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Have you ever spent ages setting up a play and they either ignore it, “destroy it” or play for a few moments then walk off? Yes, me too! Imagine being placed in a room with just the books a friend owns, you read a few pages and realise they are not to your taste and so you quickly get bored. Well for a child, that’s likely what they must feel in a room full of adult driven themed set ups for them to explore. Up until about a year ago I was very “theme” driven and planned the themes for every term, and often recycled them the following year.  But do you really know whether those children in your setting will be interested in People Who Help Us for an entire half term in Summer 2?

When children have a fascination, it’s vital we use that as a vessel to fuel their curiosity and motivation to learn through play. How do we know what they are interested in? We watch, observe and respectfully question. Now I’m not saying if a few children pretend to play doctors you completely strip your h...

Supporting Children’s Emotional Security

As practitioners, we spend a huge amount of time and energy making sure our learning environments meet and extend the physical developmental needs of the children within our care, but how much thought do we put specifically into their emotional needs?

My three initial areas to consider in promoting emotional security within our provision are safety, fostering home school links, and is above all, that it’s relevant.

Safety is obviously at the core of Early Years provision. As practitioners we all understand that children have basic needs; to be kept safe from dangers, warm, fed and have adequate rest, but I’d argue that their emotional wellbeing is just as important. In order to keep children emotionally safe we need to be pleased to see them, value them, have time for them, know them, listen to them, and care about helping them to develop their understanding of emotions. We need to ensure our provision gives ample opportunities and r...

Fostering a Language Rich Environment

 In some areas of the UK, more than 50% of children entering reception are assessed as having language levels below what is expected for their age. Now whilst there’s a complex range of issues surrounding this, such as how we measure and assess children at this young age, and the parameters upon which we measure this, there’s no denying that language is a necessary and life enriching skill that we all want the children in our care to develop a real love for.

To begin with, language is used as a way of the child having their needs met. Whether this is learning to ask for ‘more’, to participate in and steer play, or the soothing lull of songs and bedtime stories. As their skills deepen and increase in complexity, language is used further to enrich their lives and satisfy social and emotional needs.

 So how do we foster this development and enjoyment by creating an environment that is language rich? An environment that nurtures successful talkers...

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Let me show you my shed, my ‘Aladdin’s cave’ of Childminding treasures. That’s how I would describe my Childminding Shed. It was my first purchase when I moved into our house, before I kept everything in drawers. Surrounding me in my house morning noon and night, piled up so high even I couldn’t find anything. Now after 4 years of rearranging, collecting, rooting through car boot sales and Charity shops, sourcing through friends, family, parents of mindees, various websites and social platforms. I finally have it the way I want it.

I can stand and survey my kingdom and wait for inspiration to grab me. Or, with the children to guide me through there eyes gather the objects in a basket like I was choosing pick and mix at a sweet shop. Everything is arranged in sections. Two shelves of loose parts:

Natural - Pinecones, bamboo pieces, shells, wooden pieces, glass nuggets.

Recycled – Plastic bottle tops, bottle t...

Our Nature Shelf

This week we have decided to share our nature shelf and how it was introduced in our setting. We started the Hygge wanderlust nature course last September. As a setting Immy and I love being out and about with the children in the woods, beach etc and feel that the children as well ourselves benefit hugely with the experiences that the wider world provide us not just from a learning perspective but also from a calming mindfulness perspective too. Being outdoors being able to touch, smell and see the nature around is makes us all feel so much better.

The Wanderlust Child Nature Study course has definitely given us lots of new and reminded us of old opportunities and experiences that we provide our children with us being able to now scaffold and extend the learning given with additional ideas. The nature shelf has been a huge hit with both myself and Immy as well as the children. Last October we cleared a space in the playroom on top of one of the ikea units and this w...

Budgets are always tight. It doesn’t seem to matter whether you work in a private nursery, school or children’s centre, there just never seems to be enough money to go around, so practitioners have learnt to be a pretty thrifty and hoarding bunch. Here are a few of my favourite sources for free goodies:

Recycling – This is where I always start. Your own recycling bin can be such a treasure trove of items, from turning plastic packaging into plant pots to boxes for junk modelling. I also think teaching children to re-use and reimagine single use packaging items helps them learn to give value to things in today’s throwaway society. One of my favourite things to keep is corks. They can be used for so many things and to enhance so many areas, from loose parts, to playdough or water stations (they float so are often re-imagined as boats). This week I’ve even been making them into small world figures! They’re a good size too and are warm and soft to the touch so make a very tactile and s...

I’m happy to admit that watching children go down a slide makes me anxious. I don’t like tunnels because I imagine collisions happening inside them. When children run wildly through puddles in the playground, I want them to slow down. Sandpits are where children go to get sand in their eyes, footballs are designed to knock people over, and absolutely everything can and will be a trip hazard. From my innate hatred of risky physical play, you might assume I was a timid and careful child myself. I was, however, quite the opposite. I spent more time up trees than on solid ground. I liked hanging from the branches and watching my feet swing, disembodied and heavy in the abyss below. In my childhood home, we had a shed under the house full of electric and manual tools, broken furniture, all manner of nails, screws, shards of glass and plugs. And I was allowed to use them all, and I did, all the time! I had scabby knees, splinters in not just my fingers, but my elbows, too. I was sunburnt and...

By Jennifer Wooldridge @mamasden

Today marks the start of our next 3 weeks of lockdown but i’m hoping that the next 3 weeks are going to be easier than the first 3 weeks now that we have adjusted to our new normal, adopting a new rhythm and discovered our new routine. I am somehow managing to find time to engage the children including my son by including lots of nature play and science. I’m focusing our activities by playing to their strengths and following their interests.

I think that the main thing I will take from all of this is that my children can lead their own learning if I listen to their play and conversations and then throw in a little bit of sit down learning in line with this. But we are largely spending our time playing and learning in the moment and I really want this period of time to be reflected on as a fun family period rather than a scary, uncertain time.

So instead of focusing on one particular topic this week I thought I would share with you my top 5 lockdown r...