An American study has shown that putting your child into care early in infancy may lower the risk of  asthma. WebMD reports on the article that placing your child into care before three months of age may help with reducing the risk of asthma.
Read more here

Australian billionaire businessman, Eddy (Edmund) Groves, has approached Canadian daycare centres in the hopes of expanding his billionaire child care business. The former milkman turned billionaire has centres in Australia, New Zealand and the United States to date.
Read The Star report here
What do think about ‘Fast Eddy’, has he made quality child care centres?
Post your opinion

Most of us know this book from our own childhood. It is a story to get the mind ticking overtime. There was a cow, a donkey, a sheep, a pig and a tiny little mouse they all decided to go for a row in the bay, but which one of them made the boat sink?

This story is appropriate for children aged over 2, but mainly preschoolers will get he biggest benefit. You could add this story when doing floating/sinking activities. If you have used other activities with this story please add them in the comments, we would love to hear your ideas.

This book is about a family who go on a trip to find a bear, along the way they must overcome water, a forest, a snowstorm and more. The pictures are rotated between colour and black and white which complete the child using their imagination. The way in which the story is told is wonderful for adding props, especially musical instruments at group, or for transitions.

A aesthetically pleasing book about a sea creature with a very unusual birth. The story takes you on a magical journey of the underwater world of sea creatures while you try to guess what creature will be at the end of the book. The pages are filled with stunning silk paintings which make the book fantastic for all ages. The back of the book has a glossary of all the sea life throughout the story.

 A group of children sit down in a circle some distance apart, a child is chosen to carry the ‘letter’ (an envelope). The child then runs around the outside of the group (circle) as everyone sitting down closes their eyes and sings:

On finishing the song the children sitting down all look behind them whoever has the letter picks it up and tries to catch the person who dropped the letter before they get back to the vacated seat. If the person who has the letter gets to the seat she gets to be in again, if she gets caught then the other person has a go at dropping off the letter. For younger children (under 5) it is best to just take turns anyway.

A report from The Age states that a Bureau of Statistics survey of the Australian labour force has found that 233,000 Australians are out of work because they are caring for their child.

The survey also found that of these people, 97,600 were not working because of issues related to child care.

This has started the usual political bickering on both sides, with the government stating that this is a good thing, as parents have the choice of staying at home and looking after their children.

The opposition thinks that “There’s nothing choosy about wanting accessible, affordable and high-quality care for our children.”

Discussion on this is available in our child care discussion forum

Using a beanbag, small ball or potato. Have the children sit in a circle play music as the children pass the hot potato around, when the music stops whoever is holding the hot potato is dismissed. They may go to an activity or just slide back from the circle, the game continues until there is one child left.

You may like to use this game for another activity, having the child holding the hot potato name ryhming words, animals, favourite things, or to match things (opposites, colours) before leaving.

Play music and have the children move to it, then stop it. When the music stops the children lay down with their eyes closed. You then place a sheet over a child and have everyone else come around to see if they can guess who it is. Slowly take the sheet off the missing child, talking about what shoes they have on, the clothes they are wearing and the colour of their hair before revealing who it is.

They may like to go wash hands for lunch, go to an activity. You can also have the mystery child choose a friend to take with them.

Using paddlepop sticks, cut and add round pieces of paper, to look like a lollipop.
On the round section put song titles. You can use these to use up time, when you have a few minutes before going to activities. Pick children to come and pick a lollipop, one at a time and sing the song they have chosen.

You may get older children or yourself, to hum the tune and have the rest of the group try to pick what tune is being hummed.