Alexis Ralphs

I'm Alexis, father of four and founder of One Hundred Toys, Get Set Five, A Year With My Child. I taught in London primary schools for thirteen years, specialising in the early years. I studied at the Institute of Education, part of the University of London, both for my PGCE and my as-yet-unfinished masters. I'm especially interested in schemas and how they help us understand the motivations behind toddlers' play.

Process art

A child sprinkling glitter onto glue

Sometimes you want to draw a picture.  And you want it to look like something. A picture to give to Grandma that she can hang on her wall. Something like this, perhaps: But that’s not what young children usually do. Usually, they are caught up in the moment, playing with the materials, seeing what they

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Imitation in childhood | How your child learns and how you can help

You’ll often hear me say that children learn through play, that you should provide open-ended materials to encourage exploration and discovery. But it’s not completely true. There’s a more powerful and primitive force at work that shapes your child’s learning long before she starts to experiment with paint or collage, blocks or natural materials: Imitation.

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