|
Hello everyone! Term 3 is already halfway through. Only 5 weeks left! We have 19 new families, 6 new classes began this term and our co-ordinator Leypeng Thomas has left us. Which is why I haven’t had time to write our newsletter to welcome all our new families until now. Welcome on board everyone and welcome back to most of our children from last year and from the beginning of the year. We are very proud that there are more and more families becoming aware of the importance of early language education for their child/ren and choosing Kimmba as their first language education experience. It is wonderful to see that Kimmba is steadily growing with its little pupils.
Free public speech: “Raising children in more than one language”
This is a special seminar event for the International Year of Languages 2008. It is a free seminar for parents, grandparents, care-givers and professionals working with children. I would therefore, strongly recommend our parents and grand parents and all language teachers participate. Please register by email to me, thank you.
Registration: by 22 August 2008 –
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Venue: University of Melbourne – Sydney Myer Asia Centre (Cnr. Of Swanston St & Monash Rd.)
Date: 31 August 2008, Sunday: 12.45 - 5pm
Presenters:
- Michael Clyne – Australian-born bilingual father of an Australian-born bilingual daughter, Honorary Professorial Fellow Melbourne University and Emeritus Professor Monash University;
- Suzanne Döpke – a speech pathologist and international authority on raising children bilingually. She is also the mother of two Australian-born bilingual children.
Presentations and workshops will explore a range of issues including:
What parents and other carers can do to assist a child speak two languages
Supporting the child’s first steps into language
Advice for parents starting out and wondering if they are doing the right thing
How parents and grandparents can encourage children to use the community language by finding uses of special interest to them
How to build on the child’s personality and motivation
Community resources and strategies to boost language maintenance and development
Panel discussions will answer questions and examine the ways that parents can be more active in promoting bilingualism with their children.
Kimmba’s Illness / Absence Policy & Make up Class Policy
This winter hasn’t been easy for quite a few families. I need to remind parents and care givers that Kimmba’s illness and absence policy and make up class policy, which stated in our parents booklet are as follow:
Illness and Absence Policy
Please do not bring your child/ren to playgroup if he/she is not well. Children who have been experiencing high temperature, vomiting during the night or who have been suffering from itching, or unusual red spots, sore throat, bad coughs, earache, diarrhoea etc. should stay at home until they are well. It is much better for the child/ren to have the chance to get well in the love and care of their parent/carer and in the comfort of their own home. It is also much better for everyone at the playgroup that the infection or virus is not spread around. A standard ‘school exclusion table’ will be provided as an additional attachment to this booklet. These are health department regulations and must be followed. Please inform us if your child happens to catch one of the illnesses listed or if he/she is sick for more than one session.
Please note that if there is social engagement or holiday involved in the absence of sessions, there will not be make-up classes available.
Make-Up Class Policy
Make-up class is ONLY available for child/ren that is/are absent due to illness. It is unavoidable that children get sick in some stage of their lives. If your child is sick and require a make-up class, please contact the class teacher or coordinator to arrange an available make-up class time. Please note that the make-up class can’t be carried forward to the next semester as this creates disturbances to the progress of our program and the learning of other children. If there is more than one absent day, we require a medical certificate to arrange for the make-up classes.
My answering machine has been swamped with calls from parents and care givers regarding absences due to sickness and other reasons and requests for make-up classes. It has been very hard for me to refuse any child to attend the make-up class, however, most of our sessions are full, so any family/ child who wishes to request a make-up class please email me first rather than just turning up. You can imagine the chaos when, on Saturday afternoon 3:30 where there are already 12 children (9 from its original group and 3 for a make-up class), all of a sudden more parents unexpectedly turn up? So I need to notify our teachers that your children are coming to the session. If the desired session in the desired week is full then the following week would be the only option for your child to attend a make-up class. I am trying my best to look after your children’s needs and protect their rights by maintaining our classes with minimum disturbances from others. New children with their parents or care-givers may cause young children to feel uneasy so I need to make sure that our children’s interests are my first priority. This includes your children.
Co-ordinator
I would like to notify all our families that co-ordinator Leypeng Thomas is no longer with us because our low fee of $12 for one and a half hour sessions and $18 for two hours session per child just doesn’t enable us to pay for a co-ordinator. In comparison to other similar language playgroup’s charge of $20 per hour session, we are really trying our very best to offer families a great service rather than making money. I am therefore back to all the emailing, late night organizing and travelling, taking over the co-ordinator’s role free of charge. To ensure Kimmba can sustain itself without me and my husband’s financial assistance I am not getting paid for 100% of the work and time I’ve put in. I would like to wish Leypeng and her family all the very best in the years to come and please come and visit us whenever you have time. I know you did a lot for us which you didn’t charge us for. There were lots of things I didn’t see in your timesheet! Thank you Leypeng.
Manningham Council community Development Grant 2008
We are applying for a funding grant to get some exciting new equipment and books from the Manningham City Council Community Development Fund, the third year in the row. We urgently need external funding to keep this program going. In order to make our application really powerful and convincing I would really appreciate if parents could write a few words about the things you like about Kimmba Bilingual Playgroup sessions.
The Council's Community Development Principles include values like:
*being welcoming to a wide range of people,
*developing relationships and community connections,
*sharing information and resources,
*being active (fund raising initiatives)
*fostering a shared vision and understanding in the community
If you think the Kimmba playgroup sessions include any of these values then we would really appreciate hearing your perspective. Or you might just like to talk about how and/or why a language other than English is valued in your own family, why you like coming to the playgroup sessions, and anything else you think is important to mention.
We look forward to hearing from you. If we have 90+% of parents supporting us in the running of our bilingual program for preschool children, then I think it is sensible for Manningham Council Community Grant Panels to consider our application this year. I need your testimonial or your letters of support ASAP because we’ve submitted our application already and need to send the follow-up documents as soon as we can gather them. Please give us a few minutes of your precious time to help us to help your children’s learning.
Kimmba Star Mandarin Bilingual Mothers Group
I migrated to Australia in 2001 with my Australian husband and our first baby. When my second child was born in 2002, I didn’t have the chance to join a mothers group because I was totally immobilized by a condition called severe pelvic instability, which I had never even heard of before. I was in wheelchair and almost house bound for 3 month before my second child was born and walking with walking aids for a further 3 months. Looking after a two-year-old toddler and a new born baby and needing walking aids myself was not something that words can describe. I had no disability experiences prior to that. I had no friends because I was a new migrant, no social network to go to and no daily family support (my family is still overseas). I couldn't get my children in and out of the car without any help! I was so frustrated and depressed that I didn't even want to have any more children after that! Now, after an ectopic pregnancy in 2006, I finally got pregnant last year and have my 3rd little baby. I was really looking forward to meeting up with some mums who had just had a baby like me. However I was told that mothers' group in Manningham (and even across Australia) are only for first time mums! After persisting with my wonderful MCH nurse, she told me that there is no funding available for mother groups mums other than first time mothers.
I missed the chance of getting to know any mothers with newborns because I happened to have a child before I migrated to Australia!! I am just wondering how many migrant mothers are out there like me? How many second time, third time or forth time mums are there all by themselves because they happened to choose Australia as a new country to raise their children or relocate from interstate?
I am calling all mothers who would like to join us in forming a multi-cultural bilingual Mandarin mothers group to contact me. We don't care who you are and where you come from, whether you can speak English/Mandarin or not. If you would like your child to be Mandarin/English bilingual and have supports from a group of wonderful migrant mothers with young babies, please contact:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. Kimmba has two Mandarin baby sessions weekly since this term. It is designed to help mothers and babies to learning Mandarin together.
Outdoor playground
I’ve ordered a wooden outdoor play unit with playing deck, high-rail wave slide, rock wall, cargo rope ladder and large lower sandbox. The expected delivery date is around mid September but it could be anytime before the end of this year/ early January next year. So let’s hope that it will be arriving SOON. If you know of any good tradesman who can install our outdoor play unit, please let me know as there is a bit of ground work that needs to be done before the installation of this play unit.
Term 3 Excursion
Our term 3 excursion for Malvern East group and baby sessions are on
Date: 28th of August, Thursday 10:30 am -12:00 noon
Venue: Melbourne Museum, Nicholson Street, Carlton
Cost: Adult $12, Children $4, under 3 free.
Please note that it is your responsibility to organize excursion among individual group, however, combined sessions for the same teacher is encouraged.
Voluntary help from parents
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to all our parents and especially Liz Gunn this time for writing up the grant application. She has done a great job in making links for us with Emeritus Professor of Linguistics Monash University, Honorary Professorial Fellow in Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne, Michael Clyne. Therefore, a letter of support was obtained. Liz wrote the application in between her work and looking after her toddler son. Kimmba would not grow without all parents’ voluntary help. Thank you all.
More to come next month.
|
