Childcare excursions are different from primary school and secondary school excursions because these excursions are usually closer to home, shorter and are invaluable to your child’s development. In Australia, the Early Years Learning Framework recommends excursions and incursions for children aged 1-5 years old to assist with the desired outcomes needed for a child to move into primary school.
The overall outcomes are:
- A child should have a strong sense of identity.
- A child should be connected and contributing to the world.
- A child should have a strong sense of wellbeing.
- Children should be confident and involved learners.
- Be able to communicate effectively.
Under normal circumstances at Child’s Play ELC, we provide a variety of excursions to help assist in your child’s learning of the world and the development of needed skills. In these excursions, we visit places such as the community garden, the library, aged care homes and local services like the fire department and we encourage parents to join our learning experience if you have the available time. These experiences are not only a different environment for your children to experience, but they also have some amazing learning benefits.
Develop Road Safety Habits
One of the most important things your child will learn when attending our childcare excursions is road safety as often our excursions are within walking distance of the centre. Child’s Play educators will demonstrate, practice and explain to your children why we look both ways before crossing, what they need to listen for and why we should wait for the green light. This practice is in conjunction and outside of our road safety week(s) to continue promoting safe behaviours that your child will hopefully continue using as they grow up. After these excursions, you may find that your child is more aware of things on the road and maybe more enthusiastic about pushing the traffic light button after childcare, which are positive development signs.
Hands-on and Real-World Experiences
These excursions are a great way to get children motivated, interested and inspired by activities outside of your home and our educational centre. Many of our excursions will encourage your child to participate in hands-on activities like planting vegetables and feeding animals. Additionally, these excursions will also present real-world experiences and allow your child to constructively explore and ask questions in a safe, encouraging environment. One of the real benefits of your child attending an excursion is that it provides them with ideas and concepts that cannot be replicated by a screen. For example, visiting a bakery and watching a baker make bread firsthand will encourage your child to help you in the kitchen more often and maybe help make dinner.
Able to diversify classroom taught skills
Our classrooms and outdoor play spaces are great to teach children new skills, but a common fear of routinely teaching this skill in one environment is that children do not learn to apply these skills elsewhere. Excursions are a beneficial remedy for this fear because your child is encouraged to use their skills in new environments such as the library or the community garden. Diversifying skills such as participation, sharing, and asking questions will allow your child to be involved learners who are able to communicate their thoughts and understanding of complex environments. At Child’s Play, our excursions encourage children to use their skills in new ways such as asking questions to a librarian.
Teaches Kindness
In all activities at Child’s Play, we teach kindness, but on excursions, we see children promote kind behaviours in all shapes and forms. They can be as simple as saying thank you to the presenter, waiting for a classmate or as specific as moving aside to let someone else walk on the path. These acts of kindness are often unprompted and are a key part of your child’s development because it shows they have developed a sense of empathy and that to an extent they understand the importance of relationships and social wellbeing.
Confident Children
Excursions are a key way to develop a child’s confidence as they are able to explore and begin to understand the real world. A child’s confidence is vital to their development because it shows they have developed the necessary skills to move into primary school. Primary school in itself will be a big, new and potentially scary environment for your child, so at Child’s Play, we attempt to combat their fears by routinely introducing them to environments and new people via local excursions. These excursions allow for your child to become familiar and confident in participating in a range of community activities including watering the community garden and playing a sport which will have a positive impact on their development and progression in education.
At Child’s Play, we like to provide a range of local excursions that are engaging for all children and teach them something new about their community. We find that these excursions often increase a child’s attention span and spark learning behaviours. If you would like to attend one of these activities or get to know more about them, please do not hesitate to get in contact with a Child’s Play educator.
