'Providing children with a Natural Childhood, and gathering precious memories along the way'
BRIBIE ISLAND
Community Kindergarten
Taking enrolments NOW
Bribie Island Community Kindy & Bribie Island Aged Care
We are excited to share information about our weekly visits to the Bribie Island Aged Care Facility in Foley Street. The facility is within walking distance from Kindy. These visits occur each and every Friday during term time. We leave Kindy at 9.45am and return approximately 11.45am.
Even though this is a Dolphin day we encourage Turtle children and a parent to also join us. We have a roster and take maximum 11 Dolphins each week so the children have the opportunity to have two visits each month. If a child does not want to join us on a particular visit then they are able to remain at Kindy with other team members. These visits have enormous benefits for both the children and the residents.
In Australia, many families are dispersed around the country and even around the world, and many of the older residents at the Bribie Island Aged Care Service do not have grandchildren and/or great grandchildren living close by and some don’t have any family at all. Also perhaps some of our children don’t have access to grandparents living nearby so the benefits for both generations are immeasurable.
Knowing the importance of family and community, and really valuing the knowledge and experience of the senior members of our community, this is a valuable experience for the children. And they will certainly benefit from learning from and communicating with mature and experienced senior role models. In addition, we feel that the children will benefit from being in a nurturing environment with a sense of added purpose, assisting the older person to feel less isolated from their community. Not to mention how much fun both the children and the residents are having joining together in activities of equal value and purpose.
Some of the activities we engage in are group reading, children joining in on the concerts and the children performing for the residents, art and craft work, puzzles, games, music therapy and maybe building with small manipulatives and of course those rich and meaningful conversations that happen when bringing the old and young together.
Bribie Island Community Kindergarten and Bribie Island Aged Care are firmly committed to this innovative program and we look forward to strengthening intergenerational relationships now and into the future”