Our News 2025 •• 1st Edition
A huge welcome back to all of our returning families, and of course a huge Small Friends G’day to our new families for 2025! We hope the summer so far has been full of laughter and fantabulous moments, and everyone started the new year with smiles on their dials!
ROOM IN OUR HOUSE As we settle into January our house is certainly busy, but for now we do have some room if you need extra days.
Extra Days All extra day bookings need to be done by sending through a Booking Request via your Xplor Home app, and please remember that the best bet for securing extra days is being organised and trying to send through your request with as much notice as possible so that we can Approve or Deny as soon as we can.
Swaps This booking option will not be available between Monday 6 - Friday 31, however once we reach the first week of February we will be able to consider swaps which come with a few house rules :
You cannot use Xplor Home Booking Requests to request a swap.
Email your request with a minimum of 48 hours notice. Sending us an email on the weekend does not count as notice for a swap request for a Monday or Tuesday.
A swap can be to a day within a week of the date requested, no longer.
Please Remember
We do not allow for make up days in our world.
All days of absence whether they be for holidays or sickness are charged.
If your Small Friend is going to be absent for more than 3 weeks and you wish to have their enrolment suspended, you need to email a request to Tassj for her consideration.
SETTLING INTO OUR HOUSE Our housemates will be settling into life in our world as we know it, but remember there is always the chance even with our 2024 Small Friends, that they may become unsettled in the next few weeks. If this does happens we’ll catch up with you about whether we should make changes to your Small Friend’s week so as to help them to keep being a confident Little Person in our house.
YOUR SMALL FRIEND’S BITS ‘N BOBS My Bag Along with a piece of fruit and a lunchbox for Small Friends who are in the house for a full day, please remember to include nappies or underwear if needed, and a change of clothes with your Small Friend’s name on their clothing labels, water bottle and lunchbox. If Mama Nature turns up the heat, your Small Friend is more than welcome to pack their board shorts and rashie to change into if we decide to have a day of water play out in our backyard.
My Drink Bottle Please make sure your Small Friend’s drink bottle has their name on it and that it contains water, not a sugary drink. If you forget to pack their drink bottle we will make sure they have one of our house bottles on the water bottle trolley.
My Lunchbox Again we ask that you please label or write your Small Friend’s name on their lunch box, and be aware that our fridge space allows us to store 40 lunchboxes to keep them cool throughout the day, but we struggle if you send a lunch or lunchbox packed inside an insulted lunch bag as these take up a fair amount of room. To help us out we ask that you PLEASE pack your Small Friend’s lunch in a lunchbox only.
We encourage healthy choices at all meal times and like to keep to the traffic light concept like many educational spaces around Australia. Which means having a look at everything in our lunchbox to see which foods are Everyday Foods - GO! Sometimes Foods - SLOW or those treats which we call Once In A While Foods - WHOA! As many of you know, when we sit down for lunch everyone is encouraged to eat their sandwich (or sandwich alternative) before fruit, vegetables and dairy. and the treat, if they have one (biscuit/chocolate/chips) is left till last.
Please also remember that we have lunch between 12-12:30pm, so having a meal on offer that can be eaten in this time frame works for your Small Friend. However, packing a degustation style meal or large portions in your Small Friend’s lunchbox doesn’t help when it comes to them wanting to enjoy their lunch in 30 minutes.
MY DAY Our world is a creative real life space that mirrors our adult world where our Small Friends explore and experience learning and play adventures, songs, stories and activities that hopefully they will share with you at home. However, often if you ask ”what did you do today?” when you pick them up, they may not respond and it’s usually because all they want is a hug from you and to say G’day! Later when you’re home, or at your next destination they may choose to have a chat about their day.
It also takes a while to remember their new friends names, so don’t feel they haven’t made any friends when you ask and don't get a reply. Also keep in mind that depending on their age they may still be at the developmental stage of playing alongside other children, instead of engaging in shared play so social interactions are not always as you see them in your minds eye.
Your Small Friend won’t always create an artistic masterpiece at the end of the day, and whilst some of our themes inspire us to create an individual piece to bring home, we also like to work on creative projects together. Plus a lot of our creative work is done building a cubby house in the yard, cooking in the sandpit, etc. When they get to full time formal schooling their learning activities will be run in a more structured format, so we make sure that their time at Small Friends enhances their way of thinking and creativity, and gives them every opportunity to become social and communicative Little People.
PROTECTING MY SKIN Please remember that we prefer our housemates to wear a t-shirt rather than singlets or dresses with straps, as a short sleeved T-shirt gives them more protection from the sun while they’re out in our fabulous backyard. Please know that if we feel your Small Friend doesn’t have enough protection from the sun, we will help them to change into a Small Friend’s Tee for the day.
Whether your Small Friend is wearing one of our housemate hats or their own, while we’re playing in the playground we remind all of our Small Friends that we always stick to our house rule of No Hat No Play with no exceptions.
Before ringing the front door bell can you please ensure that you have applied sunscreen and mosquito repellant if your Small Friend is susceptible to mozzie bites. We reapply sunscreen throughout the day and have repellant on hand if needed. If your Small Friend cannot use the sunscreen, repellant, baby wipes and/or nappy cream we use, we need for you to let us know by completing a Skin Health form and ensuring we have a supply of the product/s they need to use when they’re hanging out in our house. Tap Here to check in with our form.
Time to get on with our 2025! *:• Your Small Friends Team
