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Early Child Development Workshop

The ABC of Skills, Healthy eating and physical exercise a hit at Alex Creches

One of Rays of Hope’s outreach projects in Alexandra township, Early Childhood Development (ECD), is adamant that its corps of caregivers should receive top-quality training to enable them to give the children under their daily supervision the best possible care. In early September ECD held its third caregiver training workshop. The topics that were dealt with were reading and writing skills for the very young, basic nutrition and how the kids could do physical exercises in even the tiniest of spaces. Christy Bennett, ECD’s project leader, explains: “Currently we work with 13 crèches in Alex. Between them they look after more than 600 children. We assist the caregivers in their tasks such as feeding the children; we provide expert assistance should a child be unwell; and we render practical help in any other area whenever needed. In addition, we bring in experts every few months to provide practical training for the caregivers, many of whom have never had any formal training in looking after young children. Our latest workshop was a great success.” Nutritionist Rosalynn brought a series of cards showing pictures of various fruits and vegetables. “Using the cards, the crèche-owners’ task was to plan a series of affordable meals with the emphasis on maximum nutritional value at minimum cost. ECD receives regular donations of fresh produce that we send to the crèches every week. At this workshop we had broccoli, cauliflower and bags of mixed vegetables and discussed novel ways of preparing these foods,” says Christy. Gillian was another expert who shared her specialist knowledge, curriculum development for preschool children, with the caregivers. “Her topic was teaching young children basic literacy and numeracy. African Tree House produces teaching aids, such as the Alphabet Song, which teach basic literacy and numeracy using words and images the children are familiar with and can relate to. These new aids now form part of our existing stock of teaching aids,” says Christy. Few of the caregivers were aware that exercise and other physical activity promote concentration and learning. “Michelle, a physiotherapist, showed the caregivers those exercises that build young children’s key muscles. Strengthening the core abdominal muscles was a specific focus. Given the limited space for exercising in most crèches, Michelle paid particular attention on how the exercises could be done in a confined space.” Christy concludes: “The learning imparted at these workshops has been found to be appropriate and useful. On the day in question we had 12 caregivers from nine different crèches. It was good to see them networking and learning from one another. We had a fun and productive time together.”

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