Encouraging a Cultural Shift in FDC
===
[00:00:00] Good morning, good morning, or hello, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you find yourself on this earthly plane this week. I am happy to have you join me on this week's podcast. We are continuing in our conversation and topic of slow pedagogy and really breaking this down incrementally for you so that you can ponder these ideas over the week and then get another Input the following week.
So, this week we're going to be talking about encouraging a cultural shift in early education. Because this is what we need to do. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it. I honestly think the answer to the burnout that we are all feeling is adopting slow pedagogy. And this works for everybody because it allows the space for the children to follow their own ideas.
And it means that [00:01:00] you truly, as Kristen Peterson calls it, become a play detective. And you watch what the children are doing and you uncover what's happening from there. And then you support them by providing things that are going to scaffold that learning. or provide provocative things for them to extend their own learning and interest.
So this is how you truly run a child led program, by watching them, but also looking at them intrinsically as a whole human being and thinking about the things that you know, because we all walk the same continuum, just at different times, you know what's coming next. You know, okay, we're starting to move in this direction, so I am going to plan some of this, and I am going to make sure I have this ready, and oh, I can see a little bit of a potential deficit there, and I think actually we might need to [00:02:00] circle back and revisit this and just strengthen and solidify that learning a little bit more.
Uh, and this is where your professionalism comes in. So this is what we're going to be talking about today about encouraging a cultural shift in early education. Now it is quarter past eight in the morning, my cleaner normally does come, the birds are raucous, there's people mowing and whippersnapping and the washing machines on.
So if there's background noise, I'm just gonna say you're gonna have to put your early childhood education ears on and work past the distraction.
Hello, hello and welcome to the Big Hearted Podcast. My name is Victoria Edmond and I am your host. Our aim here at the Big Hearted Podcast is to nurture a community of heart centered educators to change the perception and delivery of early childhood education and care in Australia and ultimately around the world.[00:03:00]
We want you to be inspired by our guests and the topics we bring to you to think of new ways of being as an educator. We want you to feel a sense of belonging via this podcast so that you can engage any time of the day or night in any place that suits you. We want you to become an educator that delivers education from the heart as we believe this is how we create great change within our world.
So join us as we discover new ways to inspire each other here. On the big hearted podcast
Alright, so at the heart of slow pedagogy, there is mindfulness. You cannot be calm and slow and allowing time and space for things to unwind unless you are working in a mindful state. And I I really advocate, and I talk about this, um, [00:04:00] in, actually there's an entire module in the Essential Elements called Deeply Connected Relationships.
And I really feel like this is a key part of slow pedagogy. You can't have a deeply connected relationship with somebody. Until you are open to knowing who they are. And we must do that as early childhood educators with the children we work with. Because how do we then get a real sense of who we're working with and teaching and educating and sharing a space with if we don't take the time to slow down and observe and watch and be present.
And this is what mindfulness is. So part of what I teach in the essential elements is that educators can create this 10 minute bubble for themselves in the morning. Now, whether it be before your own children get up, and then you are able to share that mindfulness with your own children, or perhaps it's before like when your children go to school and before the family [00:05:00] daycare children arrive, wherever it works for you.
You find that 10 minutes and you make yourself a cup of tea or a coffee or whatever floats your boat for me. If you're watching on Instagram, I've got my alternate greens, my AG1, and that's the first thing that I do in the morning before I do anything else is I get up and I make my AG1s. Because it fuels my body and I know that it's good for me, but often when I'm drinking it, I'm sitting over in my corner and I'm looking out into nature and I'm just Looking at what's happening around me I try to have that 10 minutes of where I don't have any agenda because my brain does not stop Including at 3 30 in the morning It's running these lists and it's just so frustrating sometimes But I know when I'm doing that I haven't had enough Peace and quiet.
So it's it's interesting. So what I teach in the essential elements is that [00:06:00] in that 10 minutes you have space for yourself, but then you imagine those children that are coming for the day and you greet them before they even arrive and you. Wish them love and joy and all the things that matter to you and you hold an image of that child before they come to you and therefore your soul and their soul is already connecting and is already in relationship for the day and that's a really powerful piece because when you greet that child and you've already had a beautiful moment with them, your soul.
I'm going to just be full of all of that. So there's a whole module based on that in the essential elements. And I think it's a really important part that is often missed for fear of a variety of reasons. Um, and I think one of the main ones is potentially that educators are burnt out. And when you become burnt out, you don't have the time, the space, or the capacity [00:07:00] for giving.
And this is a real detriment in early childhood education, because by nature, we need to be giving to the children. They need us in ways that are Intrinsically bonding us together. They need us to be present for them. They need us to be aware of our own patterns of behavior that can come in and make us react to certain situations and in certain circumstances.
Reaction rather than responding. So, This is a really important piece, not just for the children, but for you. You hold the space. You are the person that is ultimately responsible for what's happening in the day and how that unfolds. You might have children that are dreadfully upset all day long, but it could still be a beautiful day.
And at the end of the day, you'll be exhausted because it [00:08:00] requires you to hold yourself. in a way that doesn't let your own emotions pour over onto the children. So It's really, like, this, the whole world is shifting in terms of that now as well, and I know, um, it's really, really interesting actually watching everything play out, like, children used to be seen and not heard.
across the board and they would just go and do whatever, wherever, whenever, however, whyever, with, uh, severe consequences at times because they would get pulled into line pretty swiftly. There was always someone watching out for them, um, wherever the children were and, uh, you know, things went wrong, things went badly wrong.
But that emotional damage of being seen and not heard, um, is, is pretty, pretty heartbreaking. Playing and like, I can see it coming through the [00:09:00] generations. Um, you know, my husband is of that generation. Um, you know, he's had a really traumatic injury. Um, uh, he's got PTSD from an accident and I will do a podcast on that, but not just yet, because I think it's important because there's so much of what happened there that can come over and be relevant to family daycare.
Anyway, he was saying, you know, he's of that ilk where you suffer in silence, you don't talk about your feelings, if you share your feelings, he's of that generation where you share your feelings, and that's a weakness. So Those men were raising the dads of today who are, you know, in between them there was the snag.
Do you remember the snag? Sensitive, new aged guy and it was all like a big meh, meh, meh. But we know we're evolving towards that. So as these changes happen, we become more aware of the emotional impact that [00:10:00] Um, Unfiltered emotions over the children. Now this comes to, towards the end of the year as well, when educators start saying to children, Oh, I'm gonna miss you.
It's not gonna be the same without you when you go off to big school. And I'm gonna be so sad. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That is not an appropriate conversation to have with a child. It's just not. You put responsibility on that child for your happiness, and that's not okay. The appropriate conversation would be to have, oh goodness, It's definitely not going to be the same when you're not here, fact and truth.
And it's so exciting that you're going to move on to the next part of your, your next chapter of your life, fact [00:11:00] and true. And you're going to meet some wonderful and interesting friends, fact and true. And you're going to go to school, fact and true. There is No pouring of your emotions and putting guilt on that child because children will feel guilt when you say to them, that makes me sad.
That's a really, like, I don't know how many times I've said that as an educator. Oh, I wish I could just pull all those words back in because it doesn't make me sad. It's making me cross that this argy bargy is happening between these children or that that child hurt that child. It never makes me sad that that happens.
Ever. I'm never sad. Why did I say that? Because there's an undertone of shame in that. And this is what we end up doing. We end up shaming the children to get what we want. We shame the children to get them to do [00:12:00] what we want them to do. And it's not okay. So we do that because we're rushed, we don't have time, we're not being mindful in our practice, we're not looking at the children and going, do you know what, this behavior is completely developmentally normal.
They're just being children. And what they're doing is they're practicing the roles. They're practicing Well, what happens if I cry and carry on like that? And this may be what works at home. And so these tried and tested patterns of behavior to get attention or to get the energy that they want, they work.
And so, that's the tool that they have developed, that's the thing that works for them. And then they bring it here because that's all they know. So then we need to be teaching them, I, I can understand, I see that you really want to have that, but somebody else is using it now. So here's an alternative way that you can [00:13:00] manage this situation.
And we're not going to say it in those terms, obviously, but Yep, you can be upset. That's fine. That's totally fine. If you would like a cuddle, I'm here to give you a cuddle. If you don't want a cuddle, that's okay. I'm going to go and sit over there. When you're ready, you can come over. You might go and check on them because they might be having a big, big old release.
That's okay. And it might come to a point where you go, you know what, I can't hold that space anymore, I'm going to ask you to stop, because you've had a long time to let that go, now it seems like you're stuck in that and you need some help to come out of it. I'm going to help you regulate your nervous system.
You're not saying those words, but that's what your actions and your energy is saying to the children. In last year's summit, Emma talked about, Emma Rattenbury talked about the way the brain connects and we're reading the signals between our brains before we're even [00:14:00] speaking them. And so when you go to assist a child to regulate their nervous system, you have to be in that space yourself.
And sometimes that's really hard, but this is your professional work. This is what you must do and master as an educator, and you cannot do that if you're trying to provide 50, 000 experiences for the children. You're rushed, you're disorganized, you don't know what you're doing. Can you see how this all builds into this thing of, you're not present.
You're just not present. And the first person you need to be present for is yourself. You need to provide that time and that space and this is why we, why I advocate for a less is more approach because there's less stuff to worry about. There's less things to manage, to [00:15:00] maintain. If the children are making a great big mess in your environment and that's triggering you, get rid of the stuff.
The problem isn't the children, the problem is the resources that you've provided. We need to take responsibility for what we do as educators. in setting up the space that we've set up. If it's frustrating you that parents are coming and spending half an hour at drop off, address the problem. We have to move past this people pleasing stuff and get to fact.
It's causing issues when you stay for half an hour. I'm not your friend. I am not your friend. We have a working relationship. I have a deeply connected relationship with you and your children when it comes to providing care and education for your children. But I'm not here for you to unload your day on.
Because what you're doing is you're [00:16:00] taking my presence away from the children that I'm being paid to work with. Fact, and it's okay to say to families, if you would like to book a time to talk more detailed about your child and what's happening with your child, I can make that space, but pick up times and drop off times.
You need to be aware that I need to be completely present with the children. So if you're wanting to have a longer conversation, you'll need to book me at another time. Because doing that with the children there isn't necessarily appropriate. So, These are things that we have to start taking responsibility for and putting into practice for ourselves.
Uh, so this comes down to being mindful, being mindful in our practice. And it's just, it's not just mindful with the children, it's mindful within our business as a whole. Because it's an entire [00:17:00] organism. Or um, entity. And so you can't just have, oh the children and that's it. To run a successful family daycare business, you must have these areas that are working fluently together.
And it's not always going to be, they're all in perfect balance. That's never ever ever going to happen. But you need to be able to identify these different areas in your business that are working together. The areas that you try to find as much balance in as possible, and that's being present with the children.
Number one, being present with the children and the flow of your day. That doesn't just seamlessly happen. That takes work and effort on your behalf to create that in breathing and that out breathing, to create your transitions and all those sorts of things that are really helpful in the day because it takes a lot of effort to put that work in now, but then once it's done and the children are in [00:18:00] that rhythm, your days become a breeze.
I promise you, I promise you because it's how I ran my day and I did it with the preschool class. Like I talked about last week, those 30 odd children, 24 odd children, whatever it was, I can't even remember now. It was a bit of a. A bit of a blur and a nightmare situation once they were satisfied and they had their needs met and they were engaged and they knew what was happening they were able to relax and when they relaxed our days became so much more enjoyable.
So it does work, and it happens, and it can happen, but it takes so much effort from you to put it in at the beginning. But once it's in place, anybody else that comes into that, your other children will set that tone for them and hold that space for them. The children do most of the work. So this is how we [00:19:00] create these beautiful symbiotic communities.
By creating and holding that space, but it takes work to put into it first. So one of the pillars is the children that you work with. The other pillar is your business practice. And that's, you know, looking at the tax and your income and the figures and understanding that when that's out of balance, that pulls away your energy from working with the children.
So when that one becomes severely out of balance and you're worried and you're stressed and you're concerned and you've got, you know, part of your brain and your thoughts are on that particular situation all day long, it pulls you out of mindfulness and presence with the children, which then is going to have a flow on effect.
So, getting these things in order is really important and staying on top of these things is really important. The next part is your programming and your [00:20:00] documentation. So many educators are constantly, like, unclear as to what they're doing and why they're doing it and how they're doing it and they wing things and they are reacting instead of being responsive.
Being responsive means you've observed something. You've thought about it. What does this mean? Where is this going? Okay, so I am going to be preemptively putting these things in place, because I can see, from my knowledge of the children, that this is where this is going. So, Programming and practice, having that down pat is really, really important, and I can help you with that with the seasonal planning sessions, and the next one is on the 15th of February, so if you're listening before the 15th of February 2025, there is a planning session and the show, the links will be in the show notes, and I'll be putting social media out and sending emails for that in the next, um, [00:21:00] Well, today, so, um, you'll be able to jump onto that.
And, and this idea of seasonal planning helps you to be able to look at the mindful behavior that you want to achieve in your day to day, right? When you know what you're doing and you know why you're doing it, it frees up so much brain space. It allows you to be even more present with the children. And when, when it drops for people, they, every single person who has stuck with the seasonal planning and they've worked with it to make it work for them and tweaked things and refined things to work for them, they've taken the broad concept and then refined it down, have all said we'll never, ever, ever work any other way.
will never work any other way. It's so much easier. And you begin building your resources that you can pull on in an instant because [00:22:00] you can look back. Last year we did this, the year before we did that, the year before that we did this. So this is all able to come into this season. I'm talking about songs and crafts and things that you may want to do and food and things that you may want to cook with the children and all those sorts of things.
They become easy to grab because you have this back catalogue of all these things that you've done in the past that will still work for new children that come through. Um, so. It allows you to be more flexible and spontaneous with the children as well, because when you know what you want to focus on, it may be on different areas of each day, or it may be one big group thing that you're doing with the children, but it gives you that direction, and then you know that you've met the requirements.
You've ticked all the boxes you've needed to tick. You've done it in a meaningful and professional and engaging way. And your professional brain is like switched on [00:23:00] because you know what you're doing and you know why you're doing it and you're actually putting things in place before time. And so when you're able to do that, you feel successful.
So then there's the boundaries. And boundaries, first and foremost, must be met by you. You have to have self discipline. You have to have. And you'll know when you fall off the train, Oh man, you know everything starts falling apart. Right? So, these boundaries, and I cannot believe I'm talking about this, but go to bed early!
Turn your phone off. Don't have it near your bed. Like, trust me, I, I'm a recovering phone addict. Um, you know, so, yeah, having your phone near your bed, terrible, terrible, terrible. Because we're all, it's an addiction, it really is. So, making sure your phone's not [00:24:00] near you when you go to bed. Um, have some wholesome reading, or maybe not wholesome reading, depending on what you read!
Uh, there's some, an explosion of wild books out there now, shall we say? May have read a few of them. None of them really match up to Outlander for me. But anyway, I digress. Having this self discipline means getting yourself to bed early so that you're prepared and ready for the next day, mentally and emotionally.
You've had a restful sleep, you've recovered. All these things are really important for when you go to work. I mean, think about it. The Australian Open has just been on the tennis and I was looking at all these people warming up before their matches and, um, bit getting organized and ready. And, and, uh, they did an interview with Yannick Sinner, the world number one, and they were like, what are you going to go and do now?
And he's like, Oh, I'm going to go to bed. [00:25:00] Uh, I had 10 hours sleep last night and the host was like, you what? And he's like, yeah, I had 10 hours. I was like, bro, I need to do what you're doing. Yeah, I'm not running around tennis court like that, but you know, they prioritize rest and recovery. And just because they're physical on the court, bet you they couldn't handle a day in a daycare because the mental strain and drain.
and the emotional strain and drain. We just go on with it because it's just what we do without prioritizing that for ourselves. So this is where that self discipline really comes in and it might be that you make sure you make your lunch before the children arrive or you've got leftovers from the night before so that you're not sitting there and setting a bad example for the children and not fueling your body in a way that tells your body you love it [00:26:00] and not having a meal like eat with the children please eat with the children so that you can eat at the same time i think someone's here because my dog is going yes my clean is here just i'm just going to pause this for a second
So this is the other part of that self discipline is really making sure that you're doing the things you need to do to make sure that you're fueled well and on top of that Being mindful means sitting down and eating. Uh, if you've got four babies, you can still eat your lunch. You can give them finger foods to gnaw on if they're at that place, where they can be eating stuff and you can be eating as well, because children will mimic us and you need to be that person who can role model for them.
Set your eating space up so that it's easy for [00:27:00] you. Like we've got to look at all these things and so that it's easy for the children too. But sitting down together and having a meal is the epitome of mindfulness. And so I really want to encourage educators to consider that that could be something a small yet significant change that they can put into their day that is going to have beneficial results and super positive.
Uh, impacts on your working relationship with the children. So, Slow Pedagogy, it advocates for that cultural shift towards that mindfulness and presence. It's valuing the here and the now, rather than focusing solely on future readiness. So, when you get that opportunity to really create an environment that So, it is an important piece of evidence that, [00:28:00] uh, non prvi We get, in family daycare, such an incredible opportunity to work with a smaller ratio of children.
You all know it's my opinion that family daycare is by far the superior choice of early childhood education for children in the early years. Under all circumstances, uh, I just think that having that Slow a pace, having just three other children with an educator in that home environment really means that children are getting the best that they possibly can.
It becomes an extension of their home. And Yes, there are boundaries that come into place around your home and how you operate in your home, uh, both from a government compliance and service perspective, but [00:29:00] also because you may be nodding, not allowing the children to jump on the couch, uh, walk around your house, eating, watch TV all day.
All these things, these are different rules that you may have that are different to their home, but this is all part of that learning process of how they are going to integrate into society. And it's a really gentle way of doing it, uh, to be one step away from the home, but still in a home environment to learn how to hold oneself in an, in, in an environment, which is not your own environment.
and eventually it becomes their own once they've been in care with you for a while. They quite often will feel very much at home. Uh, so Which is the ultimate goal, really. But what they're doing is they're learning that this culture is different to this culture. The culture at home, in my home with my mummy and my daddy and my [00:30:00] siblings is different to the culture that I have when I'm at Miss Tori's place with the other children, um, from care.
So, it's, it's like getting the children, that's how we get them ready. in these incremental moments where we allow the children to Unfold in the way that they are ready to unfold and we support them along the way. But we do that by being a role model worthy of imitation and that comes from having self discipline.
That comes from making sure that you've got those pillars within your business running as best as you can. And as I said, they're never going to all be in perfect alignment. all the time. You're going to have moments of it and you'll be like, this is awesome! And then something will happen and something will change.
So it is really important that you [00:31:00] are aware of those and bring your awareness to it because that's how you can start to change the culture within early childhood education. through your own business and when you are inspired and when you feel like oh my gosh this is incredible like i've put the work in and i'm reaping the benefits of it now and i love what i do are the children i love the children that i work with and Yes, you can have love for the children that you work with.
I'm not even going to open that conversation. You, but you love the children you work with. You understand and have a real professional engagement with your programming and your practice. You're being financially remunerated for the work that you do. You're not in debt to the tax office. You're getting a profit because yes, you absolutely can Profit and should profit from your family daycare business.
Do not come [00:32:00] at me and say you can't profit off the children You're not profiting off the children. Let me be really clear about that You are profiting off the work that you've done The parents are paying you For the time freedom for themselves to be able to go and earn their income You are not profiting off the children.
You are not out there Selling the children's artwork or, um, selling them to go and dig holes in someone's garden, like, you are not profiting off the children. You are profiting off the hard work that you put in. Those four pillars to meet those, those pillars within your business, that is hard work. That is, takes discipline and it takes sacrifice in some areas of your life to make sure that these things flow smoothly, right?
So you should be financially rewarded and be profitable in your family [00:33:00] daycare business. When you meet those things, And they hum along nicely and there's a little bit of, you know, ebb and flow in those too. But this is how you can, can you imagine all those things working well, how different you will be within your business, how different you will be with your family, your own family.
How different you'll be in your life. So this is the power of slow pedagogy. If you can hear my washing machine, it goes for hours, and I do apologize. Um, so when you can get all those things functioning and you put all that work in place, can you see how that will give you more space, more time, more enjoyment, more freedom?
Freedom, more flexibility within your day-to-day practice with the children. That is true slow pedagogy because it works for both the children and it works for you because there's enjoyment for both of you. So. That's [00:34:00] where we need to create this culture shift in early childhood education. It starts with us, right?
You, yes, you have to meet your service policies and the regulations, but the regulations are broad for that very reason, that they have to be able to accommodate all service types, all situations, and all scenarios, right? So you've got to be able to meet that, and you've got to be able to operate under your service policies.
But other than that, you get to do whatever you want to do. If you want to change your programming style, you get to do that. And you don't have to ask questions. If you want to, um, change your furniture, you get to do that and you don't have to ask questions. You don't have some centre manager coming down or area manager coming in going, you can't do that.
Someone else sitting in an office who's never worked in early childhood education, writing things that you have to do. You just [00:35:00] don't get that in family daycare. The level of freedom and flexibility that we have as family daycare educators is second to none. So I just really hope that that inspires you.
Sorry. I got a little bit ranty right at the end there. Um, yeah, we're not profiting off children. Sorry. I'm stuck on that now. I'm like, Oh, that was really good. So this is how we start that culture change though. in in our own individual family daycare education places. This is how we change the culture in early childhood because when you really get to that place yourself and you feel that and you love what you do, you become an advocate just like I do.
You, I get messages. Daily, many messages daily about how I just love your passion. I love what you share. You make sense. Blah, blah, blah. It's because it's, it's lived in me. It [00:36:00] lives in me still, and I want it to live in you too. And it's going, I'm not going to tell you it's going to be easy because I don't lie.
Like I'm, I don't sugarcoat stuff. I'm quite real. I do censor myself a lot, but I, I am still. Really real about this. It takes that self discipline and it takes work But once you've invested that and you put it in it is so much easier so much easier and I really want that ease for you and I want that ease for the children and I want family daycare to grow and I want More educators to come into our sector because I think it is the best thing for educators and for children.
So, how do we get that balance? We really are mindful about what we do. We bring that flow pedagogy in and there's several ways you can go about doing that if you want help. There [00:37:00] is our autumn planning which is on the 15th of February. I'm positive it's on the 15th of February. Uh, yes, it's on the 15th of February and I will put the show note, the link in the show notes, but, uh, you can also go to, um, autumn planning.
Uh, let me get the website for you. You can go to www. bigheartededucation. com forward slash. I'm trying to find it. It's on the website. Sorry. I'm on the wrong page. I think I did this on the last session last episode too. You want to go to
www. BigHeartedEducation forward slash, come on computer, you can take me to that page. Come on! It's not working! That's because I'm driving it. Okay, I did have [00:38:00] it wrong. It's www. BigHeartedEducation. com forward slash autumn planning 2025. And I will have some social media up. I'll also be sending an email this morning.
Um, well. You will have got it last week because I'm recording this a week early. So there's emails will have come out. You will have had the opportunity to, um, jump onto the planning session there and it'll be all over social media as well. Um, and if you want to connect in person, like if doing things online, isn't your jam, I've got you covered for that too, because we have the conference, um, which is.
For sale, uh, tickets are for sale now. It's on the beautiful gold coast in June. So winter on the gold coast is next level. Incredible. Uh, you get to walk around in shorts and shirts during the day. It's so beautiful. It's cold at night, but then you get beautiful weather in the morning. We're in surface, so there can be beautiful beach walks in the morning before conference, and we're at an incredible [00:39:00] venue.
Oh my God, it's so beautiful. Cannot wait to have you there. We've got so many speakers. There's Katrina Ashmore, who again is going to be talking about professionalism in family daycare. She's going to be sharing with services about a scenario and a situation that happened in their business, which there is a huge amount of learning that we as service providers and coordination units can get and learn from, so that is going to be incredible for both families.
Uh, services and educators. Then we've got Yvonne Godfrey coming over from New Zealand. Uh, she's going to be talking to services about remote leadership, uh, because all of us are doing remote leadership and working with teams remotely. So that is going to be incredibly beneficial, beneficial for services.
Um, she ran one of Australasia's biggest network 21 businesses for years and years and years. So they're still in it. She's kind of stepped away from it, but her husband, [00:40:00] Simon, still runs it. But to get to that level. of running a huge business like that is incredible and the skills that she has to share with us around things like that is next level.
She also was a professional speaker with Network 21 and has spoken globally. So she's an incredible presenter and I cannot wait to, uh, for you to see her. She's also, now she works with, with young adults. Uh, so what she's going to talk to us about is what she wishes that, um, parents would put in place when the children were little.
So that she doesn't have to work with parents at that stage that she that they're at with, You know, difficult teens and young adults. So that's Yvonne and then we've got Christy McVie coming. She is our child safety specialist. She is an ex detective with the WA Police Force who worked for 10 years [00:41:00] in the Child Protection Special Investigations Unit and was a specialist interviewer for children who had been abused.
So she now has left. the force and has a huge mission to talk about child safety, um, and the, the implementation of AI in that and grooming and all of that sort of stuff that happens. So, um, she's going to be talking to services, uh, about how that can, um, impact. She's going to be talking about, um, services and the stuff that services face.
Uh, and the problems and the things that are, you know, we're vulnerable as approved providers in family daycare. So she's going to be talking to us specifically about how we can make our environment safer, uh, for children and for educators and for us. And then she's going to be talking to educators on the 7th of June [00:42:00] about how you can.
Protect yourself as an educator. Things that you can put in place to protect the children. Things that you will be able to do. Conversations you can have with children. And it's a whole lot of stuff that Christy is going to be sharing with us as well. Uh, and then of course the big news, drum roll, please.
Is Kristen Day from the USA coming and sharing her press pause keynote. It is so. on topic and on trend with slow pedagogy. Uh, the way Kristen presents is hilarious. I met with her and, um, listened to her presentation, her keynote at, um, the main A E C E conference, uh, last year in, I think it was November and she is.
Fantastic. So if you just happy to see her once that's great or you can jump up to the VIP session [00:43:00] and you'll get another special Speech or or presentation with Kristen. Uh, plus you'll get to enjoy two hours of wine and cheese and a meet and greet with, uh, some of our speakers, which is gonna be epic.
But the thing I haven't really talked about yet that I really want to let people know is there is going to be a forum style conversation at the end of the afternoon where all of our speakers will be sitting on stage and we, you'll be given the floor. You get to ask whatever you want to ask. Anybody who was involved in last year's summer and attended night three Q& A, it was like a forum and we just talked about things that were concerning us about family day care.
We came up with solutions. We were like, Oh, we need to blah, blah, blah, think about this and consider that and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was probably one of the most profound conversations I've had within the family daycare profession in the entire 12 years that I've worked here. So we're going to open [00:44:00] that floor up to all of us.
So, and you've got questions that you want to ask. to the speakers that were, you know, further to what they shared, um, you're going to be able to give, be given that opportunity. So, um, yeah, I'm really excited for the conference. So if you want in person conference, um, you need to get to the Gold Coast. Uh, you can get to the website.
www. bigheartededucation. com forward slash conference. It is also on my social media. So and on the website so you can just go to bigheartededucation. com and everything will be there for you as well. So and of course. If you want more support and you want to really learn the blueprint of how to put these things into play, you need to jump onto the essential elements.
That is the only way that you are going to be able to, uh, get your, [00:45:00] um, business firing with all the support that you absolutely deserve. and need to run a successful family daycare business. We have the most incredible community of educators within the essential elements. And, um, it's just, I don't know. I just think there's nothing else out there for educators.
Family daycare educators like what you get in the essential elements. There just, there just isn't. And I just think. If you want more, if you want to really engage in your business and you really want to take your business to where it's going to be profitable, where you're going to enjoy it, where you're not going to burn out, where you're in the driver's seat of your business in every aspect of your business, then you need to get into the essential elements.
You, when you purchase the essential elements, will get lifetime access to To the essential elements. So [00:46:00] once you're 12 months, um, It is up in the Essential Elements. You get to keep access to those videos for the life of the course. Uh, if you want to then continue on with the masterclasses and the, um, Q& A sessions and in the community, then you will get to jump into the membership.
So when you join Essential Elements, you'll get 12 months bonus access to the membership, and then you'll get to move into the membership if you want to keep in touch with the community and the masterclasses and whatnot. So if you're interested in that, you can go to big hearted education. com forward slash essential dash elements.
And that will take you to our essential elements page, or you can look under courses on the website. So lots is happening. There is so much around to help you. And of course, summit this year, I'm not even going to talk about summit. Cause it's. It's in May. It'll happen and you'll get heaps of information about that in due course as well, but there is a summit So you can join that for free [00:47:00] or you can upgrade to VIP as well.
So Yeah, that's that's what's happening this year friends. There's a lot out there. There's a lot for you to jump on board and take little pieces as you want. And, uh, yeah, it is going to be epic and a fantastic 20, 25, all designed. That is like the blueprint to give you little bits and pieces along the way to help you make sure that your business is like booming and ticking along and doing all the things that should be, because you.
deserve it, my friend. Well, that's it for me today. I hope you have a fabulous day and I look forward to catching up with you very, very soon. Thank you for listening and until next time, big love.
[00:48:00]
