National Pyjama Day 2022
National Pyjama Day is back and bigger than ever! Join us in our mission to support the educational and life outcomes of kids living in foster care, all while rocking your favourite PJs!
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Fun Activities for this Easter Long Weekend
Hop into the long weekend with some of our favourite fun Easter inspired crafts and book reads.
Jolly Christmas Crafts
Christmas is right around the corner and it is time to embrace the festive spirit of the season. We have gathered a complete Santa’s list of Christmas crafts to do with your little ones.
Spooky Season Arts & Crafts
Whether you’re having a Halloween party or looking to celebrate at home with your little one, these spook-tacular Halloween arts and crafts for kids will make your Halloween ghoulish fun!
Letting creative flare thrive! Arts & crafts for every age
Nurturing your special little ones’ creative spirit is especially important. We’ve found some super fun craft ideas that you can do on your next weekly visit to spark imagination and creative play. Don’t worry, we’ve made sure these ideas use things you probably have lying around at home. This means no special tools are required.
We feel these super fun craft sessions are a great way to spend quality time together where the little ones can explore their creative passions.
Rock painting (Ages 3-7)
This arts and craft activity means you and your little one might have to explore the great outdoors for a while. The kiddies can let their imagination run wild and create ANY type of rock pet. Create anything from lions to lady bugs to even fish!
Microwave puffy paint (Ages 4-9)
Microwave puffy paint is a fantastic way to combine art and science! Watch the artwork puff up and grow in a matter of seconds.
Fire breathing dragon craft (Ages 4-7)
Bring a fire breathing dragon to life with this adorable little craft! This simple project only needs some old toilet paper role, tissue paper, poms poms, and most importantly, googly eyes.
Bubble painting (Ages 5-9)
There’s something so magical about making bubbles. This is the perfect outdoor arts and craft activity that the kids will love when you come over for your visit.
Water colour salt painting (Ages 5-14)
This one is sure to be a hit with the younger creative geniuses. Panting with the salt is like magic – it creates intriguing and interesting textures and patterns.
Paper plate sewing craft (Ages 7-12)
These cute little insect sewing projects are a great way to begin teaching children how to sew. The best part of this project is that the craft is adaptable for kids of all ages so everyone can get involved in this one.
Origami faces (Ages 9-16)
Get really crafty with this cool and quirky project! The creative little ones can try and make an origami version of all their favourite people, book characters or super heroes.
Origami corner bookmarks craft (Ages 9-17)
Here at The Pyjama Foundation, we absolutely love our books and love reading them even more. This clever and cute little DIY craft activity means you can always pick up exactly where you left off and never lose your place.
Stomp rocket (Ages 12-17)
This rocket uses the power of compressed to launch high into the sky – future engineers, take note: this is called pneumatics. After you’ve launched your rocket, just blow into the tubes to inflate the bottle once again and have another turn. So much fun!
For more activities to try out with your kids, check out our science and healthy food activity posts. Don’t forget to tell us all about it!
Foster carers empowered with unique training
In Australia, there are more than 48,000 children in the foster care system and of this number, approximately 75 per cent won’t finish high school.
The reality is many of these children may have never felt a sense of love and support in their lives, leaving it up to their carers to put the pieces back together.
A training initiative launched in Victoria by Carer KaFE, in collaboration with The Pyjama Foundation is aiming to provide a new level of educational support.
In 2019, Carer KaFE will be working with The Pyjama Foundation to support carers in assisting their children with their learning, an area many of them may have never felt comfortable delving into.
It’s an area The Pyjama Foundation have been providing support in for more than 15 years, matching trained learning mentors with children in the system to provide educational support.
The Pyjama Foundation Program Manager Kevin Gallard said throughout his time training Pyjama Angel community volunteers he has met many wonderful carers who he describes as the “angels”.
“Our Love of Learning program allows us to support these carers by providing them with a special Pyjama Angel for their child, often giving them an hour of respite each week,” he said.
“This training takes this support one step further, empowering our carers with the tools to directly support their children with their education.
“Our program offers tried and tested learning methodologies which are research based and match the current curriculum.
“We demonstrate to foster parents how to support their children with literacy and numeracy in a fun and engaging manner.”
Launched in 2017, Carer KaFE provides learning and development opportunities for Kinship and Foster carers throughout Victoria.
Program Manager Penny Daly said this type of education was something carers were calling out for.
“Our evaluations and feedback from kinship and foster carers across the State told us that helping children and young people with their homework is something carers need support with,” she said.
“After seeing Kevin present at the Queensland National Foster Care Conference, we knew that we had found the perfect answer to the carers requests.
“Carers leave these sessions with a bag of wonderful resources that turn homework help into fun games.”
Kinship and Foster carers said the support received in this session was invaluable, providing strategies and resources to use for all ages.
“I felt stuck in helping my child educationally, now I have strategies to help and resources to use,” one said.
“I learnt new techniques to help my 6-year-old who at present hates school as she has issues with being told what to do. She won’t even know I am helping now,” said another.
For more information on Carer KaFE and its work in Victoria, www.carerkafe.org.au/.
