Parent Voice Autumn 09 blue.pmd - City of Darebin

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Did you know?The Darebin Libraries offer services forCulturally and Linguistically Diverseresidents.A range of products are available in otherlanguages, both in the adult and juniorsections. Northcote Library holds items inGreek and Italian, Preston Library holdsChinese and Vietnamese items andReservoir Library holds Italian and Arabicitems, with some books in Somali availablein the junior area. Some of the junioritems are bi-lingual, so can also be read inEnglish.People of various backgrounds who areinterested in joining and using the library,but are perhaps a little unsure can bereassured that library information isavailable in these languages, and staff arealways happy to help wherever they can!Some of the libraries books dealingwith diversity & multiculturalism:Maya Angelou, My painted house, myfriendly chicken, and meEileen Browne, Handa’s SurpriseIsabelle Chatellard,City mouse and country mouseBobbie Combs, 123: a family counting bookNikki Daly, Pretty SalmaTomie de Paola,Nana upstairs and Nana downstairsSelina Li Duke & Stanley Wong,In the year of the tigerJennifer Elder, Autistic planet. Global babiesJing Jing Guo, Grandpa’s maskCatherine House & Olwyn Whelan,Little elephant. Little zebraCheryl Willis Hudson, Hands canLaurie Krebs, We all went on safari: acounting journey through TanzaniaGina Wilson, IgnisLorraine Wilson, I speak two languages(Junior non-fiction)Jonny Zucker, Lanterns and firecrackers: aChinese New Year Story(see Page 8 for more titles)Best Start updateOral language program in Kindergartens- increasing the capacity of early years services in early identificationof issues related to oral language.Best Start has a project underway to increase the capacity of EarlyChildhood services to indentify and react to language developmentissues in children attending early childhood education services. It is ledby the speech pathologists and occupational therapists at DarebinCommunity Health and has consulted with staff from the City ofDarebin Early Childhood Services. They have worked in partnershipwith four kindergartens to trial the materials and intend to roll outthe training to others.The project is developing practical resources to be used in EarlyChildhood Education Services to stimulate language development viathemed play activities, and is accompanied by a resource folder forstaff which will include language skill ideas for parents to implement inevery day routines at home. Training will be provided on theresources and their uses will be promoted by a workshop andfollowed up with a series of service visits where the activities can bemodelled and observed.Publisher in Residence –increasing the awareness ofthe importance of storytellingand parents/caregivers readingwith children.There are 9 new books in theReservoir Library Collection.These books are the productof children and parentsworking together to makebooks using their own lives and experiences, as part of the Publisherin Residence program. The project promoted the importance ofreading to children and encourages parents regardless of their ownliteracy to share stories and retell these with their children. In eachresidency parents from diverse communities have participated andsome have taken the opportunity to use their first language in bookmaking.The books were officially launched on March 10 and a publicworkshop was run at the library. Victoria Ryle of Kids Own Publishingand Melbourne Graduate School of Education at The University ofMelbourne has led the project, while Emma Bruty from the Darebinlibraries has assisted by providing duplication and evaluation supportactivities.So far children, parents and staff from Kookaburra kindergarten,Merrilands Child care Service, Gellibrand Crescent Kindergarten andReservoir PS, St Gabriel’s PS, St Joseph’s the worker, Ruthven PS andMerrilands P-12 have been involved. Kookaburra parents involvedlast year plan to lead workshops themselves this year to transferthese skills to the next group of parents.2
Finding the right set-upWhen I gave up work my job involved long hours andtrips away. Kerryn had been at home for two and a halfyears with the kids and was itching to get back to work. She’dhad fairly dynamic roles at work where she was always on thego, and was missing that challenge. So I was happy to swap roles whenAustin was six and Georgia was two.Kerryn and I decided we wanted to have a parent at home for the kids,as it had been when we were children. As mature-aged parents weknow we were very fortunate to be able to do this financially andsurvive on one income. I’d hate to be under the financial pressures thatsome young families are under now. We feel very lucky.So for the past six years I’ve had the role of primary carer, whichincludes all general house stuff – cleaning, washing, cooking, and gettingkids off to crèche, kinder or school. This ensures that our evenings andweekends are great family time – there aren’t mountains of washing, orshopping to be done.When our daughter was younger she attended crèche one day perweek while I did casual work. Now they are both at school and I’m athome full-time, involved in renovating the house (a slow process!),supporting my sister in caring for our mother, and helping out mymother-in-law by mowing lawns and doing maintenance when needed.I’ve been available to help out and take a really active part in kinder andschool, even acting on committees and councils. On a day-to-day basis Iget involved in school reading, hot food days and special events – and amalways in demand for excursions!Sometimes in this role I find my social networking can be a bit limited,and that groups of women tend to have their own topics to talk aboutover coffee. But I’m aware of this, and also appreciate that some socialgroups make a real effort to be inclusive.Of course there have been times, especially when Georgia was a baby,that I would have loved to jump in the car and head off to work, butoverall this has been a great set-up for our family. It’s given the kids agreat connection with me, and really suits our family.Tererry, local father of 2.Support for DadsRob Heller is currently working atAnglicare. He is the editor of theParentzone newsletter.He has a detailed list of resourcesfor dads. Please phone him on8470 9999 to request a copy of thiscomprehensive list.Some of the resourcesinclude:• Mensline Australia is a dedicatedservice for men with relationshipand family concernswww.menslineaus.org.au• Dads On The AirA community radio show based inSydneywww.dadsontheair.netand some other resourceswe found:• www.raisingchildren.net.authis website has a number ofresources for fathers, searchFathers or Stay at home dads.• www.gaydadsaustralia.com• Northern Dads PlaygroupPh Clint 0430 411 4951800 mum 2 mumis Australia’s first 24 hour toll-free helpline for breastfeedingmothers, delivering breastfeeding advice, mum to mum.News brief1800 mum 2 mum (1800 686 2 686) is run by the Australian BreastfeedingAssociation (ABA) and utilises the real-life experiences of over 200 trainedvolunteer counsellors each week who help other mums with issues including theearly days with a new baby, expressing and storing milk, weaning, supply and whatto do when baby simply says no.3
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Parent Voice Autumn 09 blue.pmd - City of Darebin

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