Flying Start

Each week Possum and I go to the Flying Start 0-4 year old program at our local primary school. Possum has a ball, so many different toys, so many things to do. I enjoy myself too, a chance to chat with other mums. I enjoy watching Possum follow in Amber’s footsteps by doing everything in his own time. When the others are doing craft he’s playing outside, when the others go outside he wants a book read, when it’s story time he’s moved onto the craft activity. We have a ball, and while we enjoy the cosy atmosphere with only a few other kids, I do wonder why it isn’t reaching the target audience.

Research shows that early exposure to books, craft etc will help kids at school. It also shows that many kids miss out on this exposure in their homes. This program is run with the aim of solving that problem by providing the kind of exposure to books and early learning kids need. Interestingly most of the kids who attend this program come from families that value education and who already have a high exposure to learning opportunities. How do we reach the kids who need it? Another interesting thing I found out this week is that the program isn’t funded in our town, they are running it on an oily rag by using the kindy classroom on its free days, and using all of the kind facilities. Why is it that in a town with consistently low educational outcomes is such an important program ignored? I asked the teacher and she suspects it is because the government is concerned that some mums would use it like day care, and just drop their 0-4 year old off and come back 2 hours later. Not a nice thought.