Today we had five teachers visit from Northland Kindergarten Association to come and see our Enviroschools in action and come out with us on Nature Discovery.

I really enjoy opportunities to have conversations with other professionals from out of our Association, it gives me a great insight to their practice and allows me to share my passions with them. I also feel it is an opportunity to give back to our sector as at the beginning of our Nature Discovery program Te Anau were so generous to us and I feel it is important to help inspire other centers to see it in action and maybe think that they could implement something similar at their center. It was wonderful to hear their feed back and that to hear that they feel what we are doing is so valuable to our tamariki.

I found it interesting to here that big changes are happening within their Association as well, that the pressure for extend hours and remaining open throughout term break. This is a sad time for Kindergartens on a national level, all that we are is being eroded which I believe to to the detriment to children. I strongly believe that there are still families that value Kindergarten for what it stands for, that they do not want their two year old starting kindergarten and do not want their children in a center for significant hours of the day. I think it is disheartening that we do not have a government that supports this.