Greetings from Lorraine Sands...... I am stunned by the sight of children, snowmen and bicycles in the snow! I saw the satellite picture of Britain gripped in blizzard conditions and the wow factor was right up there because I was just heading off to the surf beach at Mount Maunganui, for a walk around Mauao and a swim in the ocean. Seeing Margy’s granddaughter rugged up so snugly, it struck me how differently children experience their very first encounters with the people, places and things in their world. Just from this one perspective, weather, let alone anything else, they begin to engage with papatuanuku (Maori, for earth mother), building those working theories that will take them further into an understanding of their world. I am so looking forward to exploring this further with two of Margy’s team from Pen Green, Felicity and Tracy when they come to New Zealand in February for a series of work shops in Auckland and Tauranga. We will be interested to find out more about Pen Green’s philosophy around partnerships with parents and the research that led to their pedagogic strategies Parents Involved in their Children's Learning (PICL) and explore the theories wrapped around their Baby Nest. The teachers at Greerton Early Childhood Centre will be collaborating in these workshops so it will be interesting to engage with our view via Te Whāriki (the New Zealand National Curriculum) and consider the things we have in common and the diversity! Some thought provoking conversations will ensue I’m sure. In the mean time these pictures of life for children in the Tauranga sunshine and the walk around Mauao, might just entice a few more visitors out of the bitter northern winter into the southern warmth. In NZ we are stripping off, slip, slop, slapping the suncream and wading into water!
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