Early Learning

Welcome teachers, parents and carers, welfare coordinators and anyone who works in early learning!

‘In the early years, your child’s main way of learning and developing is through play.’
Raising Children Network

Welcome to pre-school and primary school teachers, childcare workers, foster carers, family counsellors, parents and anyone who cares for young children.

You know more than most that the early years are a critical time. This is when bonding takes place between children and their primary caregivers. In the early years the basis for healthy self-esteem is created through such fundamental building blocks as being valued, cared for, included, listened to, and held close.

It is truly extraordinary when you think of the growth and learning that takes place in the first few years of a person’s life. A baby explores the joys of movement by becoming curious about the world around them. A young child begins to develop language and experience the complexities of relationships, culture and identity. They experience the tumultuous world of emotions and body signals and begin learning patterns of response to them.

The early years is when the foundations for respectful play, friendships and relationships are established. This is also a time when children’s notions of gender roles and their own identity are shaped.  All going well, they begin to awaken to empathy.  With gentle guidance they learn to put themselves in another’s shoes which sets up the basis for healthy, two-way relationships. They build on their seemingly innate sense of fairness.

When nurtured in the early years, children’s sense of self-worth and their capacity to care about others are more likely to blossom naturally, and go on to characterise a caring and productive life in the later years as well.

According to Anglicare Victoria’s Bendigo-based Communities for Children program, early childhood educators in Australia work within the following frameworks:

  • National Quality Standards
  • Early Years Learning Framework: Belonging, Being and Becoming.

Practice principles include:

  • Respectful relationships and responsive engagement
  • Equity and diversity
  • Partnerships with families and professionals
  • High expectations for every child
  • Reflective practice.

Innovative Resources—part of Anglicare Victoria—has developed a range of colourful resources for supporting children in the early years. These resources have grown out of the strengths approach and reflect the five practice principles listed above. It is our pleasure to offer you some ideas for using resources.

SCHOOL READINESS FUNDING

School Readiness Funding priority area: Wellbeing (social and emotional)

Innovative Resources named as provider under school readiness funding.

Our products and training have been identified for inclusion on the Department’s menu. This means that we have been through a formal validation process that analysed our alignment to the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework, considered in the light of their evidence base.

We can work with you to provide training for staff and parent groups, in line with the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework. We are happy to provide quotes for products and resources applicable to early learning and school readiness and invoice your organisation accordingly.

Value packs

Innovative Resources has put together bundle packs that can assist with supporting a strong sense of wellbeing.

Early years exploring feelings bundle

The Early Years Exploring Feelings bundle has been curated to help children develop these essential skills with resources that focus on emotions, strengths and body signals through fabulous characters that children love. Read more

 

Early years trauma informed care bundle

The Early Years Trauma Informed Care bundle has been developed to help children explore feelings, body signals and safety. It also includes a range of proactive strategies and activities for managing anxiety and stress, connecting with others and building emotional literacy. Read more

Early years respectful relationships bundle

The Early Years Respectful Relationships bundle will help children to develop respectful relationships, build friendships, navigate conflict and value difference. Each card set will spark conversations about what healthy relationships look like and the qualities that help us connect with each other in meaningful ways, even when we come from different backgrounds and families. Read more

Early years supporting parents and carers bundle

The Early Years Supporting Parents and Carers bundle includes a range of strengths-based, solution-focussed tools to help parents and carers gently explore challenges and reflect on how they can take care of themselves while they care for their families. Read more

Suggested resources for wellbeing areas

A strong sense of wellbeing enables children to maximise learning and life opportunities. Many of our resources can be used to explore multiple wellbeing areas, with children, parents, carers and early years educators. Here are some suggestions:

Self-regulation, focus and attention

 

Positive relationships, friendships, and attachments

 

Emotional resilience and positive mental health

 

Social responsibility and helping skills

 

Fine and gross motor skills.

Create a variety of games using the resources.

  • Snap
  • Memory games/Matching games
  • Tell stories and create stories using the cards and tactile resources

 

Add to the experience with a sticker!

Stickers may be little, but they can say a lot.

Stickers are a great tool for letting children know they are valued and that you see their strengths. Despite kids having access to loads of apps and digital games, they still seem to love stickers. Stickers are fun, versatile and tactile. They are also portable so you can take them anywhere, making them easy to whip out to do a quick activity or have a conversation on the fly.

Early years workshops

Explore the range of workshops we offer to develop your skills in using our resources in a our highly-interactive workshops designed especially for early childhood educators.

Online workshops can be accessed by individuals by registering via our training webpage. We can deliver to groups – face-to-face or online, where the workshop will be co-designed with you and our facilitator in consideration of:

  • learning priorities of your team
  • relevance to roles and responsibilities of participants
  • topics/resources/activities to be included.

To enquire about a group booking:

Tools for building social and emotional literacy in the early years

This workshop explores:

  • navigating and regulating emotions
  • developing strengths and resilience
  • building respectful relationships
  • supporting adults caring for children—including self-care and parenting.

Navigating transitions - tools and ideas for supporting children

This workshop explores:

  • Working with children to identify feelings and responses to situations
  • Using tools to open discussion with children about improving their playtime or other areas of transition.
  • Exploring strengths with children to recognise the resources they have in their lives.

Exploring ways to capture the voice of the child

This workshop explores:

  • a range of strategies to support the capture of the child’s voice
  • what the challenges can be, and review opportunities to do something different
  • how to run feedback activities that work in different environments and settings.

Strengths-based supervision: reflecting on practice

Strengths-based supervision: reflecting on practice.

This workshop explores:

  • what a strengths approach has to offer to supervision
  • the opportunity to develop and practice skills used in supervision
  • an environment of respect, inspiration, challenge and support
  • a focus on the structure of supervision, our place within that structure, and creating transparency
  • exploration and reflection of our own abilities as a supervisor.

 

Tools to foster social and emotional literacy: working with parents and carers

Tools to foster social and emotional literacy: working with parents and carers.

This workshop explores:

  • An introduction to social and emotional literacy: understanding emotions, empathy, self-awareness, and interpersonal communication.
  • Suggestions and ideas for how parents and carers can be their child’s first ‘social and emotional literacy’ teacher.
  • Activities to help children recognise and regulate their feelings, build empathy and create healthy, respectful connections with others.
  • Practical strategies to recognise and reframe anxiety and other challenging feelings.
  • Opportunities to share experiences, insights, and challenges related to social-emotional wellbeing.
  • An exploration of a variety of Innovative Resources tools and card sets.
  • Take-home resources: handouts or materials to reinforce learning and continue practicing skills outside the workshop setting.

To obtain an invoice

Please note that we are happy to invoice your centre. Just email us at info@innovativeresources.org with the following information:

  • organisation name
  • billing & shipping address
  • contact person including phone number & email address
  • list of products and workshops you wish to purchase. (If you are wanting to register multiple people in an online workshop, please include their name and email addresses so they can be sent workshop details once payment is received.)