From toddler to school-ready!
Home-based education is just as valuable for older tamariki right through to school age as it is for our younger learners. A home-away-from-home is the perfect educational setting for tamariki of all ages to learn and develop at their own pace, in calm and unhurried environments. With low ratios, children can benefit from close relationships, secure attachments and responsiveness, and learn at a natural and individual pace.
Small is BIG!
When it comes to social and learning environments, we know that more one-on-one time helps build deeper connections. When our children go to school a question we often ask as parents is, "How many children are in the class?" because we associate a smaller number of students with greater learning opportunities. Well, this is true for our over-2s too!
Our educators follow the Ministry of Education preschool curriculum - Te Whāriki. This is the same curriculum as daycare centres and kindergartens. Our educators work closely with a small number of children and provide personalised learning opportunities, to support their development. Educators identify individual interests and plan educational programmes to support and extend these. Home-based learning programmes are accompanied by outings, to learn from real-life examples out and about in the community.
Transition to School
To help support our children as they move out of the toddler stage and into the young child stage, we have designed a Transition to School Programme exclusive to Tiny Nation. Every child will receive a Transition to School Workbook that whānau can complete with them, alongside their educator. The aim of this is to support children’s next big transition and provide information about how we can best support each child to be school-ready. Hear more about our Transition to School Programme below.
Socialisation
Children do not need to be in large group settings to learn social skills. When social-emotional needs are met, children grow up to be happy, fulfilled and able to meet their full potential. A common myth in early childhood education is that children need to mix in large groups to ‘socialise’. Research shows, that the base from which all social skills grow is a strong attachment relationship with a primary caregiver, who can model positive interactions. Read more.
Tuakana-Teina
Tuakana-Teina is the cultural practice of older, more expert children caring, teaching and taking responsibility for younger, less experienced children. It recognises the development opportunities for both older and younger children as they interact. A home-based setting naturally provides this opportunity, with mixed-age groups attending and playing together, rather than being split into age-related groups. The relationships children experience in a home-based setting mirror real life and prepare them for the future.
Curriculum
‘Te Whāriki’ is the preschool curriculum and it applies to all early childhood education services, including home-based. Tiny Nation partners specifically with qualified educators and nannies, who are qualified in planning and delivering a learning programme for all children and linking activities to the curriculum. Because our educators have a small number of children in their care, they can identify individual interests easily and extend these at home and out in the community.
Puāwaitanga
Our Puāwaitanga ceremony celebrates tamariki turning 5 and transitioning to kura (school). Puāwaitanga is a word that means “the seed has blossomed”. This is not a farewell, but a time where we release each child onto the next stage of their learning journey with pride and aroha. Each Tiny Nation region has their own Kākahu or kaha huruhuru, which is offered to every child to wear during the Puāwaitanga ceremony. Offering this to tamariki is our way of uplifting them; the kaha huruhuru represents prestige and honour. It is also a way to recognise the importance of the family and community (Tiny Nation) support they have received. Mā te pā te tamaiti e whakatipu, through the village, the child is raised.
Transition to School Support
What our families say
“I was initially a little nervous about transitioning my eldest child from home-based care into school, but once I had my child in school, I could see that wasn’t a problem. She was one of the most social children there. With home-based care, they get authentic socialisation. You don’t have to get them in front of tonnes of people, you just need to get them in front of a few quality people with quality interactions. That’s what you get with home-based care” -Tiny Nation Family
“After 2 years in a larger setting, the opportunity arose for us to try out home-based care, and we couldn’t be happier. My initial concerns, that my son would be under-stimulated in a home-based environment with such a small group of children, were unfounded. He is now being exposed to a much wider variety of experiences and opportunities, and is participating in our local community, with regular outings to playgroups, the library, and even the local fire station! The biggest difference for us is feeling connected to his childcare world. We now hear details of his day and the activities he has been involved in, so we can celebrate his achievements and support him through challenges at home.” -Tiny Nation Family
Here’s how we look after our families at Tiny Nation
Because we believe in quality, not quantity, we only work with qualified educators and educators in training, who have proven their commitment to nurturing and caring for children. We find the best trained teachers and educators and support them to deliver their own unique early learning programmes in their own homes. We hand-pick them for their passion, commitment, experience and qualifications. We know that qualifications are an indicator of quality when it comes to early childhood education. We’re proud to be leading the change and professionalising home-based by representing qualified and qualifying educators and teachers.
When you enquire with us as a family, we support you to self-match with a Tiny Nation educator of your choice. The choice factor is huge here – you get to choose the person you leave your child with when you can’t be there. You will choose your educator based on the needs of your family and child, your values, your own early learning philosophy and, most importantly, your connection with them. This allows you to find the perfect educator for your family – someone who will become a part of your support village and who will advocate fiercely for your child when you can’t. Isn’t this what we all want as parents?
Meet our Tiny educators. Find out more about their services and their availability. Enquire through their personal educator webpages and we will be in touch to connect you.
We have Tiny Nation Nannies looking for their next great opportunity! We can even place a family advertisement to help you find a nanny if we don’t have one advertised in your area – contact us.
By choosing home-based early learning, you are choosing small groups and responsive relationships. Tiny Nation educators have no more than four pre-school children in their care at any given time, with no more than two under the age of two. This allows them to engage with their care children in meaningful ways, dedicating time to support their development and getting to know them deeply. Having small ratios of children per educator enables respectful interactions and authentic connections. Your child is not just a number at Tiny Nation.
Home environments stir up comforting memories for all of us. We make personal connections with this kind of environment because it represents our childhood. It provides a strong sense of security and safety as we are able to seek comfort through the familiar. Early childhood education in home environments provide a calm and settled foundation for learning to occur. Children have the space to explore the community around them in real and authentic ways.
Once you have chosen the educator who will be the perfect fit for your family, they will work alongside you to provide you with flexible care arrangements that work around a settling-in transition for your child, the hours you require care and potential drop off or pick up options. Our service exists to meet the needs of our families and we know that these needs can be changeable depending on your family’s circumstances.
We’re all about making the complicated simple. We can do this by taking care of payment administration to keep paperwork and admin to a minimum for our families. All you need to do is authorise us to take care of your educator’s pay and then set up the agreed online payment.
Tiny Nation holds weekly teacher-led events and outings for children and educators to attend. Getting out and about in the local community is an important benefit of home-based early childhood education. It allows your child to make connections to the world around them, learn to explore unfamiliar environments and engage with people from all walks of life. It grows their confidence, curiosity and capability and challenges them to adapt to changing environments and situations. This is a healthy (and important) part of their development and learning. Our weekly events and outings provide an opportunity for children to be around a larger group of other children and educators, socialising with their peers and engaging in play-based learning activities.
We’ve developed innovative solutions to make sure families don’t have to be weighed down by administration. We provide every educator with a tablet that connects them electronically with their programme and our support systems. Families can sign in and out using the tablet and receive important communication and learning stories about their child/ren in real time.
From time to time, your educator may have appointments or emergencies crop up. We can appreciate how challenging this can be if you have to find alternative care arrangements for short periods of time. To support families and educators, Tiny Nation visiting teachers (who are qualified and registered teachers) come in to provide short-term relief and emergency care in the home where care takes place. If needed, we can also find alternative educators to provide care if your educator is unavailable for longer periods of time. We go the extra mile to ensure you have consistent and familiar care options because we get the day to day childcare juggle.
We walk alongside you as a parent to provide support, resources and tools that will help you on your journey. We get that being responsible for shaping little minds is a big deal! So that you never have to do it alone, we have created a Tiny Nation village for families to tap into. Our village of support is here to help you with:
- Communicating with your educator and contributing to the individual programme plans for your child.
- Creating connections with other families and educators in your area.
- Meeting any special needs or requirements your child has.
- Learning more about early childhood development and theory to help you understand key ages, stages, milestones and needs.
- Building a network of support with other community support agencies or early learning professionals.
We’re passionate about empowering our educators to be the best they can be. Professionalising the early learning industry is important to us and we support our educators to commit to a Tiny Nation Career Pathway that will grow with them and continue to reward them for their contribution and commitment. As a family, you benefit from this as your educator is exposed to new learning, opportunities and ideas in early childhood education. This gives them inspiration and motivation in their educator role while also ensuring they have an up to date knowledge of early learning theory and best practice.
As our Tiny Nation children approach their school years, they are supported with the transition to a new learning environment. Our educators build strong relationships with local schools and engage in school readiness programmes that build competence and confidence in our little learners, as they enter their next stage of life.
Family Testimonials
