First Programmes Receive Te Korowai Kounga

How exciting to see the first programmes in Aotearoa receiving Te Korowai Kounga – The Cloak of Quality awards this week. Everyone has worked so hard to show off the special things they do for New Zealand’s children. CONGRATULATIONS!!! So here begins the challenge to all programmes to step up and show your families and colleagues the very best that YOU can do.

Odette

Christchurch, The Garden City

Many OSCAR programmes take full advantage of the wide range of activities that are available in the Canterbury region.

The city alone offers many options, such as the beautiful Botanical Gardens. You can walk through, and admire the amazing array of colour, and play in the huge trees on the way to the excellent playground facilities, and in the warmer months swimming in the swimming pools. The museum also offers an unforgettable adventure; the Arts centre and the Art Gallery are all at an arm’s reach.

Just a short walk or a ride on the cities tram system is the Christchurch Square, where you can play chess and then admire the Christchurch Cathedral and the Chalice Sculpture.

Some activities available in the city include Garden City Bowl, climbing at either Clip n Climb or at the YMCA, kayaking down the Avon River or walking around the Aquarium.

Christchurch city has plenty of local swimming pools and parks which many OSCAR programmes take advantage of, giving their children opportunities and adventures to experience.

Amanda

Quirky Facts and Fun

Most of us enjoy a quirky fact, provoking interest, thought and a laugh or two. Here's a few to share and stump others with...

• "Almost" is the longest word in the english language with all the letters in alphabetical order.
• A cockroach can live for several weeks with it's head cut off - eeww!
• A snail can sleep for up to 3 years WITHOUT eating.
• Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.
• Crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper.
• The largest eggs in the WORLD are laid by SHARKS.
• Every continent in the world has a city called Rome.
• The longest English word without any vowels is Rhythm.
• In Iceland it's illegal to have a pet dog.
• Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day.
• On average right handed people live nine years longer than left.
• Most people blink around 17,000 times a day.
• The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump.
• Our feet contain a quarter of our bodies' bones.
• In the same way all fingerprints are different all tongue prints are different also.
• It's against the law to burp, or sneeze in a church in Nebraska, USA.
• Dead skin makes up for most of the dust particles in your home - eeww!
• Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.
• The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' head which enables it to see all four feet at all times.
• On average a hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute.
• Earth is the only planet not named after a god.
• Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th".
• You're born with 300 bones, but by the time you become an adult, you only have 206.
• Dolphins sleep with one eye open.
• It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
• Slugs have 4 noses.
• A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue!

Sally :)

Teaching Kids Important Life Lessons

Even if we don’t realise it we have an amazing influence in the lives of children. We have the opportunity to teach them important life lessons such as honesty, trust and love.

One of the best ways is to show these values as role models, however talking about it is another way. Here are some questions to ask your children:

What would you do if ...

• You were on an outing and turned around and couldn’t see anyone you knew?
• Your friend showed you a watch he had taken out of someone else’s bag?
• You were walking on the street and found a wallet with $50 in it but no identification?
• You were biking with a friend and they fell off and were bleeding?
• You were asleep and the fire alarm woke you up?
• A friend invited you over to play games and the another friend asked you to go swimming?
• You saw someone new at school sitting by themselves at morning tea time?

These are just a few of the questions you could ask children to get them thinking about what is important to them and what they value. Everyone’s values maybe different but without talking about them you will never know what they are or that they could be different to your own.

Ariana

Texture of Food

I have been in full Wacky Science workshop mode lately for Conference and have been reading /researching a lot about our bodies. I know how much children love all sorts of information about body parts and can wackily relate to this area of science. This got me thinking especially about our tongue and the texture or "tongue feel" of the food and our choices and preferences.

Do you prefer the feel of soft, crunchy or chewy foods? Does it ever vary? Many crispy foods are fried and higher in fat, like potato chips. Many soft foods are high in sugar like cake, biscuits and desserts. I think that food texture affects children’s choices just as much as ours, so here are a few of my ideas on ways to be healthy at the same time catering to preferences.

For the Softies' try yogurt, low fat cheese, low fat cottage cheese, fruits canned in juice, tortillas, bananas, oranges, dips or hummus.

For the 'Crunchies' try baby carrots and other raw vegetables, apples, whole grain crackers, pretzels, dry cereal, baked chips, nuts or low fat popcorn.

For the 'Chewies' try bagels, pita bread or dried fruits.

I would love to hear all your healthy snack choices to add to the list. Comment here in the blog and share around Aotearoa your knowledge and ideas.

And courtesy of my 13 yr old - What is dracula’s favourite fruit? A nectarine.

Julie

ANZAC Day

This Sunday is ANZAC Day; a very special day in both New Zealand’s history and present. I think it is important to take time to reflect and remember those who have fought and died for our country. Without them, the freedom we have in New Zealand may not exist.

It is a great time to share with the children in your programme the stories of your parents and grandparents. You can create poppies as an art activity and do some baking; making batches of ANZAC biscuits. Encourage families to attend a dawn service or an ANZAC parade in your area - it can be a rather emotional and humbling experience.

In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 – 1918)

We will remember them...lest we forget

Susannah

Facebook

How many of you out there know about The OSCAR Foundation’s fan page on Facebook?

According to the current ‘fan stats’ only 45 out of potentially thousands of OSCAR professionals, families and organisations!

With more than 400 million users over the world, social networking sites such as Facebook are a great way to connect with others and keep your finger on the pulse. Here are some interesting facts about Facebook, from their statistics page.

Did you know that...

• More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
• The Average user has 130 friends on the site
• About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
• And the average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month

To become a fan of the OSCAR Foundation’s Facebook page click on the link below.

The OSCAR Foundation Facebook Page

Little tip: Keep an eye on your privacy settings, you don’t have to share your personal information with people if you don’t want to! Click into personal settings and set your privacy options to high.

Anastasia

Goodbye from Marnie

Hi everyone,

This blog is tinged with sadness as it will be the last one that I write as OSCAR Advisor to the Wellington/Kapiti Coast/Wairarapa region. From next week I will be beginning a new career as a social researcher.

I would like to give a huge thank you to everyone in the OSCAR sector for making the past three years such a fantastic experience. One of the best parts of the job has been getting out and meeting programme providers and seeing out of school programmes in action. I have been inspired by the energy, enthusiasm and dedication of OSCAR professionals. There is nothing like visiting a programme and seeing the smiles and laughter of happy children as they learn, explore and have fun with their friends.

Being part of the Te Korowai Kounga development team has also been a great privilege. I know that this initiative will contribute to the continuing development and strength of the OSCAR sector. To all the pilot programmes, thank you for your time and effort. To those who are thinking of participating in Te Korowai Kounga when it goes live in July, I encourage you to take up the challenge.

I will be at the OSCAR Conference in May and hope to catch up with many of you then.

Good luck for the future. I wish you, your staff and your children/tamariki all the best.

Marnie

Skype - Face To Face Meetings Online!

Nothing beats a face to face meeting. Although the trusty telephone is great and emails are very quick and easy nothing beats being able to speak to people face to face, this is why I am now on Skype. I had my first Skype meeting the other day which went really well. It was so great to be able to speak face to face to a provider while working on some programme planning.

So, for any programmes in Otago and Southland (developing or established) that would like to catch up or have a Skype meeting, drop me an email (kelly@oscar.org.nz) and I will let you know when and how we can get together. I think this is going to be a great way to keep in touch, especially for programmes I can’t get to easily.

I look forward to meeting you soon.
Kelly

Awesome Autumn

Hope the holidays are going well. I went to visit a programme yesterday and outside their main entrance were two trees in their autumn glory – each had a brilliant range of reds in every leaf; some bright red, other vermillion and light pink. What a beautiful resource for collage, print, weaving or bookmark making. In fact, take a step out and look around. In Autumn we are gifted with so many beautiful, durable and open ended resources.

I remembered as well to share the finished product from my 'recycled resources' with simple cutting, folding and weaving project I talked about in a previous blog. If you would like complete steps and instructions email me any time at julie@oscar.org.nz

Awesome Autumn everyone.

Julie

V8's in Hamilton

Hamilton is the place to be this weekend as it will be a buzz and a varoom with the Hamilton ITM 400 V8's. It is the third year of this exciting event and while it causes controversy with some of the locals, most Hamiltonians and surrounding districts get in behind it.

One such programme that I visit is smack bang in the middle of the event and had raised the issue of what to do with the impending loss of revenue for the Friday and possibly the whole week leading up to the V8's due to traffic constrictions. We talked about making the event work for the programme and seeing if they could get some of the sponsors behind an event on or around their programme venue.

Well they did and my, what a response they got! Not only do they have an event that will go for the whole three days of the V8's but all the proceeds of this event, a children's fun park just outside the race track, will go to this programme's charity.

I am in awe of this programme and their foresight and vision to turn around what could have been a potential loss of earnings into a fun, productive and truely amazing thing.

Well done and may we all take a leaf out of your books.

Tania

What's In A Park?

This week I have learn a whole lot from my programme visits. I have gathered some fantastic planning ideas for my workshop at the Conference as well as some amazingly creative activity ideas. I’m looking forward to visiting programmes that are going roller skating, having dance lessons and sumo wrestling.

As well as sharing the many other ideas that are out there this week I’m visiting a few programmes at parks. So many parks are different and have different resources available to your programme from tennis or basketball courts to huge swings and paddling pools. Some fantastic parks to visit around Christchurch include

• Centennial Park, with its huge tyre and rope swings in St Martins,
• Woodham Park in Richmond, which has a paddling pool and a beautiful garden,
• Rishlingholm in Opawa, which is where the butterflies roost in the winter time, and
• Victoria Park up in the hills, a fantastic place for big adventure such as orienteering and day walks.

Some parks have something a little different such as a croquet area or pentanque courts. I have planned a whole French theme day around these activities taking a little cooker or bbq and making crepes and hot chocolate.

Just take a second look at some of the parks in your areas and try something new when planning your next programme.

Ariana

Setting Goals

In January this year I set myself a goal of stepping outside my comfort zone and competing in a physique competition. I have always trained at the gym, but I have decided to take it to the next level, to follow through and give it a go.

"Have the courage to let go of who you are for who you can become", this saying is attached to my wall at home to help me achieve my goal.

I also wrote down, If I succeed I will feel and, If I fail I will feel. I also asked myself what I really wanted, visualising that person I want to be and what was preventing myself from having it right now. Writing down how I will do things differently, believing that you can achieve what you want.

Things questions can be used in different scenarios not just with what I want to achieve. I believe goal setting is a important apsect of everyone's life. This can include financial, family, lifestyle and personal goals.

Amanda

Holiday Programme Visits

Phew! This holiday period has been full of wonderful programme visits. I am always inspired and enlightened to see children and staff excitedly undertaking the various activities, trips and events planned.

I have been lucky enough to visit Butterfly Creek in Auckland to catch up with a camp programme, a few trips to Rotorua which as you know is not only beautiful but has adrenaline raising challenges in abundance and visits to all parts of Tauranga; Papamoa, Mount Maunganui, Bethlehem, McLaren Falls and Te Puke.

The opportunities provided, all managed professionally, in utmost safety is a huge accomplishment to providers and staff, and the benefits to children and families are great!

Congratulations to all OSCAR Providers for the truly amazing role you play in the lives of so many children and many thanks for making each of us so welcome to join in the fun.

Sally

Get Ready, Get Thru

At the moment it seems like we are being bombarded by reports of destructive earthquakes and tsunamis on a weekly basis. I thought it would be appropriate to remind programmes how important it is to keep up your regular emergency drills and training. Check that your first aid kits are well stocked.

It is also a good idea to stock a bag with blankets, water bottles, barley sugars, a battery operated radio, torch and spare batteries near the entrance to your programme. Hopefully you will never have to use this bag but it is better to err on the side of caution and be well prepared. Get Thru is a great website with ideas and information for both your families and your programmes.

Stay safe and have a great week in the paradise we call home!

Susannah

First Aid Tip

I found this great first aid tip while on visits to the Kids Klub After School Programmes on Auckland's sunny North Shore. Take clean and un-used dish sponges, moisten with water and place into air tight zip lock bags. Store in freezer for those little bumps and bruises.I have taken up the idea myself and made up these ice packs for my OXFAM walk this coming weekend. It's simple, doesn't contain those sticky, easy to leak gels, and is cost effective!

Anastasia

Remember Your New Years Resolution?

Remember your New Years resolution? Just a distant memory now? Don’t worry, according to the New York Times one third of people break their resolutions by the end of January and four out of five will eventually be broken.

Now that we have finished the first term of 2010 it is a good time to take stock and re-evaluate goals, both personally and for your OSCAR programme. Many people make broad resolutions, but the key to achieving them lies in creating small, manageable goals that represent stepping stones to what you want to achieve.

Stuck for ideas? Goals for your programme could include serving healthier food for afternoon tea, developing a leadership programme for older children, or ensuring that all staff members attend professional development opportunities at least once per term. Discuss goal setting at your next staff meeting and formulate an action plan as to how these will be achieved.

Get the whole programme involved by sitting down with the children to see what they would like to aim towards for the programme. It might be that they would like to purchase an air hockey table, learn hip hop dancing, or take an overnight trip during the school holiday programme. Make a plan together about how these goals could be achieved (if cost is a factor brainstorm some creative ways to fundraise) and take the first steps to making the goal a reality!

Marnie

Question Time

I have a challenge for you all.

On a wall of your programme, put up "I would like to know..." and have post-it notes ready for children to write questions to stick on your question wall. Not only will you find these really interesting and, at times,musing, it is a great way to let children help inform your planning and future topics.

Some of the more interesting questions I had included

• Why does my snot try to stay sticking in my nose?
• What is the biggest amount of money you can have?
• Why do the clouds move really fast and sometimes look like pictures?
• Will TV really damage my eyes?
• Why does Mrs G always wear black tights?

Let us know what interesting questions you get asked?

Kelly