Ka mau te wehi! Awesome work!

We made it through what seems like the longest term in history. We have had two Mana Ake zoom drop in sessions, both of which were well received by parents. If you are interested in signing up for one of these please see the link in our newsletter.

Mana Ake provides support to children in Canterbury, promoting well-being and positive mental health. Through these zoom sessions Kaimahi can provide advice and guidance for parents and whānau.Parents often ask for great learning games or apps. A great literacy app which ties in really well with structure literacy programmes is Word Chain. This app supports learners to develop skills in phoneme sound knowledge which helps with both decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling). It does cost, but as do many good things in life.

I recently viewed Lea Waters' YouTube clip regarding Strengths Based Parenting which I really enjoyed and thought I would share with you. She talks of molding your child from clay and then thinking about what gets more attention, the beautiful parts of clay or the parts which are not yet properly formed. By focusing on the strengths they are amplified and the weaknesses are minimised. It's a great watch to promote positive psychology.

The best thing you can spend on your child is time. I hope you are able to take some well-deserved rest over the holidays and spend some quality time with your tamariki.

Ngā mihi

Jeanette Neal

Learning Support Co-ordinator