian Government payments are not payable while the recipient is overseas. Government Payments are for families who love and work in Australia.
To remain eligible for CCS, a family must meet residency requirements. This means:
payments will stop when a family leaves Australia to live in another country
payments will stop if a family travels overseas for 6 weeks or more, restarting when they return to Australia.
A family can use their 42 allowable absences for short term travel overseas.
Health & Safety
How to ease your child’s separation anxiety
Separation anxiety varies WIDELY between children. Some babies become hysterical when you are out of sight for a very short time. Other children seem to show ongoing anxiety at separations during infancy, toddlerhood and preschool.
Easing transitions for your child and you
The trick for surviving separation anxiety demands preparation, brisk transitions, and the evolution of time. I would suggest we parents suffer as much as our children do when we leave. Even though we are often reminded that our children stop crying within minutes of our leave-taking, how many of you have felt like you’re "doing it all wrong" when your child clings to your legs, sobs for you to stay and mourns the parting? As a parent working outside the home, separation anxiety has created questions for me. Although it is an entirely normal behaviour and a beautiful sign of a meaningful
attachment, separation anxiety can be unsettling for us all.
Separation anxiety by age & developmental stage
Infants: Separation anxiety develops after a child gains an understanding of object permanence. Once your infant realizes you’re really gone (when you are), it may leave them unsettled. Although some babies display object permanence and separation anxiety as early as 4 to 5 months of age, most develop more robust separation anxiety at around 9 months. The leave- taking can be worse if your infant is hungry, tired or not feeling well. Keep transitions short and routine if it’s a tough day.
Toddlers: Many toddlers skip separation anxiety in infancy and start demonstrating challenges at 15 or 18 months of age. Separations are more difficult when children are hungry, tired or sick—which is most of toddlerhood! As children develop independence during toddlerhood, they may become even more aware of separations. Their behaviors at separations will be loud, tearful and difficult to stop.
Preschoolers: By the time children are 3 years of age, most clearly understand the effect their anxiety or pleas at separation have on us. It doesn’t mean they aren’t stressed, but they certainly are vying for a change. Be consistent; don’t return to the room based on a child’s plea and certainly don’t cancel plans based on separation anxiety. Your ongoing consistency, explanations and diligence to return when you say you will are key.
Surviving separation anxiety: 6 tips to try
Create quick goodbye rituals. Even if you have to do major-league-baseball–style hand movements, give triple kisses at the cubby, or provide a special blanket or toy as you leave, keep the goodbye short and sweet. If you linger, the transition time does too. So will the anxiety.
2. Be consistent. Try to do the same drop-off with the same ritual at the same time each day you separate to avoid unexpected factors whenever you can. A routine can diminish the heartache and will allow your child to simultaneously build trust in their independence and in you.
3. Give your full attention When separating, give your child full attention, be loving and provide affection. Then say goodbye quickly despite their antics or cries for you to stay.
4. Keep your promise. You’ll build trust and independence as your child becomes confident in her ability to be without you when you stick to your promise of return. The biggest mistake I ever made in this regard was returning to class to "visit" my son about an hour after a terrible transition. I was missing him, and although the return was well intended, I not only extended the separation anxiety, we started all over again in the process. When I left the second time (and subsequent days) it was near nuclear.
5. Be specific, child style. When you discuss your return, provide specifics that your child understands. If you know you’ll be back by 3 p.m., tell it to your child on their terms; for example, say, "I’ll be back after nap time and before afternoon snack." Define time they can understand. Talk about your return from a business trip in terms of "sleeps." Instead of saying, "I’ll be home in 3 days," say, "I’ll be home after 3 sleeps."
6. Practice being apart.
Ship the children off to grandma’s home, schedule play dates, allow friends and family to provide child care for you (even for an hour) on the weekend. Before starting child care or preschool, practice going to school and your goodbye ritual before you even have to part ways. Give your child a chance to prepare, experience and thrive in your absence!
Remember It’s rare that separation anxiety persists on a daily basis after the preschool years. If you’re concerned that your child isn’t adapting to being without you, chat with the pediatrician. Your pediatrician has certainly helped support families in the same situation. They can help calm your unease and determine a plan to support both of you!
Educator of The Month
Congratulations to …
Ranjeshni Kumar | Clyde
Coordinator: Manju Pathak
Ranjeshni has been selected for her beautiful home environment where curiosity thrives and her passion and commitment foster a nurturing learning environment. Her commitment to providing a program grounded in the principles of the EYLF truly makes a difference in children’s development. The care and attention she provides to each child's individual needs, and the thoughtful way she encourages exploration and learning, speaks volumes about her passion and expertise as an educator. Her positive impact not only fosters a sense of security but also inspires curiosity, creativity, and a love for learning in every child. Ranjeshni has also supported her coordinator Manju with training and supporting our new Educators, offering them guidance with HubWorks.
Books we Love
Our Top Picks
Fun Activities at Home
4 Learning Ideas with UNO Cards
1. Colour Recognition: Simply hand over the hole deck to a child, with all cards mixed. Let toddlers divide Uno cards by colour. You can help them start by setting the first card of each color on the table.
2. Number Recognition: Again, give a child the deck. Put down first card with each number, naming numbers out loud as you place them on the table. Let the child pick the same number and place it on top of corresponding number. In this game card color is irrelevant.
3. Sorting the Cards by Colour & Number: A little bit more enhanced task for a child: Sorting by both color and number. They need to pay attention to both to complete the task. Here they work on both color and number recognition.
4. Go Fish: Shuffle the cards, deal each of the players 5 cards, other cards face down on the table. One player calls out the card he/she has in hand (example: “Do you have red No.1?”. Other players check their hands, if they have it, they collect both cards, and if they don’t they draw another card from the pile. A player who collects most cards is the winner.
Source: besttoys4toddlers.com
Play Dough
Prompting Play, Learning, Language, Creation, Experimentation and Investigation Skills
We all know that play dough is fun and popular with many young children. Using this amazing material is a never-ending tactile learning experience for all children. When given play dough, children are instinctively motivated to explore its soft and responsive sensory qualities. They squeeze it, poke it, squash it, pick it up and pat it down. The dough responds to each of their actions and the child is learning that their actions have consequences. Working play dough with their hands builds the child’s large and small muscles and aids development of hand-eye coordination. It also helps to improve fine motor skills, which is beneficial to daily activities. In Educational settings, educators often find that children start their day at the play dough table. This is because using play dough is a calming activity. Children work their stress out through their hands, so play dough is not only fun, but can also be a useful way to help children release stress.
As Educators, we often sit with the children at the play dough table. We encourage the children to share what they are making, their thoughts, feelings, and processes they are using when working with the play dough. “What have you made out of play dough? How did you do it? What could you add? Through asking questions, we can draw on the child’s thinking processes and their imagination. Play dough provides a lot of open-ended opportunities for children to experience independent and cooperative play.