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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...

As you know from our Wanderlust Child Nature Study we love supporting children's play through nature and the outdoors. Here are 10 nature play ideas for celebrating Valentine’s Day. 

Head outside and look for heart shaped leaves. Find other nature to decorate these with and then take a photo. This can then be turned into a card. 

Set up a natural maths provocation around the story of Clara Button and the Wedding Day Surprise. 

Create a natural batch of Playdough by leaving out the food colouring. Pop on a board along with some flower petals, cake tins and cutters. 

Here are some other wonderful ideas shared from Instagram that we love too!

 

 

 

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The days are starting to get longer and brighter and new shoots are poking through the soil. It feels so good that Spring is on it's way!

Now feels like a good time to share some of my favourite spring resources and books (as i get asked this question a lot!) to support your nature based play. All of the resources I share on here are my personal recommendations and are not advertisements.  It is also worth noting that it has taken a few years to collect the bought resources I show in the photos and nature based play can be done so effectively without any of these too! Just get outside and use the nature around you like we did when creating our Very Hungry Caterpillars out of twigs and leaves. 

I often get asked on my training around nature based play if this is something that can be done if you're in an urban area and the answer is yes! We can do nature study by opening up the curtains and watching the birds from our window, setting up a provocation on...

28th February 2021

Are you ready for Intern1ational Hygge Day? 

Around the world Early Educators will be taking inspiration on Hygge and doing lots of cosy activities for themselves and children and sharing them using my #hyggeintheearlyyears

Why not have a coffee and cake break in the afternoon, wear your comfy clothes to work or have a family story time event?

Why not create your own hygge shadow puppets and tell a story or set up a cosy mountain small world scene!

If you're look for some ideas or inspiration then why not download my free guide here

I don't know about you but I just love the snow! Waking up and seeing the snow flakes falling brings so much excitement. I also love the softness that we experience when it snows and the way everywhere seems to quiet. Taking a walk and hearing the crunch underfoot, perhaps hearing the tweet of the birds in a nearby tree and noticing the snow sitting carefully on the branches. 

I have been very fortunate to go on some wonderful adventures to Northern Finland and Canada and even as an adult the snow has truly fascinated me. Like the way it sticks to the trees in the -10 temperatures! I loved how in Finland the streets were given a cosy glow in the middle of winter with candles dotted in the snow lighting the way.  So when it was snowing here in Bradford today I just couldn't wait to bring in some of that joy of snow into our day. 

In today's blog I wanted to share three ways you can embrace some open ended snow play this winter. 

Set up a snow kitchen

Here...

Here are some of my followers favourite ways to make Christmas time more magical for the children.

'Add fairy lights everywhere' Mrspodmed

'Create an activity advent calendar' s28xoxo

'Make cranberry sauce with the children and give them a jar to take home and share on Christmas Day' Acorn_Class

'Have a North Pole tea party with twinkling lights' Dawnwebster29

'Dress up and sing Christmas songs together' Seafoam_green

'We have a nativity advent and each day we add to a wooden nativity scene' katmurphy81

'Sprinkle the children with magic dust from Santa as they leave school for the holiday' amberlou_d

'Family walks in the woods' nerdishmum

'We have a Christmas story that we read a chapter a day of and do an activity related to it' Littleonesatplay

'The children help to decorate the tree' Sarahs_littlestars

'We have a Christmas movie night with the projector and snacks' Laura_diamond_childminder

For more Christmas Child Led Ideas check out my training here.