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As winter approaches I wanted to share some thoughts and inspiration on the different ways you can create enchantment and magic in your play.

I do believe there should be an element of beautifulness in your play. If you don't want to go and play there and learn more than neither will the children. That's why when I set areas up I like to pay attention to the details I create. Adding in mirrors for a different perspective, considering the opportunity to add light, different textures to stimulate the senses and elements of nature. I like to include open ended resources and books that allow the learning to take the direction the child desires. I put the time into creating something that will have impact on the children's learning and development. That's why I don't do reams of forward planning and masses of paperwork and instead put this time into the environment (but that's a whole different blog post!).

Now I think that it's  important to note here that the child matters! For one minu...

This year i found myself (like so many others!) turning another year older while in a national lockdown. A time usually spent celebrating with loved ones and friends I wondered if i could still enjoy all the lovely hygge moments under the restrictions of the current pandemic. In this weeks blog post I want to share with you exactly how I spent my birthday and how I brought in the hygge magic.

I began my day with a slow breakfast of pastries and coffee while we opened a few presents and cards that had arrived in the post from friends and family. I received some rather lovely hygge related gifts; candles, fluffy socks, salted caramel chocolates (my favourite!) and a very snuggly warm fleece (a perfect present to keep me warm as i'm forever cold).

I decided to have an at home pampering morning and ran the bath, lit the candles and put on my favourite podcast shows. It was very relaxing laying in the bubbles and flower petals of my birthday bath bomb knowing that I could just be present ...

With the pandemic and many of us facing even stricter restrictions it’s easy for our mental health to suffer. Especially as we see our loved ones less, spending more time indoors and the financial implications this has on many families. As well as many families worrying about the health of loved ones affected by the virus.

This week I wanted to come to you and offer you some hygge inspiration to get through this difficult time. To begin with lets go back to looking at what hygge is? It’s been a popular buzz word over the last few years- especially linking it to home interiors or how to celebrate Christmas in a hygge way. Hygge does include interiors and Christmas but there is actually more to it than that.

Hygge is all about embracing a feeling of cosiness, warmth and togetherness. Learning how to take the simple everyday ordinary and make it feel wonderful. Like the quiet few moments you take to watch the flame of a candle dance around as you hug a mug of tea! Or its going out...

Children are so highly creative and learn to express their world and what’s around them in their own unique way from an early age.

Yet often we as adults try to stifle this creative freedom.

Perhaps by showing children how we expect their painting of a pumpkin to look and only offering one paint colour.

Maybe setting up a craft station where all the children have to make a paper spider with pipe cleaner legs.

Or

How about giving children templates, outlines to colour in or pre-determined shapes to use in their craft activity.

These stop us from focussing on the process of the learning and instead give the child the message that the outcome is what’s important here.

Instead talk to the children, “Ok so you want to make a representation of the bumblebee you saw outside, what materials shall we use? What colours would work best here? What shape will you make the body? How would be the best way to create the stripes?’

Consider the creative freedom you offer ...

While visiting a school recently I over heard a Reception teacher panic that the children had brought mud inside the classroom and how the outdoor area needed astroturf laying instead.

That real connection with nature is so important; the mud, the puddles, the wind. This is how we learn about the world around us and is so important in our sensory development. We can’t deny young children of these experiences. In fact in my opinion I believe we need to encourage it more! This is when the real magic of early years learning happens!

To over come the problem of mud inside consider the footwear and clothing the children have to go outdoors in. Perhaps having a welly boot stand? A clothes airer for waterproofs, or a boot wash station? Why not put down a barrier mat in the entrance into the classroom that children can get changed on?

Making a few small changes means we can continue to have wonderful learning opportunities going on every day in nature.

Find out more about our Wand...

You’ve spent all weekend printing, cutting and laminating resources as well as planning what would go in each every of provision for the week. By 10am Monday morning you feel disheartened as the resources are strewn across the classroom or are not being used as you intended.

It’s exhausting isn’t it!? I know because that used to me. Then I realised it didn’t have to be that way.

Once I started planning from the children’s interests and fascinations I saw that the learning just happened in the high quality continuous provision I had already set up. Levels of engagement improved, I saw huge levels of creativity  and I rarely got interrupted to support behaviour. I stopped having children wandering around the provision looking lost or disrupting others as they were exploring their own ideas and projects.

This saved me so much time and I could spend time doing things that would actually had an impact on my children. Like planning a woodland walk for the children interested in ba...

Do you find your children struggle to sit on the carpet for group time. Here are some things to consider;

• How long are your adult led sessions?
• Are you breaking children off in the middle of their play to come and sit with you for group time? This might b for things like assembly times.
• How many children are in your group? Could you break up into smaller groups (maybe even groups of 4-5 to start with and slowly increase it.
• Do you plan adult led sessions inside and out to show the importance of learning happening everywhere?
• Have you had a focus on how we can be a good listener? I like to have visual good sitting supports up, use verbal reminders and use makaton signs and actions.
• Are you making your sessions active and irresistible? The use of props, engaging stories, using different voices (e.g quiet whispers at times or showing excitement, action rhymes, creating intrigue and suspense (something discovered in a box)
• Have you planned around the children’s interests and what
...

Autumn is the most perfect time of the year to collect natural treasures in the great outdoors. 

Some of my favourites that I mention in the Wanderlust Child Nature Journal are;

• Crab apples
• Elderberries
• Rosehips
• Pears
• Acorns
• Ferns
• Pine cones
• Conkers

I like to give children little bags to collect these in and then offer sorting trays, jars and ten frames to explore with once back in setting. You might even give your children a numbered paper bag and ask them to collect the amount on the bag. There are many ways you can then extend this further with the language you use afterwards. How many would we have if we added one more conker to the bag? What happens if we added two bags together? What would happen if an acorn fell out of the bag? How could you sort the natural items you've collected?

How about asking your children and their families to make 100 jars of loose parts? Then ask your children to make their own labels and put these out to use in your loose parts ar...