Gwynthe
Want to find out more about Gwynthe?
Give us a bell:
About Me
Hi, my name is Gwynthe, and I realised when I had my son at 46 years old that I wanted to be a teacher of preschool children. When Tom was born, I worked from home as a homebased educator and my son and the children I cared for attended Playcentre where I became part of the Playcentre association as the property manager and promotions team. When my son turned 5 years old I changed my role in life and became part of the design and build team based in Pukekohe and Karaka. After a few years the desire to return to teaching preschool children returned and I did some relieving work and taught in many centres in and around the South Auckland area. This gave me the opportunity to observe many philosophies and teaching styles. After a year I joined a family-owned learning centre in Pukekohe, where I worked for 3 and a half years, and at the same time I studied for my degree in ECE. I was then lucky enough to join a Montessori centre and really loved all that this bought to my teaching. It is a philosophy that I really love and you can see in my homebased environment today.
My interests are many, family involving music, creative arts, animals, entertaining and gardening.
My philosophy is to support the children so they can develop their own personality and become capable to work on their own, with our help from others. For the children to have freedom of choice to make their own decisions, become independent and to help each other. Without freedom it is impossible to develop fully, freedom is the key to the individual become aware of their self as an autonomous being.
Our Time Together
During the week we love to be outside as much as possible, this is one of the joys of living on a lifestyle property. The children really enjoy getting stuck into the garden and love to notice the change of seasons. We rake up the leaves, feed the chickens, enjoy the sandpit and mud kitchen. We do attend the Stems Little Explorer trips and love going to the gym classes in the winter terms.
When we are inside the children have a range of resources and we do enjoy a mat time together. I have a self-contained cottage on my property, so this is dedicated to the children. We love to celebrate birthdays and special occasions.
Stems FROM HOME Programme
Stems FROM HOME run a varied weekly programme that all of our Educators and whānau are welcome to attend. This includes;
Playgroup, Little Groovers Music, Korikori Tinana/Active Movement, Kaititiro Whenua (community explorers), and Art in The Park. We also frequently visit the local Rest Home and O Wairoa Marae, and do workshops for the children at Bunnings. All information is shared in our term flyer.
House Keeping
* First Aid/Civil Defence Kit * Cot/bed * Highchair * Car seats
* Personal linen and hand towels
* A quiet home environment, in which children are able to have really good naps (if needed). If your child has a dummy or security object for sleep time, please send these inside their bag.
* Programme planning and monthly learning stories about your child’s individual learning and development, by using Educa (online portfolios).
* A change of clothes as we like to fully experience everything we do!
* A hat and sunblock in summertime. Please apply sun block to your child in the morning and I will reapply during the day.
* Gumboots and a raincoat for the rainy months
* Sufficient nappies, wipes/cream, bibs, and feeding bottles
* A healthy packed lunchbox and a water bottle
Please remember to bring along your child’s Stems Journal. These
are a useful communication tool for sharing daily entries about your
child’s day, care routines, happenings and up-coming events).
