Here Come Santa Claus - 6th Dec 2009

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.

Calvin Coolidge

Inside:

Here Comes Santa Claus
Technology Immersion
Christmas & New Year
Last Laugh

Hi Everyone,

I trust that the next couple of weeks you will all wind down rather than up, and are looking forward to the spirit of Christmas. Let it be a reminder that it is a time we can spend with our children.

Here Comes Santa Claus

Over the next couple of weeks leading up to christmas day, the Otago Settlers Museum has set up Pixie Town, a tradition that involves the presentation of pixies in a range of settings, animated using mechanisms. Afterwards, children can go and do a range of activities including dress ups, letter writing to Santa, and card making. And to top it all off, children can speak to Santa in person. I do believe that one of our own staff will be doing Santa duties over the next few weeks. See if you can figure out who.

Innovation in Education

Focus: Technology Literacy
As part of our series to highlight our point of difference in working with children in our care, over the last few weeks we looked at how we manage and motivate them to make the most out the programme through our choice theory actions. Over the next few weeks I will take the opportunity to address other aspects of our programme. This newsletter I will discuss Technological Literacy.

Technological literacy is the ability of 'know how and can do'. It is knowledge of process. Technology is a meaningful activity that starts with a real need, problem or opportunity. Once the opportunity has been identified, then a plan of action is put into place to come up with an appropriate solution. It is this process that builds the capability of the child. Throughout the process they will require specific knowledge and skills to make it all happen, encounter problems, create choices, make decisions, take calculated risks, test and trial and modify until the solution is presented.

Understanding of this process is technological literacy. Technological activity is an empowerment activity, focuses on finding solutions rather than the problems that caused it. Within this learning process all other subjects can be included in a meaningful way, including maths, english, social sciences and so forth.

In the future, education will be required to move towards an integrated approach to learning, and technology will be the vehicle because if we live in a technological society then we will need our children to be technologically literate.

Next Newsletter: ENTERPRISE FOCUS

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 carolling. If you are keen to have your child participate then contact us and let us know.

The Last Laugh

A little boy goes to his father and asks "Daddy, how was I born?"
The father answers: "Well son, I guess one day you will need to find out anyway! Your Mum and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mum and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button, nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared that said: ... "You got Male!"


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.