Change of Pace

As most of you know, I (Carly) have been working as a Casual Relief Teacher in Sunshine for about a month. The past week and this week I have been on holiday so I have not been working. The kids go to school almost year round so they have several small breaks here and there, like this one.

I've been doing some reflecting and thinking about what I want to do with my time here in Australia. I only have two more weeks left to my assignment in Sunshine taking me through July 24th. An option after that would be stay with the agency and see if I would get another assignment or not. That was not favored highly on my list since it took a while for me to get the assignment in Sunshine. Also because it's really far and a long commute. While I'm here I want to have fun and enjoy myself every day. I wasn't really feeling that so I decided to make a change.

I did some online searching and found a Child Care Center nearby in the St. Kilda community where we live. I sent an email and the next day got a phone call to come in for a "trial day". This concept was new to me. It basically involved me showing up at 9am this morning and staying until 3:00 bouncing between two classrooms and giving it a go as they would say here in Australia! I did paperwork and read policies for hours then got to play. It went well because they offered me a position to be a Casual Relief worker to start and the opportunity to take a full time position coming up. Even as a Casual Relif teacher since I would be availble all the time the Director, Andrea, said I should expect 4 days a week or more. I'm going in tomorrow for a full day 8:45-5:45.

I really liked this center when I found it online and continued to be impressed when I was there today. The center is 2 and a half years old and there are two others. The owner was a local mother looking for a center to send her son to years ago and found there was a lack of suitable centers, so she opened her own! She now has three kids and they all go to Treehouse. The center has a no plastic bag policy, no chemicals and has a very environmentally focused mentality and nature all around. They have a play based learning philosohpy and indoor/outdoor philosophy meaning the doors are always open for children to decide if they want to play in or out. They don't even use tissues or wet wipes. Instead they have hankies and burp cloths. I watched a class of 3 year olds scrape their plates of Moroccan Chicken into a composting bin to give to the worms! So cool. You can check out their website by clicking the title or use the link http://www.treehousechildcare.com.au/.

So, two more weeks in Sunshine then I hope to be starting at Treehouse. More to come.