An Introduction to STEM in the Early Years

STEM is huge in schools right now, but from what I hear many parents don't really know what it is or why it's so important. And some teachers may be not sure how to tackle it, where to fit it into their timetables and how to come up with engaging STEM activities into their classrooms.

This is a sponsored post as part of my Brand Ambassadorship with STEM Nest. 

STEM is an acronym for the subject areas;
S - Science
T - Technology
E - Engineering
M - Maths

To elaborate on these subject areas, in STEM we explore the science of how things work, we keeping up to date with new technologies which are ever evolving, we get to be mini engineers to design and construct our own machines and finally we use mathematical skills to do it all!

You may have also heard of the acronym STEAM with the addition of A for Art, and I recently came across METALS (where the L stands for Literacy).

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Being Water Wise {Junior Primary Science Ideas}

Let's talk about Science today!
I love teaching Science. It's one of the most 'hands on' subjects. Children get to observe the world around them and figure out how things work. They get to predict, hypothesise, experiment, discuss, record and reflect. This term in Year Two we are focussing on the theme WATER!

Disclosure: I'm a Brand Ambassador for Teach Starter. This is a sponsored post. 

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Teacher By Day {Melissa - Paper Halo}

Hi everyone!
Today's teacher by day is an Adelaidian like me and I'm so pleased to have her here on the blog to share a bit about her biz. Meet Melissa from Paper Halo. She knows all about weddings, parties and events and creates gorgeous invitations and stationery. 

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Toy Storage Ideas With Play Pouch

Is this story familiar to you?

Kid digging through the huge tub of lego.
"Mum, I need the skinny red piece..."
Mum helps kid to find the exact piece they want.
1 minute later...
"Mum, I need the blue square piece."
Mum helps kid to find it
"Mum I can't find the ..."
*Tantrum imminent
Kid tips out entire tub of lego to find the piece they want. 
Later on mum ends up stepping on lego, followed by cleaning it up when kids have gone to bed. 

Well I've discovered a solution to this ever so common problem of where and how to store your gigantic collection of Lego and/or Duplo. Introducing the Play Pouch!
*Kindly gifted for the purpose of this review

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Fairytale Inspired Imaginary Play {With Little Peggys}

It's been a while since my last small business product review so today I'm really pleased to introduce you to "Little Peggys". Hand painted peg dolls ideal for imaginary play and perfect for little hands. We were lucky enough to sample the Goldilocks set + The Three Little Pigs set and I watched them unlock a whole heap of pretend play possibilities, language development and story telling. Both of my kids love playing with them.

*Kindly gifted for the purpose of this review.

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That time we went to Sydney {and survived Little Man's first flight}

Hello friends!
We have just got home from our first 'family-of-four' holiday. We enjoyed 4 days in gorgeous Sydney, more specifically Darling Harbour. It was crazy busy with the kids, trying to juggle everything and keep everyone happy - but we made it and the fun times far outweighed the tantrums and grizzles ;)

There was so much fun stuff for kids to do over there that I couldn't keep it all to myself and had to share a few highlights and snapshots of our trip!

The kids are checking out the view

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How I Got Started with TRIBE

Have you heard of TRIBE? If you're a blogger, influencer or a brand and haven't heard of it, or you'd like to know more about it and how to get started, please keep reading!

TRIBE is an app which connects brands with social media influencers. It's a way for people like me (sometimes referred to as a micro-influencer) with a reasonable size social media following to be paid to recommend brands they use and love. The example below was a post for Chux Superwipes which was right up my ally! They were looking for messy play activities with the Chux Superwipe being used to clean up afterwards - like it never happened!

Chux Superwipes Messy Play Campaign

Rewind to this time last year, and I first heard about TRIBE on The Project, and signed up immediately. Then was the painstaking climb to get to 3000 followers on Instagram to be able to get started. But I got there. And today I'm at 10.4k and growing by about 100 followers per week.

Instagram is my jam and I've been able to make it work for me.

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