Kidz Inc News Nov09
The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
Albert Einstein
Inside:
Circulation FestivalChoice Theory Freedom
Kidz Inc Kiva
Christmas & New Year
Looking Ahead
Hi Everyone,
I trust that the past few weeks has provided plenty of opportunity to spend time with your children as Halloween and Guyfawkes Night with fireworks certainly provide fun dress up opportunities and spectacular entertainment.Circulation Festival
Last weekend saw the annual Dunedin Circulation Festival take place out at Whare Flat. It has been running since 2003 and aims to provide workshops and performances around circo-arts. This included juggling with thuds, clubs, staff manipulation, pois, magic, drumming and acrobatics, just to name some of the skills people have opportunity to learn and master. Juggling is a great activity that develops rhythm, eye-hand coordination and balance. It also stimulates left side & right side brain activity. We had four staff Drew, Jay, Filipa and myself attend to improve our craft to pass on to children at the Kidz Inc holiday programme. Saturday was a family affair and many children and their families participated in the freeform activities. We look forward to bringing it all together for the benefit and enjoyment of the children.Choice Theory
Focus on the Five Needs: FREEDOMChoice theory says that all types of behaviour (good and poor) are learned to meet our basic needs. The focus this week is to look at the basic need of Freedom. When we discuss freedom with children, it is not the type of freedom where they can do anything they want, rather it is the freedom linked to being responsible. Living in a modern society comes with many responsibilities. As adults we manage many of them such as working for an income, paying taxes, providing food, warmth and a safe and secure house for your children. We also have responsibilities to how we work with and treat each other. As children there are responsibilities on them as well, cleaning up their room, playing nicely with each other, eating all their dinner, dressing well and taking care of their clothes, and so forth. However if we are doing this all the time with no break or opportunity to get away from all of this responsibility, then we could argue that we are not free, that there is no freedom. This choice gives the person the opportunity to be responsible and participate and engage in an activity or the freedom to not participate. As adults we learn to manage our time so that we are able to carry out our responsibilities for work and for family and have freedom from time where we are not responsible to anyone other than ourselves. This may include at night after the kids are asleep, or a holiday away by yourself. However children need to recognise that they too require freedom from responsibility. If they are not playing well with other children, slowing down and getting frustrated with school work, then they may need some freedom from responsibility time. This may be time out in their bedroom, time to chill, time for themselves, until they are ready to have a go again. We all need this need, it gives us space and time to gather our thoughts and to grow. It is the pause that refreshes and recharges our batteries.
Next Newsletter: TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY
Kidz Inc Kiva Project
In April we commenced our Kidz Inc Kiva project, where children at Kidz Inc raised money to benefit people in developing economies. Our first entrepreneur was Uktam Holov, a carpenter in Tajikistan. He has repaid back 83% of the original amount loaned. A great effort and a great result.Students who were involved in many of the activities at Kidz Inc Spring projects were well rewarded with the amount raised being $44.20. This money has been loaned to Ibrahim, a carpenter in Lebanon. He is currently raising money to purchase a piece of woodworking equipment to help build his carpentry business. He has raised half the $1500 required. The contribution that Kidz Inc Kiva will move him one step forward to a secure an income for his family.
For more info on Kidz Inc support of Kiva can be found here...
Christmas & New Year
With the Christmas & New Year holidays approaching, Kidz Inc are ready with a range of activities and projects well suited for this festive part of the season. The Christmas holiday programme will operate from Dowling Street from Monday 21st Dec to Thursday 24th Dec 2009. We will be focussing on a Christmas themed project week that will include peer support games, a movie day on Thursday 24th along with various activities including the X-mas tree technology challenge, gift and card making and christmas caroling. If you are keen to have your child participate then contact us and let us know.Looking Ahead
We will continue to plan and ready ourselves for the Christmas and New Year holiday programme. If you are looking use us at anytime then let us know. If there are specific activities you would like to see happen over this time, then contact us and we will factor it into the programme. There will be one more newsletter before the year finishes up and we see out the year 2009.See you next newsletter.
Regards
Andrew & the Kidz Inc Team
For more information on events and related articles, check out the information on our website or contact us.
Feel free to forward this newsletter on to other parents who may be interested in a quality holiday programme.