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Literacy outside should look very different to what opportunities you offer inside. Think about the richness the outdoors brings and try and create learning moments in nature. We don't want to just bring out alphabet posters outside and stick them on a fence. Instead think of how literacy can be applied in the outdoors in a meaningful way. 

To get you started i've shared a few of the ideas from my Literacy Wanderlust Planning Guides (available here)

1. Nature Study: Create a  Themed Nature Backpack

What do I need?

• Spotter sheets (see my butterfly digital download here)
• Clipboards
• Rucksack
• Bug viewers
• Magnifying glasses
• Notebooks and pencils
• Camera
• Books on butterflies, mini-beasts and trees

What do I do?

Create a themed nature back pack based on your children's curiosities. It could be on butterflies and include a spotter sheet, life cycle information, identification cards, anatomy of a butterfly, butterfly life cycle story stones, fiction and non fiction books on...

Am I Failure For Giving Up My Leadership Role? This is something that at least three people have said to me in the last week and having been through these exact same thoughts myself I thought it deserved some time on the blog this week. 

Let me begin by saying that actually giving up a job that was stressful, making you poorly and feeling as though you couldn't cope was a decision showing your strength. 

Being a leader or a manager might have meant a bigger salary and more responsibility and feeling as though you're doing the social norms of climbing the career ladder. But actually who is all of that for? What good is the higher salary if you never have the time to invest in making new memories? If you're spending each moment of the day chasing your tail and missing out on valuable time with those that you love. Or that your health suffers so badly that it makes you ill or has long term consequences for living well. 

The real secret to more joy and...

"If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow.” Alfie Kohn

In the Reggio inspired approach there is lots of work to be done on developing our own image of the child and discovering what it is about each individual that makes them capable learners. Our own experiences as children, parents and educators shape what this can be and it's important to recognise the strengths and capabilities our individual children have. 

I believe that young children are capable of high levels of engagement in their learning. But how can they show this if i'm always the one deciding what we should do around the agenda I have as an adult? Doing this sets them up to fail.

Therefore my understanding of the child must be backed up by the practice and environment I create. This can be done by really listening to the child and exploring the curiosities they have and discover what drives them to know...

Guest Post by childminder Jodie Williams @jodiewilliamschildminding 

Teaching children about nature and giving them the opportunity to be outdoors exploring is a very important part of our day. I found the child thrived when doing outdoor activities especially in the local woodland areas.

They love to collect objects, bringing them back to the setting and incorporating them into their play and exploration.

Over the past year it has become more important to be able to be outdoors, exploring in our own little group setting. Which has helped all of us to cope with the current pandemic & changes.

This is why I have now started to change how I teach and the resources I use. I haven’t got much space to store lots of one use resources. So this change has definitely allowed me to minimise resources to ones that provide the most learning opportunities.

We now have a lovely collection of natural resources. A variety of baskets containing small logs, log slices, stones, &...

I know through my interactions with you online that many of you would like a little bit of support in setting up a provocation. 

Firstly I hear you ask, what is a provocation? A provocation can come in many different forms, but it is always intended to provoke thoughts, ideas, and actions that can help to expand on a thought, project, idea or an interest. These are an important aspect of child led learning seen in the Reggio Emilia Approach. By setting up a provocation we are allowing young children to see, experience and make decisions about the world themselves through their own explorations. It could be from a book, a photograph, interesting objects. The interaction with the provocation can involve problem solving, working imaginatively, form new ideas and make their own conclusions. 

As the provocations are open ended with the concept of the child finding their own answers rather than being told them there is no right or wrong outcome from working here. The...

What does a purposeful learning environment look and feel like for the under 2’s?

Your environment for this age range needs to be very different than that offered for a 3-4 year old.

Its about setting up cosy nooks with a basket of books and hand puppets, treasury baskets to explore holistic play, a little space that represents home life to them with dramatic play equipment (dolls, cooking utensils, shopping baskets, phones etc), different platforms to work on at varying heights that allow them to squat, stand and explore things like loose parts/ twisting/ manipulating objects on a larger scale. Opportunities to explore light, dark, shadow, projection. Magnatiles and other construction are wonderful to include too! Consider sensory play too; perhaps a tuff tray on the floor. A space to rest with calming fairy lights in jars or a projector.

There is also the need for outdoor play for this age range! Check out this post here for more information here on getting babies outside...

Isn’t Hygge just about being cosy?

This is something I get asked lots!

A big part of hygge is about feeling cosy and comfortable but it’s also about appreciating the nature around you. It’s about learning to celebrate the joy that each season brings and spending time outdoors because it’s good for your mental health.

When it comes to our practice with the children we want our children to grow up with a natural love for their world. This is how education for sustainable development happens. We want our young children to see the beauty in the early hazel catkins, to dawdle and pause at the little daffodil dancing in the breeze and wonder in awe about how spider webs are formed.

This is why the Danish daily rhythm and early years curriculum is built around opportunities to experience the great outdoors.

For all your printable nature study resources, journals and nature study guides click here

February can be one of the hardest months of the year with the distance from Christmas and the sunnier days still feeling a long way out of reach.

As I write this blog post I feel hope.

“Today you are planting seeds to your dream. Be patient because it will be a large harvest.” Chris Burkmenn

Boris announced the roadmap out of lockdown for England last night and although we must still be careful it feels as though brighter days will be here sooner than we think. 

I wanted to share a few ways to help you thrive and flourish over the next month and support you in having a positive mindset.

• Listen out for the birds singing slightly longer each evening
• Look out for the rainbows in the sky
• Plan your summer garden; sow seeds, plant Dahlia tubers in pots inside, start a cut flower bed/ pot for children to pick flowers from and put in a vase on Hygge Friday
• Open the windows of your home and let the fresh air in
• Visit a pond and look out for frogspawn
• Create a...

I have had a fascination with rocks from a young age. I was always the child with my pockets full of natural treasures and would spend hours looking at what I had collected, sorting them into egg boxes or making patterns with my natural finds.

I remember as a child taking a visit with my Grandparents to the North Yorkshire sea-side town of Whitby and a shop keeper handing my a tiny piece of the gemstone Jet to admire. I loved the A school trip a few weeks later was a visit to Stump Cross Cavens, a series of underground caves in North Yorkshire which left me curious wanting to know more. 

For my 7th Birthday that year I had asked for a subscription to a magazine called Treasures of the Earth. With each monthly magazine came a different rock or gemstone to admire and learn about. When I received the Pyrite (Fools Gold) I remember being in awe of it's sparkles. 

Another fond memory I have is of my Grandad bringing home a bag of beach pebbles from the garden...