Do you have a home corner? Does it sound a little old fashioned? A play kitchen, some pretend food and a couple of baskets? At school and in the nursery, it’s always one of the most popular areas of the classroom for one simple reason: children are driven to copy adults and what adults do. […]
A Beginner’s Guide to The Home Corner Read More »
What do you do when your pre-schooler develops an all-consuming passion, like volcanoes, ponies or whip spiders? Buy them a book? Show them a video on YouTube? Make a small-world scene in a builder’s tray? All of the above are great jumping-off points. But if you believe in inquiry-based learning, this is only the beginning.
65. Project-based Learning Read More »
Constructive play is the second of four types of play outlined by Sara Smilansky, a developmental psychologist who studied how play develops in young children. The rest of the series is here: What is constructive play? Constructive play is not just construction play – blocks and Lego – but any kind of play where materials
Research suggests that there is a link between the amount of detail in a four year-old’s drawings and later academic success. It’s not the artistic merit of the picture that is important but the features a child chooses to include. Just like us, children have a mental representation (a schema) of what they think a
How children learn to draw Read More »
Does your child like soft toys? They’re a classic gift for a new baby but they often then sit in the corner unloved and unnoticed for years. But then something magical happens. They are rediscovered and, like an old friend, it’s like they never went away. Your child is now two or three (or eight!)
Soft toys: a bridge to independence Read More »
The space your child plays in can ask questions. Your child is engaged in a dialogue with the room and the materials. The furniture you use and the toys you offer have a direct effect on what learning takes place. Followers of the Reggio Emilia Approach call this idea the environment as the third teacher. The
The Environment as the Third Teacher Read More »
You can’t teach your child to write in an afternoon. It is the work of many years, going right back to birth. A newborn flaps her arms, a baby shakes a rattle. These are the incipient movements that eventually lead to letter formation. Writing is a broad topic including letter formation and handwriting, punctuation, spelling,
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How many uses can you think of for a paperclip? Children are masters of this kind of thing but our ability to think creatively diminishes over time. Complex problem solving is expected to be the number one work-related skill for the coming decades. But too many parents have been led to believe that they should
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Does your baby or toddler enjoy repetitive play with everyday objects? Is she less interested in ‘proper’ toys? This is functional play, the first of four types of play outlined by Sara Smilansky, a developmental psychologist who studied how play develops in young children. The rest of the series is here: Preschoolers are happy to
As a child, did you love colouring in? It felt a bit like cheating, didn’t? Filling in someone else’s drawing. But it was satisfying – even therapeutic. But it’s not really drawing, is it? Does it have any value? Some early years teachers frown on colouring in because it’s not creative and has a pre-determined
Colouring in | Your secret weapon for great handwriting Read More »