The Australian state of Queensland is putting into place a strategy to stop bullying. They are implementing this in 750 child care centres across Queensland, in the hope that the number of bullies drop in school aged children. Read more.

It has been reported that a staff member rubbed a dirty nappy in the face of an autistic boy while being cared for at a child care centre in Ipswich, Queensland. The incident happened about two years ago and has only recently become known as an employee finally spoke up about it. ABC developmental learning became owners of the centre just weeks after the incident occurred. Read more

Would you report this to the parents if the service didn’t, risking your job, by breaching confidentiality?

UPDATE: Child carer admits to accusations, read more.

After a rate payers backlash, Parramatta Council has decided to back down on a proposed increase of more than 30 per cent in child-care centre fees. The increase would have seen child care costs move up to nearly $75 a day. Read more

It makes me wonder whether child care professionals will be receiving a similar percentage of rise in pay, probably not.

The Early Childhood Education Parliamentary Secretary , Maxine McKew, had a whirlwind visit in Griffith, to talk to community leaders about making more child care places available in the city.

Read the ABC article here.

Do you work in Griffith? Do you feel the visit is necessary?

Child sex abuse reports are becoming more and more common, as stated by heraldsun website. There were 6486 child sex abuse charges between july 05 and june 07. That’s just over 270 reports a month on sex abuse alone.

Click on heraldsun to read the article.

Do you feel we are turning a blind eye to things we shouldn’t ‘ínterfere’ with? or are we stepping up in the world to help children have a ‘voice’, and allowing them the rights they deserve?

Have your say in our discussion forum.

A one year old child was locked inside a centre unattended after hours. The centre closed at 6pm and the father who was picking the child up was running late. The parents tried to call the centre to inform them of his late arrival but no one had been answering the calls made in the hour before the service closed.Read more 

This is a beautiful story about a grandma and her grandson, Jack. Jack spends time with with his grandma at her home each Friday while his mum goes to work. Then one Friday they make potato people…….

Reading this book explores life cycles, grandmothers, relationships, love and potatoes.

I have enjoyed reading this story to my daughter for years and we both love it.

The Potato People by Pamela Allen

Follow up art and craft activity could include making your own potato people, having a granparents day/morning tea, draw a picture of your grandma or making a game to play.

In a bid to win the election Kevin Rudd annouced that as the Labor leader he would add an extra 260 child care centres accross australia and give back almost 50% of child care costs to families. This would be a fantastic step for childcare, he also stated that the quality of care would improve with more people studying childcare would be rebated. Read more

This site offers songs from most countries in the world. It also has the tune so you understand how to sing it. A fantastic site to check out.

Click here

The Australian child obesity problem is only getting worse and we need to start doing something about it now. The following articles state that contributing factors lead to the childhood problem.
Ethnicity, obesity link.
Poverty, race link to childhood obesity problem.

As child carers what can we do to help with the problem?
We would love your opinion in our discussion forum.