Am now in Singapore before flying on to New Zealand tomorrow..its very hot, sunny and a bit humid but very interesting. Saw  a lovely statue today which celebrates  all the children who used to play in the river years ago when   Singapore was a developing city in the 1800's....the statue is a series of bronze figures of children jumping off the pier side into the water....probably not very safe especially in view of the fact that the river must have been very polluted!  Apparently they only jumped in and swam at high tide as it wasn't    as dirty!!  Doing a risk assessment on that would be a nightmare.....but they were okay. Will try and learn how to attach a picture so that you can see it!!

I have always wanted to visit New Zealand and see their early years philosophy in action - having read loads about Te Whariki, listened to my gurus Margaret Carr and Wendy Lee at various conferences in the UK and read as much as I can about Learning Stories....I cant wait to visit. So what I am aiming to do is...

• See Te Whariki in action from the youngest to the oldest children
• Look at how children's creativity is supported through their play (indoors and outdoors) and how their interests, ideas and fascinations are followed
• Look at how learning stories and narratives are used to document children's thinking, learning and development
• Meet the children and do some observations - following the observational learning story practice
• See how New Zealand philosophy and practice has met with Reggio Emilia philosophy and practice - and share my thinking

And probably lots more.....but that will do for now!

Think my next post will be about how I became interested in Te Whariki........

Having decided to take a trip of a life time to New Zealand to see Te Whariki in action and find out more about the philosophy and practice I finally go on Tuesday 18th February...travelling via Singapore and then into Auckland on Saturday 22nd Feb.  This is a big adventure for me..especially as I am not a great lover of flying!!

I want to try and keep a Blog to share some of my experiences and visits to early years settings and centres in New Zealand as well as keeping in touch with people back home...so this is my first effort. See what you think.......