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Written by the team at Dashing Ducks Croydon
Inner West Childcare: Father's Day at Dashing Ducks Croydon
Our Croydon preschool has run a Father’s Day morning every year it has been open. This one broke the record. On Wednesday 2 September, the Wednesday before Father’s Day, more dads, grandads and father figures came through our doors than at any Father’s Day we have held.
Most families choose an Inner West childcare centre on practical grounds. Hours, fees, how far it is from the station. What keeps them somewhere is harder to write on a page, and a morning like this one is a fair sample of it.
Our biggest Father's Day turnout yet
The morning ran on cuddles, games, treats and a great deal of laughter. The children spent it celebrating the role models in their lives, and we were glad to have so many of those role models actually in the building.
The best part of a morning like this is watching a child work out that their dad is here, in their room, on an ordinary Wednesday. Children spend a large share of their week in a place their families mostly see from the doorway at drop-off. Handing that place over for a couple of hours changes how a child feels about it, and how a parent feels about it too.
We cannot take much credit for the turnout itself. Families made time in the middle of a work week to be there, and that is the part we are grateful for.
We also know a weekday morning does not suit everyone. Some families cannot take the time off, and that is not a failure of anything. There will be another one, and in the meantime the door is open on ordinary days too.
What a morning like this gives children
Young children read the adults around them closely. When a child sees their dad standing in their room, talking to the educator who greets them every morning, two parts of their life that usually stay separate line up. For a three-year-old that is reassuring in a way that is difficult to explain to them and easy to see in them.
There is good evidence behind it. Raising Children Network, the Australian parenting service funded by the federal government, has a large section on how warm, involved relationships with fathers and father figures shape a child’s confidence, language and emotional development from the earliest years. Time spent playing together matters more than most of the things parents worry about.
It runs the other way as well. A parent who normally only sees the centre at 8am gets a couple of hours to watch their child in full flight: who they sit next to, and what they are proud to show off. Children are often more independent at preschool than they are at home, which tends to surprise parents the first time they see it.
None of this needs a special event to work. A dad who stays for one book at pick-up on a Thursday afternoon is doing the same thing on a smaller scale, and children notice it just as much.
Why moments like this matter in early learning
Family partnership sits near the middle of the Early Years Learning Framework that guides our program. Outcome 1 covers identity, and a young child’s identity is built first inside their family. Outcome 2 covers being connected with and contributing to their world. A grandad folded onto a child-sized chair and joining in is that work, not a break from it.
Our educators use a day like this the way they use any other day. They watch who a child brings over, what a child chooses to show, and how a child behaves when the two halves of their world are standing in the same room. You learn things about a three-year-old on a morning like that which no amount of observation on a quiet Tuesday will give you.
Open doors at our Inner West childcare centre
The same thinking runs through the rest of our year. Last week our children were invited to take part in the Book Week parade at Holy Innocents’ Catholic Primary School, a short walk from us. For the older ducklings it was an early look at a school many of them will go on to start at, and for us it was another reason to be glad we are in this particular pocket of the Inner West.
If you are weighing up centres, the government’s Starting Blocks site explains what the quality ratings actually mean, which is more useful than most of what gets written about choosing care. Our own families have had their say as well.
Father’s Day is one morning out of the year. The reason we make something of it is the same reason we keep the doors open the rest of the time. Children do better when the adults who matter to them know each other. If you would rather see an ordinary day at our Croydon centre than a special one, get in touch and come and have a look.
Come and meet our ducklings
Some things are easier to show than describe. If you would like to see the rooms our Father’s Day morning filled up, and how a normal day at our Croydon centre actually feels, come and spend twenty minutes with us. Book a visit, or read what other Inner West families have said about us first.
Dashing Ducks
Friendly, Experienced Team
Family-Owned, always
Nutritious Meals daily
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