Kids' Voice April 2013

APRIL 2013

Y O U R N E W F R E E PA R E N T I N G M A G A Z I N E F O R T H E G E E L O N G R E G I O N

Reader stories Schools in focus Kids’ corner LettersTechnology Pet care Competitions What’s on

I AM so impressed by the quality of articles we’ve been receiving here at Kids’ Voice!

Thank you again to all the parents and professionals who have taken the time to write such informative, entertaining and thought provoking pieces about their lives or the industry they work in.

Kids’ Voice magazine is a publication for parents living throughout the Geelong and Surfcoast region and the majority of our articles are written by you, our readers.

I know there are probably many mums and dads reading this editorial right now thinking, ‘’well I don’t have anything to share,’’ but, I believe everybody has a story - it just depends on how hard you look!

This month we feature Brooke Stewart’s touching story “Embracing a life of challenges.” Brooke is a mum and shares her experiences raising three beautiful boys who have all been diagnosed with autism.

Brooke’s motivation behind telling her story was to let other parents experiencing similar challenges know that there is help available and there is always hope. She also admits the process was very therapeutic!

Some of the photos we have been receiving have also been impressive. I’d love to share with you a photo we received from snap-happy mum, Dom Rollins.

Dom is not a professional photographer - she just loves taking photos of her gorgeous kids, including her four-year-old daughter, Marli.

Dom, of Herne Hill, says Marli has a calming aura, is

incredibly thoughtful, wise beyond her years, creative and beats to the sound of her own drum.

“I think she is growing into the type of person that has the ability to make everyone in her presence feel special and loved,’’ Dom says.

“She is free-spirited and when you look at Marli your automatic reaction is to smile - she radiates sunshine”. Well, I think Dom has definitely captured those attributes nicely. Well done!

I will be using my editorial to feature some more outstanding photos in the near future.

While I know every mum and dad has their own view on how their child/children should be raised, I would like Kids’ Voice to be a publication where everybody can feel comfortable sharing their lives and experiences.

I understand we can’t make everyone happy, so if you strongly disagree with anything in this magazine I encourage you to express it in a letter so you too can be heard.

Lastly, if you would like to share your story with us but you’re not much of a writer, please email me and we can follow it up with you.

We welcome your personal stories, photos of newborns and children, write-ups about your schools, letters and up-coming events.

Thanks for reading!

- Bec Launer EDITOR

EDITORRebecca [email protected]

BUSINESS MANAGERMichele MItten

ADVERTISING SALESCath Dunning0448 077 [email protected]

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERAlan Barber

GRAPHICSElise Blach

PO Box 54, Ocean GroveVictoria, 3226Phone; 03 5255 3233Fax: 03 5255 3255

Find us on Facebookfacebook.com/Kids Voice Geelong

COVER MODELRyson McHenry

No part of this magazine, including the advertisements, may be reproduced without permission of the editor.

The opinions expressed within Kids’ Voice magazine are not necessarily the views of the publisher, but those of individual writers.

Kids’ Voice TeamKids’ Voice is a monthly publication for parents with children of all ages. Each month the magazine will be jam-packed with news, views, reader stories, feature articles, advice columns as well as product, book and website reviews.

There will be something for everyone.

Experts have joined our team and will provide regular columns to ensure you’re in the know about all sorts of issues in the areas of health, education and alternative therapies.

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Contents

12 6 22

READER STORY6 Embracing a life of challenges

8 Missing Xander home after months

9 Deb and Dan’s tribe hits five

17 Advocating for children - not always wrong

KIDS’ CORNER14 Candid photos of kids

HEALTH19 Do your kids get enough exercise?

SCHOOLS IN FOCUS11 Williams House Kindergarten

12 Newtown Primary School

13 Northern Bay P-12 College

TECHNOLOGY18 How to keep your kids safe online

REVIEWS 24-25 Books, Ben 10 and Dreamlites

FEATURE10 Reading opens doors to new worlds

LETTERS15 You have your say

WHAT’S ON27 Events happening in the Geelong region

PET CARE23 Reminders help us care for our pets

Reader StoryEmbracing a life of challengesOUR first son Joshua came into the world in February 2006 and as with all parents, it was love at first sight.

Going into parenthood we had the expectation of a perfect baby who fed four-hourly and slept with some sort of regularity. So it was a shock when Josh had dif-ficulty feeding, cried for most of the day, wouldn’t sleep anywhere but in our arms and didn’t seem to reciprocate our affection.

Being first time parents, my hus-band and I just put it down to Josh being a “difficult” baby.

Throughout his first year, Josh reached most of his milestones, so we didn’t think too much of his lack of eye contact, language or affection. If I ever brought it up with friends or our health nurse, I was assured he would catch up.

When Josh was 15 months old we saw a lot on TV about autism during Autism Awareness Week. They seemed to be describing our son. I did some research and was convinced he was on the autism spectrum. We met with our health nurse and was again assured every-thing was ok.

I felt like a terrible mother because I didn’t feel a bond with my own child and was constantly frustrated. In my mind this con-firmed my feelings of inadequacy. We just had to move forward and wait for our little man to catch up with his peers.

Later that year we were so excited to find out we were adding to our family. It was an enormous shock to find out we were having twins! We focused on preparing ourselves for the arrival of two boys and tried to accept Josh was a perfect, typi-cally developing child.

Luke and Jack arrived 11 days after Joshua’s 2nd birthday and when they came home, his excite-ment was surprising and beauti-ful. Life became very busy and honestly, that first 12 months are now a blur.

We still had concerns about Josh’s development but it wasn’t until just after he had turned three that again it became very obvious there were some difficulties in his life.

We couldn’t understand why he would lay on the floor or rest his head on the meat in the supermarket. I often felt the need

to try to explain why he would lick a shop counter or touch everything he came across.

I remember getting really frus-trated because I couldn’t under-stand anything he was trying to say. What mother can’t understand her own child? We decided to take him to a speech therapist who suggested we have him assessed for autism.

For some parents, hearing those words are devastating, but for us it was almost a feeling of relief. Someone else saw it too and we could now move forward.

In the following six months, Josh was assessed by a psychologist, speech therapist and paediatri-cian and they felt he did indeed have high functioning autism. He began early intervention through

the wonderful Gateways Support Services and his development has been amazing.

By the time the twins were two, we were beginning to see a few traits in Luke that had us a little concerned. Without hesitation we saw our paediatrician and six months later he was also diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. Luke started early intervention and

Brooke and Matt with their kids Josh, Luke and Jack.

Reader Storywe are so pleased with how far he has come.

Jack was what we called our “spirited child”. Full of cheeki-ness, we marvelled at how much of a handful our typically develop-ing child was. At the age of three he was getting into all the things he shouldn’t, just like everyone else’s toddlers, but unlike other children Jack didn’t seem to understand consequences.

No matter what we tried we couldn’t control his behaviour or tantrums. Things were get-ting worse and I started to blame myself again.

Jack had a high drive to seek sen-sory input to calm himself down so we sought the help of an occu-pational therapist. We were given some strategies but his behaviour didn’t improve. We enrolled in the Positive Parenting Program which promised to work for any child, but it didn’t help us with Jack.

We were at our wits end. It was difficult enough dealing with the extra needs of his brothers so we took him to see a child psycholo-gist. Immediately, she could see there was something other than bad behaviour going on with our four-year-old so he was also referred for an assessment.

We weren’t convinced it was autism, he was so different to Josh and Luke, but at least it would

rule it out and send us on another track.

It turned out Jack too was on the autism spectrum, but presented more like Asperger’s syndrome. As soon as I started treating him like our other boys, everything changed.

I have heard some parents say that they don’t want their child to be labelled, but we feel that “labelling” what was going on for Jack helped us to understand the challenges in his world.

We were then able to start early intervention and in all honesty, give ourselves a break. We weren’t bad parents, we just didn’t un-derstand our child, and he didn’t really understand us either.

Now we have learnt more about Autism we are better able to accept and understand the behaviours that once frustrated us.

We can make sure we are pre-pared for anything that may come up. We have learnt to take iPods with us when we go out just in case one of the boys gets over-whelmed and anxious.

I arm myself with sensory objects like cotton balls or feathers to stop inappropriate touching of things and we now put a note with our names and details into each of the boys’ pockets, just in case they wander off. Trust me, they have been well worth it!

Day to day life is getting a little easier now the boys are five and seven. If we need to do anything in a hurry we find visual clues help.

It isn’t unusual to have to tell each boy the same thing at least five times before we get a result because of how they process verbal language. We need to be diligent when we are out because they still lack awareness of other people and the dangers that are around them.

We take pleasure from little things so many people take for granted, like eye contact. Most of the time, the boys will “look through” us. I get butterflies when I connect with one of them and get meaningful eye contact.

I cuddle Jack a lot because the pressure helps to regulate him, but I’ve had to teach the boys how to give warm cuddles.

Even when they are hurt, they don’t seek the comfort that other children do. It’s hard when I get arms thrown around me with no warmth, but that is always forgot-ten when one of them melts into a real, heartfelt embrace.

As exhausting as life can be though, every small step is a huge achievement and worth celebrating.

I encourage all parents, if you feel there may be something a little different about your child, talk to someone and keep asking until you are satisfied with the answer. You know your child best.

Autism isn’t a label; it is the starting point to help your child achieve their potential.

- Brooke Stewart

Most of the time, the boys will look

through us. I get butterflies when I connect with one of them and get meaningful

eye contact

Reader Story

WHEN I was 21, I really wanted a kitten.

I found a pet shop in Drysdale that had a few. There were five little kittens all cuddled together in a corner and one little tabby was lying all by himself. I fell in love with him, took him home, and named him Xander.

Xander was like my baby. He has always slept on my bed and been treated like royalty. I was a little concerned about how Xander was going to react when six years later, my husband John and I welcomed our first child, Ella, into the world.

Apart from spending the first month of our daughter’s life avoiding us, eventually Xander accepted Ella and even sat on my knee when I was feeding her.

About nine months after we moved houses, I went away for a few days with my mum and Ella. The next morning I received a phone call from my husband telling me Xander had not come home that night. I wasn’t too wor-ried, but then a few days passed and John had still not seen him.

John had been looking around the neigh-bourhood and even asked some of our neighbours if they had seen him but unfor-tunately no one had. I cried for the rest of my trip away. I knew someone had taken him, as Xander was not the wandering type.

The house felt so empty without him and I cried myself to sleep most nights. It didn’t

feel right sleeping without him.

I walked around the streets yelling out his name, went to the lost dogs home to see if he was there and I made up hundreds of flyers and distributed them around the neighbour-hood.

I got a couple of messages from people claiming to have seen him but whenever I went to check he was never there. I just hoped whoever had taken him, was treating him well.

Ella was turning two and was scared of all animals and I thought a kitten would be good

for her. Xander had been gone for nearly seven months and I had given up any hope of seeing him again.

So, for Ella’s second birthday she received a kitten, who she named Mickey. After a few days of having Mickey, Ella stopped being scared of him and just wanted to pick him up all the time. Poor Mickey had a rough time!

But then, after having Mickey for almost four months, I received a phone call at 11pm one night from a lady claiming to have Xander.

At first I thought it was another joke, but

then John got out of bed and went up to her house. I was trying not to get my hopes up because I had been disappointed before and he had been missing for 10 months. John rang me on the way home and told me it was really him and I just broke down crying.

I think Xander knew he was home when John brought him inside. He seemed pleased to see me and he was purring a lot but he was also very timid. Other than being a little underweight, he was in good health.

It didn’t take long for him to beef up again. I had 10 months of not spoiling him to make up for. No doubt he missed his favourite meal of prawns.

A lot had changed since Xander had left. I gave birth to another baby, Will, and Mickey had come into our lives. There was a period of adjustment for all of us.

Today it’s like Xander never left. Our house is pretty full with our three kids and two cats. Xander is so gentle with the kids. He lets them pick him up and pat him and he loves to cuddle up on their beds at night.

Xander and Mickey are like brothers. They fight a lot and there is always hair around the house from their little rumbles, but they also love it.

I’m eternally grateful to the lady that found him. I can never thank her enough.

- Trace Adams

Missing Xander home after months

Trace with her kids Ella, Will and Dylan, and cats Xander, centre, and Mickey.

Reader Story

MY husband Daniel and I got married and not long after that we fell pregnant a few times within a few years.

Within four years we had three children – phew, was I busy!

When I fell pregnant with the fourth baby my doctor said to me, ‘if you do not want any more babies, you had better do something about this!’.

When my fourth child, Catelyn, was born she was very sick during child birth.

She had what’s called ‘meconium aspira-tion’, which means she had inhaled the meconium into her lungs and was unable to breath.

It took the doctors and nurses seven minutes to get her to breathe and then after that she was transferred to Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

They were fantastic and looked after her 24/7. I finally got my first cuddle on day six, which parents know just how special that moment is. It was heart-breaking not to be able to hold her when she was first born.

Catelyn finally took her first breath on her

own on day 28, which was a milestone in itself. She finally came home at six weeks of age.

For the first six months of her life I couldn’t take her to places with air conditioning because if she caught any infection it could make her more sicker than normal.

We spent a lot of time at my mother-in-law’s house because at the same time Catelyn was born, we were building our new home and also our oldest son, James, had started primary school - what a year!

After everything I had been through, I didn’t want any more babies.

We decided Daniel would have the snip. We put it off a few times but finally he went and had the procedure done and it was all good for us.

But then, a few years later he was diagnosed with testicular cancer so my poor hubby was back in hospital for more poking and prod-ding - as he calls it!

Then, a few years ago my husband and I felt the desire to have another child as we both did not feel finished in that area. We wanted another child and before I was too old. I

went and had a test to check if I could still bear children, as I was nearly 40.

But, there was also another problem, my hubby had already had a vasectomy and the longer you leave the operation before it’s reversed, the less likely you will have a suc-cessful result.

So, off my hubby went again to have more poking and prodding.

The doctor said the reversal operation was a complete success.

We were told it might take about six months to fall pregnant.

But, we were blessed with another baby when we fell pregnant 10 weeks later.

We didn’t tell anyone our news until I was

about four months pregnant and everyone was so happy for us.

But, then I started thinking about what it would be like to have five children and hav-ing a baby in my 40s!

I ended up having a c-section on the advice of my obstetrician.

We gave birth to an absolutely beautiful healthy baby boy, Isaac Jacob.

I cried as soon as I held him and was so grateful and very blessed to have him in our family.

Isaac has brought so much joy and happi-ness into our family as all the children love him to bits!

- Deb Ashley

Deb and Dan’stribe hits five

James, 17, Sarah, 15, Rebekah, 14, Catelyn,11, and Isaac, 3.

Feature

ANYONE who has had the opportunity to watch a child learn to read has witnessed one of life’s small miracles!

Learning to read is not a simple task. It is not easy to do. Un-like learning to speak, which is an innate behaviour, learning to read is a skill comprised of many complex smaller skills that need to be learned and then performed simultaneously.

By learning to read, children are able to open doors to new worlds, new understandings and new experiences.

Their vocabularies increase and their communication skills are improved. Through reading, a child develops imagination and improves knowledge of the world around us and as a result a child that learns to read early will have an advantage over their class mates.

Many educators believe an early introduction into literacy is impor-tant in triggering a child’s learning and that the process for teaching children to read should start when children are very young.

Studies have shown children who have stimulating literacy ex-periences from birth onwards have an edge in vocabulary develop-ment, understand the objectives of reading, and develop an awareness of print and literacy concepts.

Conversely, the children who are most at risk for being less success-ful with their reading are those that enter primary school without these early literacy experiences behind them.

Before a child can learn to read, there are a variety of skills they need to develop.

Not everybody in education agrees on which particular order these skills should be taught or indeed whether every child needs to learn every skill, however, if you know what some of these skills are then you will have a better understanding of how children learn to read.

Phonemic awareness and phonics are some of the keys to successfully learning to read.

Children need to learn how to recognise the written symbols on the page and convert those letters (symbols) into sounds (phonemes) and then blend the sounds to form recognizable words for example: c-a-t becomes cat.

As parents we can help our children develop good phonemic awareness by playing with rhymes and sounds – for example reading Dr Seuss or playing I spy.

The English language however, isn’t made up of only words that sound out phonetically; children need to use their visual memories to learn to read many other words.

You might hear these words referred to as sight words or frequently used words. For example: the, was, me are words that cannot be sounded out but still occur regularly in spoken and written language. Parents can help their children learn these words by playing games such as ‘Memory’, ‘Snap’ or ‘Fish’.

As children begin to read individ-ual words they will need to make sense of what those words mean as they become sentences, paragraphs and longer texts.

The ultimate goal of learning to read is to comprehend fully the

author’s intention and make con-nections with our prior under-standings.

As part of the learning experi-ence, children need to understand that reading fluency is essential – in other words, reading accurately, quickly and with expression. By doing so, children will be able to acquire meaning from what they are reading.

Poor readers exhaust their mental resources decoding words and holding them in memory so little is left to obtain meaning.

If a child takes a long time to get to the end of the sentence then they may have forgotten what was at the start, equally if they read accurately but very slowly then it is possible that meaning is lost along the way. Better fluency leads to better comprehension.

To help develop fluency, children can be encouraged to re-read the same text out loud several times. Fluency as a skill will develop with many opportunities to practice reading as long as it is with a high degree of success.

If the language is too hard for the child, he or she will focus on word recognition and will not have the opportunity to develop fluency.

To make reading easier, children need to acquire a large vocabulary. For example, a child that is learn-ing to read may be able to read the sentence “The proclos was trumpling the franom.”

However, without the extended vocabulary they might not be able to recognise that the words in the sentence are actually made up.

As adults we know that the

sentence makes no sense, but our children may not. By read-ing regularly to your children and from a variety of genres, this will assist greatly in building their vocabularies.

Lastly, children will learn to read if they are motivated to do so. They themselves will decide whether they want to make sense of the strange symbols in text, on street signs or on labels of goods on supermarket shelves.

Reading to them from a very early age and teaching sound & letter recognition will encourage them to want to learn to read.

If your child expresses an interest in a particular subject or hobby, then try to read books on that topic as they’ll be more inclined to want to read it for themselves.

Providing your children with as many pre-literacy skills as possible will ensure they develop reading

skills early in their lives and hope-fully will also enjoy their reading.

The earlier we can encourage these skills in our children, the better the foundation they will have for their ongoing develop-ment when they reach school age.

The number of skills that need to be combined is what makes learn-ing to read a complicated process for a small person’s mind.

But as we watch the skills devel-op simultaneously we see our little ones gradually learning to read and take another giant step forward in their lives.

- Mindy Hodges

Educator and owner of Crackerjack Kids, specialising in school readiness classes and

primary tuition.

www.crackerjackkids.com.au

Reading opens doors to new worldsLearning to read is not a simple task, but once accomplished, the skill can open doors to new worlds, new understandings and new experiences. MINDY HODGES explains how children learn to read.

Famous Sydney-based children’s author Jacqueline Harvey visited Ocean Grove bookshop, bookgrove, last month to launch her new Alica Miranda in Paris book, talk to the kids, read and sign books and posters.

Book

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Eliza Bermingham, 7, and Sara, 7, and Ivy Dalley, 4.

Schools In Focus - KinderWilliams House KindergartenWILLIAMS House Kindergarten is a vibrant early childhood environment which is part of the Christian College, Belmont Junior Campus.

Williams House Kindergarten is a double unit centre, which is on the cusp of exten-sions for a third room. The enlarged facility will allow us, from 2014, to expand our service to three year olds in ‘Pre-kinder’, without jeopardising the places in our sought after ‘pre-school’ program for four year olds.

THE PROGRAMS

The programs at Williams House ap-proach curriculum as ‘everything’ that hap-pens during our time together.

High value is placed on creating a sense of community as well as respect for the individual learning needs and interests of the children. Our eyes are ‘open’ to the learning which occurs in the course of our everyday life together.

Beyond programs built on specific information on ‘set’ topics, qualified and passionate staff are intentional about draw-ing on the ideas that are inspired by our observations of the things that are seen to be important to our children.

Via this ‘emergent’ approach, we are fos-tering an authentic love of learning, investi-gation and collaboration with others.

In introducing parents to our pre-school programs, emphasis is made on the value we place on being outdoors and in help-ing children connect with nature. ‘There

is nothing you can learn inside, that you cannot learn outside’, is a philosophy that routinely informs the way we work with the children in our centre.

‘WHild’ – FAMILIES IN THE OUTDOORS

In 2013, we saw the beginning of a new ‘out and about’ opportunity for our families named ‘WHild’. ‘WHild’ offers a new way of collaborating with families to connect with nature in local surroundings.

Influenced by a belief that children ‘will not value what they do not know’, our out-ings are a way to enjoy being outside and make personal discoveries in the natural environment.

On a recent weekend over 60 parents, staff and children of Williams House descended on Bancoora Beach to explore the rock pools, play in the shallows, scramble over rocks and dig in the sand.

The sharing of knowledge, excitement of surprising marine discoveries, rich conver-sations across all age groups and the sheer enjoyment of the space offered by the great outdoors, already has us looking forward to the next time we can do it all again!

Enrolments are made directly through the kindergarten and details are available on the College website www.christiancollege.vic.edu.au. Information can also be forwarded to you by making contact with the kindergarten on 52413556.

Bernadette Johnson DIRECTOR

Schools In Focus - PrimaryNewtown Primary SchoolNEWTOWN Primary School has an enrol-ment of 243, with students travelling up to 32kms to attend our school.

The school has a strong culture of RE-SPECT, with particular emphasis on respect for self, respect for others, respect for learn-ing and respect for the environment.

Respect for learning and environment are reflected in the focus on building a sustain-able future. Living the pursuit of sustain-ability is demonstrated in our commitment to waste and energy management and the establishment of our grounds to incorporate edible gardens and shaded areas.

Our school has a strong record of per-formance in both literacy and numeracy. Students have personal commitment to their learning by participating in setting learning goals and monitoring their progress as they engage in meaningful tasks.

Additional programs are offered in the areas of physical education, the arts, library studies, computer technology and Indonesian. A literacy intervention program ensures addi-tional support is given to students across the school in reading and writing.

The Newtown community is active in our school at many levels. From the formal School Council structure through to stu-dent-led conferences and informal commu-nity picnics, the community demonstrates a close connection to the school.

In recent years, the cultural diversity has be-come a feature of our school. Students from Indonesia, Iran, Vietnam, India and China participate fully in our school program and enrich our lives through their generous shar-ing of the culture of their mother country.

- Amanda Hay, Principal

SUSTAINABILITY

NEWTOWN Primary School has been recognised for efforts towards building a sus-tainable future by being awarded a ‘Certifica-tion’ star for sustainability.

The school community has a strong com-mitment to sustainability, providing experi-ences for our students to develop responsi-bility for their local and global environments. Staff plan an education program for our children that will equip them to become citizens with a global conscience; making a positive contribution to the world.

Sustainability is embedded into the cur-riculum on a daily basis as well as specifi-cally investigating the areas of water, energy,

biodiversity and waste at all grade levels. We celebrate special days such as Clean Up Australia Day.

We have a vegetable garden where children learn and play. The produce is shared with our community and used in classrooms.

Our students are learning to track waste data with the aim to reduce our waste. They help one another to ensure that recycling occurs as well as composting food scraps. Nude Food, rubbish free snack and lunch is on the menu at Newtown. This means that children and parents have been encouraged to bring or pack food that is rubbish free.

- Alice McKenzie, Classroom teacher and Curriculum Leader

JUMP ROPE FOR HEART

WITH the school on board to be a part of Jump Rope for Heart in 2012 and planning a ‘Jump Off ’ day, students and teachers were eagerly awaiting the arrival of a demonstra-tion team to show us how it was all done.

Unfortunately, word came through that one was not available and so a seed was planted and the Newtown Primary School Jump Rope for Heart Demonstration Team was formed.

From small beginnings, six Grade 6 students, who were willing to give up lunch times to put some tricks together to show the school, the team has continued to grow and flourish.

In 2012, these six students and a senior teacher travelled to schools in the Geelong

region promoting Jump Rope for Heart and a healthy life style.

In November, the team travelled to Mel-bourne to take part in a skills workshop with Jump Rope for Heart and the Melbourne Tigers.

In 2013, Newtown now has a demonstra-tion team and a training team with students from grades 3-6 taking part in lunchtime practices in order to perfect routines to take ‘on the road’.

The program builds fitness, agility, rhythm, stamina and team work. All the kids in the ‘demo’ team are proud to pull on their uni-form shirts.

- Elaine White, Classroom teacher

and Jump Rope for Heart coach

ARTS

STUDENTS at Newtown participate in an arts lesson each week. The lessons are sometimes based on one art modality such as music, drama, movement or visual arts, but often contain many ideas and activities and learning all integrated together.

Environmental awareness is evident in the use of recycled materials being ‘reused’ in works of art and an awareness of materi-als being used. Cultural awareness is also included in many ways.

The Language Other Than English that is taught at our school is Indonesian. All the students have Indonesian lessons and also Indonesian studies are woven into other lessons such as our arts classes.

At present we have the Gamelan instru-ments at our school and we have been exploring the cultural links between design in fabric and the carving of the instru-ments and the link between traditional dance, theatre and music. The students have shown great enjoyment in playing the instruments – especially the giant gong!

Awareness of Indigenous Aboriginal Art and culture is present and investigated when exploring links between visual art, story, music and dance and when discuss-ing our school value of Respect.

In Visual Arts students are taught new skills and encouraged to explore them to create individual works of Art. There is a high focus and encouragement to think creatively and thoughtfully.

WELFARE

WE recognise each student is a unique individual and we aim to support not only their academic but also their social and emotional well-being.

Apart from aiming to develop positive relationships with the students and their families, we also have several programs to help support our students.

The programs include our Language Support Program, Chaplaincy program, Kid’s Hope mentor program and an Arts Therapy program.

Being part of the State education system we also have access to a regional Psycholo-gist, Speech pathologist, EAL (English as an Additional Language) and a School Nurse. There are also other external agen-cies that we can access for shared knowl-edge and support.

- Kerrie Bedson, Arts teacher and Welfare Co-ordinator

VISIBLE LEARNING

LIFE-LONG learning at Newtown Primary School occurs in many forms.

Varied small group work, individual work, peer teaching activities actively engage the students in their learning.

When walking into a classroom at Newtown Primary School learning is apparent to any observer. Children are busy exploring their learning with the teachers working alongside them. Students as learners discuss their knowledge and set goals to strive for the next level of knowledge.

The students know and can articulate why and what they are learning and they know

where they will go next in their learning. They monitor their own learning.

Regular conferences between teachers and children guide their goal setting and pro-mote strategies to achieve the goals and give timely feedback. Newtown Primary School students have their progress displayed and celebrated.

The secret of learning is out at Newtown and all participants (teachers and students) are actively involved in conversations about learning.

- Fiona Wrigley, Classroom teacher and Visible Learning Leader

Schools In Focus - SecondaryNorthern Bay P-12 CollegeNORTHERN Bay P-12 College aims to provide the communities in Geelong’s northern suburbs with access to high quality education in world class facilities.

The College has designed major innova-tions in curriculum delivery, which has been designed to cater for the ages and stages of schooling. This enables all students to expe-rience a progressive and targeted curriculum that builds upon their previous learning and equips them with the knowledge and skills required for success in school and in life.

The stages and ages of schooling are the foundation for the College’s organisational model and consequently are manifest in the teaching and learning buildings themselves.

At each campus our programs take place in ‘Learning Communities’. For example, at each of the five junior campuses there is a Prep to Year 2 Learning Community with a consistent curriculum developed in partner-ship with world renowned researchers and consultants.

At the commencement of 2012, an ex-ceptional new facility was completed at the Senior campus to accommodate the Year 9 Learning Community. It is in Year 9 that students are beginning to see their future as adults. They have a heightened awareness of the world outside of school and take a genuine interest in pathways they intend to pursue.

The Learning Community teachers have developed a focused program to assist our students in their preparation for work or

work specific training and for post- compul-sory schooling and on the way to a career. There is an emphasis upon activities which allow students to experience things beyond their immediate surroundings and com-munity.

We expect greater questioning and investi-gation into a variety of issues. Teachers trust students will explore pathways for future learning and we encourage them in Year 9 to participate in situations and problems that relate to real life and to work in the local community and use other resources outside the school.

One option for students is the journalism class. Project a few years in the future and one of the Northern Bay College students whose interest was stimulated by this course could be involved with Kids Voice Maga-zine!

Year 9 Learning Community teacher, Lucia Servello, teaches the journalism class and through discussion with her students of the origins of information sharing or commu-nicating to community members, the topic of the Town Crier was raised. In our current global citizenship world of ready access to an unimaginable amount of information, the early ‘tweets’ or twitter came from the Town Crier announcing the latest news, procla-mations, warnings and undoubtedly a few choice pieces of gossip.

However, the City of Greater Geelong has now decided there is a place and a need for a Town Crier even in the 21st Century. Ms Servello sought out Mr Andrew Shears who

has been Geelong’s Town Crier for a great many years. Andrew was happy to lend his support to the journalism class by com-ing to the College to provide insight into the background and understandings of the bygone days when the Town Crier was the only ‘Newsperson’ in town.

Andrew’s work has stood the test of time and still has official events as representative of the City. One of the concepts raised by students covered the need to actually have news! It may have been some comfort in the past to hear ‘9’ o’clock and all’s well’ but it is not really riveting headlines! There needs to be a story to tell!

For this reason as part of the visit to the learning centre, Mr Shears was happy to be the special guest presenter at the year level Captains and Leadership Awards for 2013. Recipients of the honour ‘scrolls’ which were presented by Mr Shears were acknowl-edged at a special Learning Community assembly.

Now, that’s a story!

Presentations are made to year level leadership students, above left to right, Michael Watts, Kaitlin Discesare, Cooper Bluch, Paige King and Christina Cetweschuk.

c o r rn e

Send your photos to [email protected]

My daughter Ashlyn with her face painted at her 3rd birthday party. Kara Forssman, Whittington

My daughter Ruby-Jane, 5, has a gorgeous smile. Debbie Clark-Roberts, East Geelong

My son Patrick - just call me RockaBaby!

Phoebe Bakker, Lara

My daughter Bella all dressed up for a party. Sandi Zaljevic, Leopold

Brothers Oliver, 7, and Julian, 3, ready to go blow some bubbles! Dorota Schoebel, Geelong West

My daughters Zoey, 4, and Dakota, 2, love spending time outside. Claire Sykes, Bell Post Hill

My son Knox, above, tries his hand at being a catalogue model, while my other son Nate, below, loves the sunshine. Yvette Anderson, Ocean Grove

LETTERS

Kids’ Voice reserves the right to edit letters at its discretion. Submit letters to [email protected]

facebook

I WOULD like to reply to the letter, “Article does more harm than good’’ (Kids’ Voice, March edition), which refered to my article ‘Emotional Connection’ in the February edition.

As a mother I have always searched for ways to bring more awareness to the important role I play in the life of my children.

As a parent or carer-giver, I’m sure you will agree we are always asked to be and do the best we possibly can with what we know at any given point in time.

Besides, mothering for almost 20 years, I have also worked in a variety of pro-fessional caring roles with children-in homes, in schools and also in clinical settings.

I have conducted extensive research in the field of childhood wellbeing for my Doctoral dissertation, which I am cur-rently in the final stages of completing.

In all of these roles I have advocated for children; I have searched for a deep understanding of what really matters to children, so that as custodian’s, we as adults may support children to have the best start possible in life.

Having said that, I totally agree with the statement that ‘children’s needs are not complex’.

However, at the same time, many of our children’s deeper emotional needs continue to go unmet because we as parents, teachers, and care-givers still do not fully understand the important mind-body connection that is always communicating what a child really needs to thrive.

Thus, this article as well as all of the articles I write are an attempt to expand awareness around how we as custodians of children can support them to be well and happy in the most simple, clear, and effective way possible.

What is seen and what is not.

When a child cannot verbally com-municate something they will use body language that clearly ‘tells’ those who care for them what they need or how they feel.

Thus, if we’re open to it and can also slow down long enough to observe these non-verbal cues that are always present, they will help us as parents and caregivers to understand our children’s underlying unmet needs and then in-tuitively interpret, from a caring space, how best to proceed.

These non-verbal cues, which mani-fest as disruptive behaviours, physical symptoms and illnesses, always serve a larger purpose, and once we learn to take note of them and understand their underlying message, we can use these signals to help guide the children in our lives toward their wellbeing and great-est potential.

The direct link between the mind and body has now been proven scientifically though leading biological and genetic research.

Recent studies tell us human beings store and hold memory and informa-tion about all of their experiences in both their body and their mind. Practi-cally speaking, if a child feels good about an experience - the memory and information from this experience forms positive associations and the child’s life, health, and behaviour will reflect this.

On the other hand, if a child does not feel good about an experience, the memory and information from this experience will form negative associa-

tions and energetic blocks within the child, which then result in mental and emotional imbalances as well as what we broadly call physical symptoms or health concerns.

Thus, when we as adult caregivers have the space to observe what a child is expressing through both their mind and body, we become witness to many things that occur for children that often challenge orthodox understandings of why children say, do, and react in the ways that they do.

As bizarre as one might judge this perspective to be, metaphysics, which is the science that I refer to in my Febru-ary article, not only considers, but also emphasizes the crucial, always-present relationship between the body and the mind because our internal thought patterns, beliefs and emotions actually shape the physical-life-experience of both ourselves and our children.

Metaphysical simply means ‘beyond the physical’. So by exploring the metaphys-ical meaning of illness, disease, and imbalanced behavior, you can apply a holistic approach that involves the body and mind, or the seen and unseen, to help you understand the underlying reasons behind the ailments your child is suffering from.

In my 20+ years of experience, a child who wets the bed (February article) is typically holding fearful beliefs and emotions that need to be brought forth and talked about.

This is not about blaming the parent (or adult), but about bringing more aware-ness, health, and love to the situation. By remaining in the question you can ask yourself, or even your child, if they may be feeling afraid, unaccepted or unloved.

You may even notice that you yourself are feeling this way and that your child is metaphorically ‘carrying your bag-gage’ or simply mirroring back to you your own deep thoughts and feelings.

This approach, which I have found suc-cessful and healing in countless situ-ations, does not damage the relation-ship between parents and children, or between parents themselves in any way.

On the contrary, time and time again I have found such awareness opens a dia-logue that always results in new ways of viewing our children’s concerns, which then effectively offer solutions to the imbalances that are present.

Ultimately, it is this expanded aware-ness, and the resulting conscious dialogue within families and between adults and children that heals the emo-tional wounds that so often transform into our children’s physical symptoms.

Perhaps, in hindsight, I should have put a disclaimer on my February article that stated: ‘this is not medical advice but it will undoubtedly support both the emotional connection you have with your child and your child’s wellbeing.’

To find out more, visit cosmoschild.com

MAXINE THERESE

Awareness does heal

Page 20

F E ATU R E

As parents it’s easy to become overwhelmed by our children’s

demands. It takes a lot of time and energy to meet all of our

children’s needs. Additionally, we may become so accustomed

to thinking we always know what our children need that we

don’t consider asking them directly ‘What do you need?’ Asking this question has less to do with the material needs of

our children and much more to do with understanding their

emotional needs. Often as parents we can think we know what

is occurring for our children emotionally and what they need

without really understanding what is going on for them. Our children need to feel that they are safe and secure, that they

can move through life with ease, that they can act from their

own personal power, that they will receive love, that they are

heard and can speak about what matters to them, that they can

see a greater story and meaning in their life, and that they feel

connected to others and to the greater cosmos. When needs

such as these have not been met at a particular stage or in a

particular environment the emotional imbalance that results can

manifest in many ways. The unprocessed emotions from unmet needs are in fact the

fi rst principal or original cause of any symptom. Your child’s

body is a mirror for their inner life: the physical symptoms and

behavioural expressions of your children are indications of what

is occurring for them beneath the surface. The metaphysical

cause of disease has been a subject of interest for centuries and

helps us to understand the fi rst principle or the original cause of

illness. This science has recently been popularised with Louise

Hay’s work and others who have brought forth a revival of the

body information that embraces this metaphysical science.The thoughts your child thinks and the beliefs they hold (and

unprocessed emotions) actually shape their lives—as they

do our own. Interpreting or understanding the meaning of

the many challenges faced by our children is not always easy.

However, when we pay attention to all of children’s expressions

and challenges we begin to see that they are simply a ‘message’

bringing attention to an important need that has gone unno-

ticed or unmet. Of course our children’s physical, mental and emotional aspects

are all interconnected and each aspect is vital to the whole child.

So if you have considered the obvious physical factors (their

diet, nutrition and exercise etc), and the symptoms persist, then

it is important to consider the emotional issue. In this article I offer an understanding of some of the most

general issues that your child may face—examples that are

common in my work and research in the fi eld of childhood

wellbeing. These examples may bring awareness to the unmet

need of your child. As you read the examples, if your child is

experiencing one of these, keep the question in mind ‘I wonder

what my child might need’? You might even like to try asking

them directly. AllergiesIf your child is allergic, they may have a strong dislike for some-

one or something. Something is irritating them. The internal

or emotional irritation if not attended to manifests as a rash, or

as hay fever for instance. A child that develops allergies may be

over-sensitive, defensive and easily intimidated. They need to

feel safe to express their emotions and the many feelings they

have.

Help your child to affi rm: I honour the power within

me. It is safe for me to stand up for myself.

BedwettingPersistent bedwetting is a sign of underlying emotional stress

(bedwetting is considered persistent after the age of three when

bladder control is more established). Bedwetting is usually

a repressed fear of an authority fi gure (father). A child that

persistently wets the bed may feel that they are not good enough

and often are very hard on themselves. A child that wets the bed

needs to feel that they are loved regardless of their achievements

or behaviours (even the bedwetting itself) Child’s affi rmation: I am enough, I am accepted and I

am loved. Fears and phobias Childhood fears and phobias are common and varied. Some

children are afraid of animals, some of loud noises, and some

of certain people or situations. If children’s phobias are left

unattended they can become more acute (childhood phobias

can develops into compulsions (OCD)). Phobias may appear

to have no rational understanding but they are real to the child

and they can result in a great deal off anxiety, insecurity or even

depression. A child with phobias perceives that the environment they are in

does not meet their needs. So a phobia is the perfect situation in

which to reassure the child that they matter (even when their

reactions may be distressing for you to watch or deal with) and

showing the child that you really want to understand what is

going on for them. Asking the child about what they feel and try

to help them to understand their feelings. Child’s affi rmation: I am safe and I am worthy of having my

needs met.

Emotional connection

February edition

There are no hard and fast rules about the right age to give your child a mobile phone. So, at what age do you believe they should be able to own one? And, what conditions or rules would you enforce with its use?

I believe not until the child reaches high school, as a way of communicating from home. I would look at only allowing pre-paid and the bill would be in my name so as I could see what they were getting up to. Certainly rules would be in place for usage though. - Dianne Brown

Getting a mobile phone usually involves signing a contract, so for my children when they are adults they can have their own phone. Until then it’s negotiable about when and where they can borrow mine. - Soph Alsop VanderKlooster

When they can pay for the phone and account themselves! - Jenny Phelps-Robe

French obstetrician, Dr Michel Odent, has come forward and said “There is little good to come... from having a man at the birth of a child”. He believes men are more of a hindrance than a... help, blam-ing fathers for an increased rate of caesareans, as women are not able to relax in their husband’s presence. Thoughts?

WHAT... the only people who are increasing the rate of caesareans are obstetricians. But then I guess it depends on the mindset of the father too... - Rachel Kinscher

My husband was the most amazing support! I couldn’t have done it without him! In all my hysteria, he was the only face I wanted to see. The one time he left the room, I was way more anxious! - Laura Sweeney

Reader Stories

WE have just completed a manic January period – a constant flow of visitors, holidays, end of year craziness in the busi-ness and starting the year with a wedding expo!

All the planning and organisation in the world cannot help you with last minute changes and having to organise other people when putting together a big event.

In previous years I have been able to put in the hours to make it happen and hope I get some rest afterwards, but juggling a two-year-old who picks up on your stress levels and decides to be very clingy and needy adds a whole new element of challenge!

To add to it our childcare centre was closed so she was at home, being babysat, or juggling between myself and my partner. Never-the-less, she was still able to come and go from the office or pull faces at us through the window at her whim – which is wonderful but disruptive to work flow.

Unfortunately, Miss two-year-old copped the result of my stress a couple of times with outbursts when she was just not doing what she should, or what I wanted her to do at that particular time.

You can’t explain to a two-year-old that you can give her attention or a cud-dle tomorrow when work is not being so demanding, especially when they feel you are not happy at that time. So it started the discussion with a couple of ‘mum-business’ friends on how to manage this situation when it arose.

The consensus – your child must always come first. So, stop what you are doing, give them a cuddle, pay them some attention, or even better, just go and do something fun together.

Remember they will grow up and you will be able to let them know you have work deadlines and at this time you just need some space!

So, that is all very nice in theory – but in practice?

That deadline is still looming, those e-mails and requests are still coming in, the calls with the last minute questions are still interrupting you, changes to event schedules still need to be communicated – the work still needs to get done.

My thought was that I put her to bed and then I do the work, but she is notorious for

just not sleeping (especially if she has had a day sleep) until we head to bed.

I tried. We had an hour of ‘put your head on the pillow and go to sleep’. In the end she sat on my lap while I did work until I went to bed – she got what she wanted and I got what I needed, but it is not ideal.

Most of the time I am super organised, especially when I know there is something coming up that will take me away from my ‘domestic duties’.

I also have a supportive partner - that helps. But sometimes that little Munchkin is working on her own plan and that conflicts with mine, which then raises the question of flexibility.

When everything is cruising along and our normal routine is happening we can be flexible, but when there is deadlines to meet and the lines between ‘home’ and ‘work’ are blurred that is when the smallest thing can put the pressure on. It is still important to be able to be flexible and change what you are doing to meet the demands of the important little people in your life.

I have read you shouldn’t be blurring the lines of ‘work’ and ‘home’ too much, that

when you are doing that, that is when a cri-sis is most likely to happen. I have to say as the months progress, this is becoming easier to manage.

In those early months and weeks it was tough and we seemed to be going from one crisis to the next, but we are more organised, have more help (in terms of cleaning, child-care and staff) and things are starting to calm down a bit, maybe even to the point where I might get some time for me this year!

My learning from my experience of shar-ing my stress with my daughter last week, and her unfairly being the brunt of a couple of explosions? Ask for help and delegate.

While at the time the outcome of the event is the most important thing for me – it is not more important than the wellbeing of my daughter and I gain more satisfaction from watching her develop and giving me unconditional cuddles, than the successful completion of an event.

This, I will try and remember when next I am under pressure and stress!

- Rachel Kinscher

When our work and home collide...

IN the spirit of sharing some birthday goodness and generally sacrificing my dig-nity to get a laugh from my friends, this is my first attempt at a birthday cake.

I’m a testament to those birthday-cake-gone-bad books being totally genuine, rather than the hoaxes they sometimes appear (P.S. They’re not).

I’ll let you sit with your thoughts for a moment...

Suffice to say, it tasted as bad as it looked and I felt as deranged as those crazy ic-ing bug eyes after staying up all night in a determined frenzy to make my son’s first birthday full of special motherly love. You wouldn’t have thought it would take so long to stuff up a cake would you?

And the worst thing was not the looks of shock and disbelief on our party guests’ faces, it was feeling so utterly pathetic in the face of a task which seemed so achievable twenty-four hours earlier.

I had no doubt in my mind that I’d be able to pull off an awesome birthday cake (dam-mit you see so many masterpieces plastered all over Facebook I thought it was a no-brainer... so very, very wrong).

One friend actually had the good grace to openly crack up laughing as it was brought out and thus, help to lessen the silent shame that hung over me, while another (my part-ner in the heinous crime against decorated baked goods) was desperately lying in an at-tempt to minimise my deep sense of failure, by singling out guests to blame the unsalted butter.

I can laugh about it now, in fact I think after three beers and the sleep deprivation I could laugh about it as soon as the candles, or candle rather, was blown out, and have

learnt a valuable lesson: I will never make a birthday cake again. Never.

Oh, but if I do (I’m bound to torture myself again aren’t I?), I will need that thick white fondant icing to avoid the cake look-ing like it’s been smoking crack.

Believe it or not, this was actually not the first disastrous cake decorating episode I’d been a party to, quite a few years back there was an incident involving a horse head.

After heading around to my friend’s place for a few Friday night drinks, she informs me she needs to ice her daughter’s birthday cake in time for the celebrations. Tomor-row.

Explanations are unnecessary really, you can imagine how that went – her pissed and panicked, whipping up brown icing and wielding a butter knife with one eye closed, and me, extremely childless at that stage so not understanding her sense of urgency

or putting the wine glass down for long enough to stop rambling and really help her at all.

The next morning, with our hangovers well and truly settling in for the day, the party ensues, and the cake is unveiled with lots of laughs and before I can even excuse myself to go find a rock to crawl under, my friend is telling anyone who’ll listen that I was responsible for the err... artistic icing installation.

Which, was fine by me at the time, slightly embarrassing, but I was the young single binge drinking friend who really didn’t need to be any good at baking kids’ birth-day cakes. But, that all changes when you become a mum.

There are certain expectations, and being capable of producing a home-made but expert-looking birthday cake seems to be one of them.

Anyway, I stayed true to my promise last year and did not even consider making my son’s second birthday cake, however, another important lesson I have now learned is, the person bringing the cake needs to turn up to the party on time.

Burning in to the supermarket for a plastic covered mud cake to stick a couple of can-dles in, doesn’t really alleviate any stress, it just condenses it to a shorter time frame.

So this year, third time lucky (fingers crossed), I’ve taken matters back into my own hands. No, don’t worry I’m not get-ting back to any baking.

I’ve ordered a cake from the local cake shop. It was as easy as flipping through a catalogue, picking out the tractor (a sure-winner), handing over my thirty bucks (bargain in terms of time saved and mental anguish spared) and specifying the time I’ll come into collect it on the big day (entered into iPhone reminders). Done.

I’ve no doubt there will be some mishap to contend with leading up to my boy’s birthday, (I mean, I’ve purchased a trampo-line which is sitting in boxes awaiting my husband’s return before we can start putting it together and demoralising each other’s reasoning techniques and practical skills).

But, for now, my wishes are coming true – I’ve avoided the horrific cake-making trap and am getting what I’ve always wanted – a three year old boy!

(I’ll fill you in on the trampoline construction later!)

- Jessica SawyerMental Health Worker, Writer, mum-of-

one. Blogging at MaVieMaman.com

When your cake always looks half baked

Reader Story

THERE is a fine line between what is considered helicopter parenting and advocating for our children when they need a hand.

Making the call about when to step in is not easy. Some people assert today’s chil-dren need to toughen up – learn to speak for themselves.

Others don’t trust in a child’s ability to solve life’s little dilemmas and feel they need to be there every step of the way to manage their offspring’s affairs. I like to hold out a hand when things get tough, because I believe the middle path is best.

I don’t hear and read much about the mid-dle ground. These days, we love discuss-ing, writing about and being entertained by extremes. We want to label, judge and take sides. It’s love or hate. But solutions are not black or white; they are somewhere in between.

My children are growing up fast, but in the big picture of life they are still learning to ne-gotiate the hurdles that keep popping up, and sometimes they don’t know what to do.

I have always spoken up for my children when they had tried but felt unable to clear a hurdle. And I’d do it again. In fact, I recently did. Twice.

This year our son changed schools, and the swimming program at his new school is

compulsory throughout the primary years. The program is valuable and essential, but the one-teaching-style-fits-all approach does not suit every child.

Years ago, our son’s trust had been broken in the pool several times, even though he had voiced his terror about what was asked of him in a class too high for his skill level, and we as parents had communicated our concerns about the repeated set backs that resulted.

We protected him, not from having to learn to swim, but from being forced to learn in a mainstream environment that could not cater for him.

Although private lessons were discour-aged because the individual approach does not provide the peer pressure most teach-ers choose to rely on, we arranged a more suitable environment with an independent private teacher, so he could learn at his pace.

He may never love the water but he must, and will, swim. We will now be able to continue our way. Could he have negoti-ated with his new school himself? I think not, because he is still behind and that saps confidence.

I also helped our daughter negotiate her music lessons. Her new teacher’s style was so different that it took all enjoyment and sense of achievement of the past three years away.

As singing is such an exposing activity,

a good relationship between teacher and student is an essential ingredient for success. We agreed that the music school would adjust our daughter’s lessons towards her goals, and our daughter would make it her goal to deal with the change.

Now, she is singing again. Could she have managed to discuss it herself? Most likely not while feeling inadequate.

The message in my story is not that children should not have to learn essential skills and try to navigate through challenges and

change, but that sometimes they need us to advocate for them, to demonstrate how it can be achieved.

We want them to learn it is okay to speak up when they are uncomfortable with what is asked of them.

However, where adults and teachers are involved, a power imbalance can exist. Chil-dren may not dare to speak – out of respect, a fear of intimidation or embarrassment, or self-doubt – and when they do, they are not always heard.

But we should only step in for the right rea-sons. I asked myself the following questions: ‘Am I stepping in to help my child succeed?’ Or, ‘Am I angry and want to score a win?’

My children are still learning to find their assertive voice and it is my job to support them. When I do step in, I declare what I am prepared to do for them, negotiate with them their part in the process, and get permission to speak on their behalf instead of just taking over.

This way, my children are not passive ‘victims’ who have problems solved for them, but active participants, who are empowered to overcome the current obstacle and are bet-ter equipped to tackle the challenges to come.

- Kerstin Lindros Just a mum

Advocating for children - not always wrong

Technology

AS a parent, I am always looking out for my childrens’ safety.

I am a cautious person, and even have trouble watching my son play basketball, as I worry about him getting hurt. While there are some real dangers in running full steam while looking at a basketball, rather than where you are going, there are some other dangers that might not seem so apparent.

I am referring to online safety. Our children are growing up in an age where they have access to almost anything. Type in any combination of words into a search engine, and you will be presented with hundreds of thousands of results in under a second. Impressive hey? Yes, but also dangerous.

Kids have a curious nature, and unfor-tunately sometimes stumble across things online that they shouldn’t. Here are a few tips in how to help keep your kids safe online.

Monitor your child’s accessKeep an eye on your child while they are

online. A good way to monitor is to en-sure they provide you with their password to access any chat rooms or social media sites. That way they won’t be prepared to enter into any troublesome situations if they know their parents will be looking over their shoulder.

If they have a computer in their bed-room, make sure the door is left open and you can see what they are doing. Perhaps also, have a curfew where all electronic devices must be turned off at a certain time.

Educate your child about social media

In order to be eligible to sign up for Fa-cebook, you must be at least 13 years old. This is not enforced by any law, but it is assumed that by that age, children are old enough to make the right decisions. A big assumption really, as I know grown adults that still are not aware of the consequenc-es of some of their posts.

Social media can be exclusive and in-vasive and children must remember that posting something on Facebook can have dire consequences. They need to con-stantly think about any impact that a post or image may have on either themselves or their friends.

It is also important to realise that once a photo is placed on Facebook, it becomes public property. While that photo was funny when you were 15, it won’t perhaps be seen that way when applying for a job. That’s right, employers often use social media as a way to find out more about potential employees.

That also highlights the need to make

sure your security settings on social media sites are set. Facebook has a link to “Privacy” on the bottom of every page. This link directs to “A guide to privacy on Facebook” and it is important to make sure you and your child are familiar with the privacy settings.

Think carefully about who you allow to become your friend on Facebook, and

make sure it is only ever people that you know. And they definitely should not agree to meet anyone that they met online.

Internet filters

There are many filters available which block certain Internet sites on your computer. Unfortunately, these filters are not overly accurate so the best policy is educating your child on what is right and not right.

Like all of us that spend some time on line, they will undoubtedly stumble across something inappropriate at some time. You need to explain the right thing to do when this happens.

Computers can be a wonderful tool for teaching our children, but the key is to monitor and educate your child about the dangers. Just like crossing a road, they need to learn about what disaster could be about to happen should they make the wrong move.

This is some really scary stuff because the consequences can be disastrous. Cyber safety should be taken very seriously.

- Shelley Gross Director of Wonderful Websites

www.wonderfulwebsites.com.au

How to keep your kids safe online

Health

HAVE you ever wondered if your child is active enough?

Bianca Cesar, physiotherapist at Bellarine Community Health, frequently hears parents say “we are always in a rush”, “how will we ever fit more physical activity into our day?”

Parents often believe physical activity needs to be structured, but really physical activity just means any type of body activity or move-ment.

Obtaining tips on how to incorpo-rate physical activity into your daily routine is the key. Being active does not have to be completed all at once; it can be spread out across the day.

Before children begin to walk, being active basically means playing and exploring. Reaching, grasping, pulling and supervised floor and tummy time are all examples of be-ing active at this age.

You could place toys out of their reach, play games with soft balls and toys, encourage movement and games during nappy changing and bath time. Singing and playing music is a great way to encourage large playful movements.

Once your child is more mobile, allow them to explore and chal-lenge their movements. Provide the opportunity to play with different shaped balls and balloons, twirl and run with streamers, blow bubbles, chase and pop them with your feet, play dress ups and hide and seek, build cubby houses and make obstacle courses out of furniture and household items. Sing action songs like “ring a ring a rosie” and “head shoulders knees and toes”.

Play materials do not need to be expensive and branded; many items around the house make great play items such as pots and pans, hoops and boxes. Ovals, parks and the beach are all great places that allow your child to be active, while learn-ing and having fun!

Competitive sport is not recom-mended for children under five, but structured activity such as water familiarisation classes, recreational gymnastics and dance lessons are great alternatives.

Once children start at school, they require more vigorous activity for continued health benefits. Obesity, early onset lung and heart disease are some of the consequences of limited physical activity in early childhood.

Children of school age need to be involved in activities that will make them ‘huff and puff ’. Walking or riding a bike or scooter, playing organised sports such as netball, football, soccer, ballet and swim-ming are all great examples and will assist in more defined skill develop-ment.

General active play such as kite flying, “tiggy”, beach cricket and a family Frisbee game is encouraged as children will often incidentally include some vigorous activity.

The physical benefits for your child from being physically active are many, and include such things as improved fitness, posture, and the development of balance, coordina-

tion and flexibility. Building strong bones and muscles, strengthening the immune system and helping to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

There are also emotional, so-cial and functional benefits from physical activity. Being active assists children to improve concentration, reduces fatigue and allows them to relax; boosts self esteem and confi-dence, improves sleeping patterns, provides opportunities to make friends and learn social skills like taking turns, teamwork, sharing and co-operating.

YOU as a parent are a very impor-tant role model for your children. Being active with your children, negotiating time limits on electronic media, making children’s rooms free of electronic media, supporting and encouraging active pursuits encour-ages a lifelong enjoyment of physical activity.

National physical activity recommendations for children:

- Children 0-2 years: need to be physically active every day for at least three hours spread throughout the day. No time spent watching television or using other electronic media i.e. DVD’s, computer, elec-

tronic games and they should not be restrained for more than one hour at a time, except when sleeping.

- Children 2-5 years: need to be physically active every day for at least three hours spread throughout the day. Television and the use of other electronic media should be limited to less than one hour per day.

- Children 5-12 years: need at least 60 minutes and even up to several hours of moderate to vigor-ous physical activity every day. No more than two hours a day using electronic media for entertainment, especially during daylight hours.

- Children 12-18 years: need at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day, and for added benefit should aim for 20 minutes of vigorous activity three to four times a week. No more than two hours a day on the internet, watching television or playing video games, unless it is educational.

BCH’s child health and develop-ment team caters for children aged 0-12 years, with services free to children listed as dependents on a health care or pension card.

For appointments or enquiries call 5258 0812.

Do your kids get enough exercise?

Macey Scott

Birth Story

Was your first pregnancy healthy?

Yes, I was healthy (a bit overweight but fit and healthy). The only problem was that my pelvis was too flexible, which caused ‘pelvic instability’. Basically, I couldn’t walk without pain. It felt like someone was sticking a knife into the joints in my pelvis. Other than that, I had no problems. I can still feel instability in my pelvis sometimes now, but it’s not as bad anymore.

Did a midwife look after you during pregnancy or a doctor?

In Holland, you go see a midwife, and if everything goes well, she is the one that delivers the baby. She does all the checks, and prepares you for giving birth.

Did you plan to deliver in hospital or at home?

In hospital, because I lived on the second and third floor of a house, with an incred-ibly steep staircase that I had trouble using even without being in labour. I just felt more comfortable going to hospital. At the end of my pregnancy it became clear my baby didn’t drop at all (or engage within the pelvis), so even if I had planned to

have her at home, they wouldn’t have allowed me to. At this stage, my midwife would have still delivered my baby, only in hospital instead of home.

What was the outcome of your first birth?

I ended up having a caesarean after 43 weeks of pregnancy because I didn’t go into labour. It was horrible as they couldn’t get the epidural in, even after try-ing many, many times.

I ended up being given a different anaes-thetic, which meant I could move my legs, feel my lower back and feel the last cut they did to get Sue out. Not pleasant, but better than being under a General Anaes-thetic (which was suggested to me after about 10 tries for the epidural).

I couldn’t think of anything worse than having my baby under a full anaesthetic. At least I saw and held her straight away. After that they took her away and put me in a room to recover and I didn’t see her for about three hours. Not the best experience, but after that the nurses were wonderful and very helpful.

I had to stay in hospital for five days before I could finally take my baby home. The nurses taught me everything I needed to know and it was very reassuring to

know they were there watching me feed, bath and dress my baby for the first time.

They had all these tips and tricks to get everything done smoothly and it felt like they had all the time in the world to take care of me and my baby girl. One of them even told off the doctor for upsetting me! I still love her for that.

Noah was born a few years later.

Were there any differences in your experiences and was it easier the second time around?

The main difference was that I felt sick for about five months, not vomiting sick, but just nauseous all day...yuk! I loved being pregnant the first time and I loved it the second time just as much.

I didn’t think it was hard the first or sec-ond time, just different, also because I had a little two-year-old running around with my second pregnancy. I think that was the biggest difference.

I didn’t have a choice this time about having a home birth or not; it wasn’t al-lowed because I had a caesarean the first time. I had to go to hospital this time, just in case there were any complications. But, there weren’t and I even went into labour

this time, one day before my planned caesarean. Noah decided it was time to come out!

My epidural went in fine this time and the caesarean was smooth and without complications (well that’s what everybody thought at this point in time).

Noah was born just before midnight. He was healthy and beautiful, just like Sue. I got to hold him and went with him to my room this time to recover. I didn’t have to wait for three hours to see him again so that was much better than with Sue.

Until the next morning, when I tried to sit up and I got such a bad headache I nearly passed out. What happened was that they used a big needle to get the epi-dural in but the hole hadn’t closed, so the spinal fluid was leaking away, causing my headache when I sat up.

When I was lying down I was fine, but as soon as I tried to sit up there just wasn’t enough fluid to keep my brain ‘afloat’. I am not sure if it actually touches your skull if there’s not enough fluid in there, but I am sure about the headache, I couldn’t even think, all I could do was hold my head in my hands and try my hardest not to pass out.

KAT DEBRUIJN gave birth to her two children, Sue and Noah, in Holland. She immigrated to Australia five years ago. Kat is a sound engineer, electronic engineer, singer, guitarist, saxophonist, wife to Huib and a devoted mum.

Difficult deliveries bring great joy

Birth Story

Associate nurse unit manager Special care nursery

Geelong Hospital

I had to lie flat, and drink as much as I could to see if the hole would close on its own. With my luck, of course, it didn’t, so I had to have a ‘blood patch’. This involves drawing blood from your arm and inject-ing this blood into the central canal of the spine, so that the blood clots stop the leakage of fluid. Sounds scary? Yeah that’s what I thought, but I had no other choice.

Again, the nurses were lovely and help-ful, and they always made me feel better. It worked, and two days later I was home.

What post delivery supports were available in Holland?

With Sue, I had ‘maternal care’ after I got home. I had someone come in and help

me with everything. She would be there from 7am until about 3pm, for five days, to help me with my baby and with the grocer-ies, cooking and cleaning.

Obviously, I wasn’t allowed to carry anything after having a caesarean, so it was great to have someone around to help out. With Noah, I couldn’t get anyone, because they were so busy there was no one avail-able.

I called on my mum, who was great and actually knew more than the girl that came in when I had Sue. It was very nice to have my mum around, also, because Sue was so happy to have her there. It made it all a very relaxed experience.

I tried to breastfeed with both my kids, but I hardly had any milk, so I always had to give them formula after I breast fed them. It would take me nearly an hour to feed them (one breast, other breast, then formula). It was a lot of work but I wouldn’t have done it differently, I loved feeding them.

I was frustrated with the community ‘breast feeding advocates’ who kept telling me to keep trying because ‘everyone can breastfeed’. Not everyone can successfully breast feed. I really couldn’t and they made it worse by saying that. They kept push-ing me to try, until I went with my own instincts, which proved to be right!

My GP came in to check on me when I got home and my midwife came to check two times as well. After I got back on my feet I took my babies to the Baby Health Centre for their check-ups and vaccina-tions. This was awesome because they would help with everything, from sleeping times to eating schedules. They were nice and very helpful at the start and I thought they were great.

It did get a bit annoying though, when I decided to, for example, not let my baby cry and just pick her up whenever she wanted me to. They kept saying I should let her cry, even at night, when all she wanted was to be close to us.

I ended up saying ‘yes, sure, I understand’ to them, and just did whatever I felt was best. So they were great at first, but they could have been a bit more understanding

later on and accept that different mums will have different routines and ideas about how to raise their children.

Still, they helped me a lot and it was so good to have someone to go to if I needed to know something or was worried about something.

Is there anything else you might want to share? What could have helped? What didn’t help make the expe-rience good?

Well, even with these two caesareans that were not perfect at all, I still think my pregnancies were fantastic. I loved every minute of it and even though the actual births weren’t what I expected them to be, they were still two of the best moments of my life because that’s when my kids were born and I got to see and hold them for the first time.

I can’t really think of anything that would have helped. I think I got so much infor-mation from my midwife and GP that I was very well prepared to have my babies and it was all pretty amazing.

And, my kids are growing up to be two beautiful people that I still love as much as that first time I saw them.

- Jennifer Carr

Sue, Kat and Noah

Out & About

A kaleidoscope of learningStudents at Christ the King Primary School recently held a learning

expo showcasing their work. A key part of this showcase was the

incredible art created with their Artist in Residence - Chris Sage. Chris

worked with the students in years P-2 to create an enchanting mural depicting the sea. The students in years 3-6 worked on mosaics,

creating stunning representations of the the school’s values.

A wonderful culmination of a term’s work!

Wombat’s Wish foundation held their Annual Family Fun Day on March 24 at King Lloyd Reserve in Newtown. The day was a gathering of families, volunteers, workers, sponsors and supporters of the Geelong-based grief support service.

Each year, about 100 children in the Geelong area experience the death of a parent. Wombat’s Wish, founded in 2005 by Jill Crookes, provides support for parentally bereaved children and their families in their time of need.

The service is a therapeutic one, provided by a team of professional facilitators in conjunction with trained volunteers.

For more information on Wombat’s Wish and how you can help, please visit www.wombatswish.org.au

Family fun dayGeelong Cats CEO Brian Cook, founder Jill Crookes and supporters of Wombat’s Wish.

Isabel, Amy and Terry, above, working on a mosaic panel. Seth, right, working on a mural.

Pet Care

Breed: Burmese CrossAge: Approximately 12 Months oldSex: FemaleAudrey is a female, Burmese cross with a lovely soft cream, seal point coat. She came to GAWS quite unwell and has spent a few weeks recovering with the skilled staff.

She is now looking for a warm, loving home to call her own and will bring joy to her new family.

We have a range of guinea pigs, rabbits, ferrets, rats, and mice for adoption at GAWS. These

type of animals are known as Pocket Pets because they can fit in your pocket. The perfect pet if you live in an apartment, or cant commit to a cat or dog. Pocket Pets can bring so much joy to their owners and they have really individual personalities. Come in today to meet your new best friend.

Age: 5 and a half years oldBreed: Maltese, Shitzu crossSex: FemaleMicrochip number: 956000008276466.

Suzie is predominantly white with some fawn patches. Suzie is a lovely little girl who is well behaved and loves to walk

on lead. Suzie may have some health issues, so she needs a very special loving home.

Audrey Pocket Pets SuzieID: 12330 ID: 12684

5248 2091 gaws.org.au

Sponser a pet by advertising on this page. Phone Cath on 0448 007 021 or email [email protected]

Adopta pet

PUPPIES and kittens can be a big in-vestment in money, time and energy, but they do give back a whole lot of love to everyone in the family.

There are so many things for owners to remember in order to keep your pet healthy, so we suggest using technology to help!

Download PocketVet, a free application for your iphone, and enter your pets details in the “My Pets” section. Set some reminders so you will automatically be sent a push notification. For example, when your dog’s vaccination is due or when your cat needs worming. Save your pet’s vet clinic in the “My Vet” section and check out the handy map of nearby off-leash areas where ever you are travelling with your dog.

Health Checks

Pets, on average, age five to eight times faster than humans. By age two, most pets have already reached adulthood. At age four, many are entering middle age. By age seven, many dogs, particularly larger breeds, are entering their senior years. Because pets age so rapidly, major health changes can occur in a short amount of time. The risk of cancer, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, heart disease and other serious conditions all increase with age.

Today’s pets are living longer than ever. Chances are that many may experience a po-

tentially serious illness during their lifetime.

Annual health checks can help your veterinar-ian diagnose, treat or even prevent problems before they become life-threatening. They’re also a great opportunity to ask us about nutri-tion, behaviour or any other issues.

Set your reminder for an annual check at the same time each year (for adult pets this may be at the same time as their vaccination is due).

Vaccinations

Vaccination has revolutionised control of infec-tious disease in our pets. It is essential all pets are adequately vaccinated to help protect the pet population as a whole.

Responsible pet care requires puppies and kittens to be given their initial course of vac-cinations, but this cannot protect them for the rest of their lives. Adult dogs and cats require regular vaccination to maintain immunity against disease.

Set your reminder for adult pets annually.

Worming

Worming is one of the first health care issues pet owners need to address as pups and kit-tens are the most susceptible. As their name suggests, intestinal worms are parasites that live inside your pet’s intestines. These worms

range in size from small to surprisingly large (up to 18cm in length). Regardless of their size however, they all have negative, and potentially deadly, effects.

It is important to maintain a routine worming treatment for your pets, to reduce the incidence of infection and to reduce environmental con-tamination. There are many worming treat-ments available for the various worm infections that occur in our pets.

These are available as tablets, spot-ons, or pastes. Re-infection is a common problem, particularly in pets are in contact with a heavily contaminated environment. Another very important reason to worm your pets is to protect your family; as children in particular can become infected with certain dog and cat worms.

Set your reminder: every 1-3 months depending on product used and lifestyle of pet.

Heartworm

Heartworm is a parasite spread by mosqui-toes, so you pet does not even need to be in

contact with other pets to become infected! Heartworm has a complicated life cycle. Infected dogs have microfilaria, an immature form of heartworm, circulating in their blood-stream.

Microfilariae are sucked up by mosquitoes when feeding on the blood of infected dogs. The immature parasite develops into a heart-worm larva inside the mosquito, then a single bite from a carrier mosquito can infect your pet.

As the worms mature in the heart they can cause a physical blockage as well as thickening of the heart and associated blood vessels. In the early stages of infection there may be no visible signs.

Thankfully, heartworm is very easy to prevent and should form part of your pet health care routine. We have very effective preventative treatment options available including tablets, chews, spot-on’s and even an annual injection for dogs administered by one of our vets. If your pet has not been on heartworm preven-tion we strongly recommend a heartworm test prior to starting a prevention program.

Set your reminder for annual injection, or monthly spot on or tablet.

Reminders help us care for our pets

Newtown Veterinary Clinic121 West Fyans Street, Newtown

03 5221 5333

Reviews

To win a copy of this book, LIKE our Facebook page facebook.com/KidsVoiceGeelong and send us a message telling us why you’d like to win.W

IN

LOVE YOU, MUMAlana Wulff - Random HouseThe perfect gift idea for mum on Mother’s Day, her birthday, Christmas, or just to say I love you. Do you share everything from ‘Twilight’ to your Facebook password with your mum? Do you love your mum, but sometimes forget to tell her just how much? This book is a great way to tell your mum you care. Every teenage girl’s relationship with her mother is unique. This beautifully packaged book is full of sayings, photos and illustrations for mums and daughters to share

and it taps into the growing bond and shared cultural references between mothers and daughters.

BITSIT SERVICES

· IT Maintenance & Audits· Project Planning & Support· New Purchases & Upgrades· Network Monitoring· Data Backup· Broadband, E-mail & Website Setup· Anti-Virus, Malware & Spyware Monitoring

We provide a managedIT support plan for:ESPECIALLY

FOR YOUR

BUSINESS!

Contact Shaun on5255 3925 OR 0411 416 384

to discuss your requirements!www.bitsit.com.au

ALICE MIRANDA SERIESBy Jacquel ine Harvey - Random House“Hello, my name is Erica and I LOVE Alice Miranda! Alice Miranda is a super bubbly eight year old girl in a book series written by the super famous Sydney based author Jacqueline Harvey.

Alice Miranda is super polite, kind and generous to all her friends, family and teachers and everyone else even if she doesn’t know them. Like in Alice Miranda in New York, number six in the series, she befriends a homeless hobo guy whom she meets on the street of New York, even when her friends try and stop her. And it turns out great that she does make him her friend, because he was once a great painter, who teaches her great painting techniques and helps her to solve the mystery in the book. That’s what Alice Miranda does in all her seven stories, she solves problems and mysteries that have been happening for years and even across lots of generations. She makes new friends along the way and helps everyone out with problems they might be having.

Trust me, all the stories are fantastic reads and you will never get bored when you are reading them, because Jacqueline Harvey has a very interesting way of writing. She uses words that not many people use nowadays, because she likes to teach kids more words so that kids can have a vocabulary as big as hers. Reading Alice Miranda books has helped me become a better reader and better writer.Alice Miranda is the best series EVER!!!” - Erica Crawford Aged 10, student and bookseller (bookgrove, Ocean Grove) www.facebook.com/bookgrove

Reviews

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P ILLOW PETS DREAMLITESFuntast icFollowing on from the ever the popular Pillow Pets range are these magical night lights - the Pillow Pets Dreamlites. Along with being a night light, they also turn your child’s bedroom ceiling into a starry night sky. Simply turn it on and instantly stars will appear on the ceiling. Kids won’t be afraid of the dark with these cute Dreamlites. They’re available in a range of the popular Pillow Pets characters including Ms Lady Bug, Jolly Giraffe, Playful Penguin, Rainbow Unicorn, Snuggly Puppy, Zippity Zebra, Pink Butterfly and Tardy

Turtle. For further information visit www.mypillowpet.com.au

To win a copy a Ben10 Playset, LIKE our Facebook page facebook.com/KidsVoiceGeelong and send us a message telling us why you’d like to win.W

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BEN 10 INTERGALACTICPLUMBER COMMAND CENTRE DELUX PLAYSETFuntast ic The Ben 10 Intergalactic Plumber Command Centre Deluxe Playset can also be used on its own or interconnected with the Intergalactic Basic Playsets - all together the four sets create the full Omniverse Space Station. The deluxe play set is where all of the Ben 10 action happens. The one touch release button allows the unit to literally spring to life and reveal all the exciting features inside.

The new Plumber Command Centre Deluxe Playset has a teleportation chamber, two missiles, rotating figure stands and system control seat, and it comes with an exclusive Petalliday action figure

TELL US ABOUTYOUR EVENTS!

IF Y O U H AV E S OM ETH I NG H A P P EN I NG I N Y O U RA R E A D R O P US A L I N E n ew s@k i d s v o i c e . c om . a u

Ingredients:250g self raising flour - 25g butter

150ml milk - 2 tbsp sugar2 or 3 tbsp golden syrup

Cooking Creations

This recipe is very easy for kids to do and can be tweaked depending on what you want. Why not leave out the sugar and golden syrup for a plain damper? Instead, you could add cheese and herbs for a savoury damper, or sultanas just for fun! Our cooking creations guru Megan Brooks says as a kid she cooked her damper wrapped in foil and over an open fire, but as her kids aren’t old enough, she will stick with the oven for a few years.

METHOD: Preset your oven to 180 degrees celsius. Mix the flour and sugar together in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the milk and golden syrup. Pop the butter into the flour mix and rub in using your fingertips, until it looks like breadcrumbs. Tip the milk mix into the flour mix and stir until you form a

soft dough. If its a bit sticky, sprinkle some more flour in. Put your dough onto a floured board and form into a soft, smooth ball. Then, put it onto a tray lined with baking paper and flatten it a little (it should be 15-20cm across). Cut a deep cross in the top of your dough ball. Brush the top with milk and then put the tray into the oven for 25 minutes.

Serve hot or at room temp. YUM!

K IDS SWEET DAMPER

What’s On

Trade Directory

Education

Children’s wear

BITSIT SERVICES

Parties

IT support

Health

List your business in the Kids’ Voice trade directory.Phone 0448 007 021 or email [email protected]

EducationHealth &fitness

Mums

Youth

EVERY MONDAY: Road to Reading, age-group sessions between 9am-3pm, at Uniting Church, Anderson Street, Torquay.

EVERY TUESDAY: Road to Reading, age-group sessons between 9am-1pm, Western Heights Uniting Church, Dou-glass Street, Herne Hill.

TUESDAYS & THURSDAYS: Freshwater Creek Steiner play groups- toddler’s group and 3-year-old groups- experience baking, singing, storytelling, crafts and free play. Phone 5264 5077 or visit www.fwcss.com.au

EVERY WEDNESDAY: Pregnant Young Mum’s Club, Newcomb Community Health Centre, 104-108 Bellarine High-way, Newcomb. Phone 0423 603 633 or 52603333.

FIRST FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH: Greenmums, Moby, Esplanade, Torquay, 10am.

THE MUSICAL GARDEN: fun, educa-tional music classes for young children in Geelong West. Contact Liz on 0415 977 860 or visit www.themusicalgar-den.webs.com

GEELONG GALLERY: Thursday, April 11 - Creative kids workshop - animal portraits, 11am. A workshop inspired by wonderful creatures and experiment with a variety of drawing materials. For children aged 5 to 12 years. Bookings and pre-payment essential on 5229 3645.

School holidays

EVERY MONDAY: Parent and toddler group fitness, 9-10am, Barwon Heads Community Hall, corner of Hitchcock Avenue and Ozone Street.

EVERY WEDNESDAY: Yoga and dance, 9.30am-10.30am, Barwon Heads Commu-nity Hall, corner of Hitchcock Avenue and Ozone Street.

KID’S DANCE CLASSES: Tuesday to Friday evenings, 4/22-26 Essington Street, Grovedale. Phone 0420 998 596.

GIRL CONNECT 3241: Free communi-ty art program for women 14 and over.

Programs will run on Wednesday in Winchelsea from February to June. Phone 5221 6333 or email [email protected]

The fOrT Drop In youth centre, St Georges Rd, Corio (Old Tourist Information Centre-Stead Park), open Monday, Thursday and Friday, from 4pm, for anyone aged 12 to 25.

MONDAYS: Food for fOrT, 4-6pm.

THURSDAYS: Movie Night, 4-7pm.

MUSIC LESSONS: guitar and drums – bookings 0488 443 778.

RAINBOW RIDERS: Horse riding and farm activities. Phone 5264 1175 or visit rainbowriders.com.au

KOOMBAHLA PARK EQUESTRIAN CENTRE school holiday program, phone 52562742.

Submit your listings for What’s On at [email protected]

RAINBOW RIDERS: Keep your kids busy this Easter. April 2 to 13. Morn-ing 9am - 12pm. Afternoon 1pm - 4pm. Cost: $50 half day or $85 full day (closed Sundays and Mondays). Phone 5264 1175 or [email protected]

EYE SPY CHILDRENS TOURS: Wednesday, April 10 at 10.30am/11.30am - Join us for a fun adventure tour of the Geelong Gallery. Suitable for children aged 4 to 8 years. Free! Bookings essential.

THE BROWNE FAMILY LEUKAEMIA FOUNDATION FUNDRAISER: Saturday, April 20 at the Leopold Sportsmans Club at 7.30pm. Includes silent auction, music and fingerfood. Tickets cost $20 per person. To buy call Teresa on 0419 387 952. All funds go to the Leukaemia Foundation.

Fundraisers

DAY OUT WITH THOMAS AT THE BELLARINE RAILWAY: The Bellarine Railway will be running this popular event on Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7 at Queenscliff Railway Station. The whole family can enjoy a day out with Thomas and his Friends. Children will receive a show bag and can enter the colouring competition, which is judged by Sir Topham Hatt.

The event runs from 10am-4pm and bookings are highly recommended. Tickets will be available on event days, unless sold out. For further information and on-line tickets please visit the website www.bellarinerailway.com.au or call 5258 2069.

Kids' Voice April 2013

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Transcript of Kids' Voice April 2013