The Learning Caravan Pte Ltd (TLC) was founded in 2014 by Alyna Chong.
Alyna is an early childhood practitioner who is passionate about deepening her understanding of early childhood education and constantly seeks to strengthen her professional teaching practice. She started her teaching career in 1987.
Alyna's deep passion for continual professional development led her to organize learning journeys in various countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Sweden and Norway. The study tours were attended by educators from many different countries. Participants visited inquiry-based early years settings and engaged in dialogue and discourse with fellow colleagues.
TLC has inspired and supported fellow educators around the world to form deeper understanding of positive teaching practices and transformed their professional practice. A significant and important highlight of our past professional development workshops and study tours was the introduction of loose parts play and child-led play to educators and school leaders. These educators and school leaders first learnt about loose parts play and child-led play during the professional development workshop or study tour they attended with TLC. They were inspired by what they learnt and had in turn inspired their own teaching teams to reflect on their teaching practice.
We started The Tinker Yard, a creative play space for parents and children in 2017. We wanted to have a venue where we could continue to share about our Reggio-inspired practice and educate parents and educators about play. The Tinker Yard gained recognition amongst the local early childhood sector for our research-based programming and advocacy for child-led play and respectful & mindful teaching and parenting.
In 2022, we established TLC Hub, a consultancy arm to support early childhood educators and parents with achievable action plans to transform their professional and parenting practices, respectively. At TLC Hub, we aim to provide a safe and reflective space where educators, families and the community come together to collaborate for best practices in early childhood education. Regular adult-&-child play lab sessions are available for booking. These play lab sessions are great for caregivers (parents, grandparents or anyone who cares for the child) who want to deepen their understanding of Play and learning while children engage in play at the studio. Caregivers can observe how our Play team facilitates the play experience and have a consultation with our team. Separate sessions are available for early childhood educators. We believe that educators need to play to understand Play. Check out the workshops we offer.
Another of TLC's advocacy is creative reuse of materials in teaching and learning. We aim to inspire our local community to reduce waste and reuse materials creatively and want to provide a venue where parents, educators and creatives could obtain unconventional materials for play and art. We are confident that we hold the most diverse collection of materials in Singapore which could be reused as play or creative materials at TLC Hub. We welcome anyone who is seeking inspiration and ideas to visit us.
Images Credit: The Learning Caravan
Contacts
+65 9797 5138
thelearningcaravan@gmail.com
Links
Address
Singapore444 Serangoon Road #02-01, Singapore 218136