With October being #sensoryawareness month lets look at messy play. There is nothing better than seeing children be free to explore, experiment through messy play. The learning opportunities are endless being creative, using their imagination and generally challenging themselves. Whether it be playing inside with bubbles, shaving foam, flour or outside in the sand and…
Reactionary Parenting vs Parental Interactions in Early Years
An interaction vs a reaction between an adult and child, whether it be a parent, teacher, nanny, family or friend is a subject that is vital to appreciate. The first interactions between a child and adult will build a rapport for how they will continue to treat each other in the future. Are your interactions…
Lets Build Resilient Children in the Early Years
Lets talk about building resilience in children especially in the early years. Resilience is one of the most important social skills children can learn in their early years. When a child falls over generally a parent assesses the situation if not serious proceeds to say ‘pick yourself up, keep playing’. It has a stronger meaning than…
Channel the Energy of your Highly Spirited Child…
Has your child ever been described as highly spirited or over energetic. Along with overly enthusiastic, too energetic, ants in his pants and so on. Well I can certainly say mine has. My son is what you would describe as a over enthusiastic boy with endless amounts of energy to burn each day. Or simply…
Why use ‘Pattern Blocks’ in Early Years!
Pattern blocks have to be one of the most diverse teaching resources for early years. One of the teachers I work closely with thinks it reminds her of the game Tetris when looking at perimeters. Pattern blocks facilitate in teaching shapes, colour, counting, number and measurements. Using pattern blocks can develop communication, language, emotional, personal &…
Reggio, Montessori, Walker theories what do they all have in common?
The theme is cars this afternoon when he came home from school they were scattered around the play room where he left them before heading off to school. Cars go crash into the wall, flying off the bean bags onto a make shift ramp. My son has set up a race track with the aim…
Let’s Play in the Early Years!
What’s more fun than the freedom of running in the park, balancing on one foot, jumping up and down with your friends. Whilst inventing new games to play, using your imagination to take you to wonderful places in the park, backyard, beach, swimming pool, playground, classroom and many more. Using all your senses (sensory/tactile play)…
Teaching is it a Calling or Part of your Training and Environment
My mother was a teacher, my grandmother too. Not only that, my family also has an education supply/manfacturer business. So it’s not as if I’ve fallen into education by accident. Indeed, it’s been a long time coming: I too trained as a primary teacher then decided to become a physical education (PE) teacher. I still…
Foundations of Mathematics in the Early Years!
In the early years learning to count and sort is one of your most important skills. Children can do this in everyday activities, by helping parents/gaurdians with house work, shopping, by sorting the fruit from the vegetables, sorting the dark colours of clothes to light. One of my sons favourite activities is to sort the…
Teaching Children to Fall Safely in Early Years!
I remember saying to another parent at the playground when I first landed in my expat posting in Asia that we have tried to teach our child how to fall. To me it was just another milestone, learning how to fall safely then get back up again. The look on her face said it all,…
Lets Teach Risk in Early Years!
Have you ever been in the situation where you can not see your child for a few minutes in a busy shopping centre, camping near a river, at a park, playground or a festival? This is the time we need the children to understand risks by walking off from their parents, what happens how do…
Sand, Water, Sensory Play in Early Years
Sensory play is so important for children, Children love to get hands on with activities it allows them to create, innovate and use their imagination. Children learn about the world through their senses, their first response to sand and water is a sensuous one, they touch, pat, swirl, smell and stroke it, sometimes for very…
Understanding the World through Gardening in Early Years
Have you ever planted a tree with your child or tried to explain where fruit and vegetables come from. Most children believe it comes from a market, supermarket shelf or delivered to your door. Is that really where it comes from? Lets look at getting hands on and growing a plant to help them learn…
Early Years Mathematics at home
There are many ways to teach mathematical concepts in early years from showing shapes, counting numbers especially at home. Everyday we all use different numbers, patterns everyday from telephone numbers, house/apartment numbers, time and many more. Once the child can recognise a number it is important to relate it back to their experience. For e.g….
Expressive Art and Design in Early Years
Does your child play with their friends and imagine they are flying a rocket, driving a car, a princess in a castle, a teacher, nurse or doctor. This is the start of using expressive arts in early years. Many curriculums encourage this particular role play, expressing their imagination, emotions, communication and developing socially. Expressive arts…
Literacy in Early Years
My son always asks me, “Why are letters so important, Mummy?” This is a fair comment at his age; only a few words make sense when trying to read and even reading is still matching pictures, making out the sounds, recognising letters and developing words. When he reads to us he looks at the pictures and…
Teach a Child to Understand the World in Early Years
What an important life skill it is to understand the world in the early years. In the British curriculum this is a key area for EYFS defined as follows: Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places,…
Fine Motor Skills in Early Years
In the early years fine motor skills involve a refined use of the small muscles controlling the hand, fingers, and thumb. The development of these skills allows one to be able to complete tasks such as writing, drawing, and buttoning in there later years. Which are important to start developing in the early years. During…
Building Gross Motor Skills in Early Years
What is Gross motor skills and why is it so important you ask? Gross motor skills are the abilities usually acquired during infancy and early childhood as part of a child’s motor development. By the time they reach two years of age, almost all children are able to stand up, walk and run, walk up stairs, etc. These skills are built upon,…
Mathematics Foundations in Early Years
There are many ways children learn mathematics, in early years one of the most important areas is recognition of numbers, sorting and counting. This can be done through sorting colours, in number groups and using different themes. Developing children experiences and allowing them to use their senses whilst learning can be beneficial whether it be…
Early Years 