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“Strive to make everyday the best day of your life, because there is no good reason not to.” Hal Elrod

Mental Health

Oct 06, 2020
A few years ago working in early education was tough for me. The pressures of knowing what young children needed to flourish but having the daily battles of trying to help others see. Breaking down the relationships built up with children and the time for connection because ‘formal learning was a priority.’ As a leader I often felt that I spread myself too thin. The more I did, the more that was expected from me.
 
Those above me didn’t want people who loved and cared about their job. They needed machines that were unconnected from love to go through a process. This sadden me deeply.
 
I remember one day stopping to look at my reflection in the mirror. My skin looked grey and tired, my shoulders and neck ached, I felt dizzy with worry about all that was expected from me and wondering how I could ever do all these things well.
 
My weekends had become consumed with work. Often turning down invites from friends and family. When I did go...
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How To Flourish This Autumn

Sep 22, 2020
How to flourish this Autumn?
As the leaves become crunchy underfoot here are a few simple ways to enjoy Autumn.
🍂Batch cook some delicious meals
🧡Take a woodland walk
🍂Create some natural displays in your home and setting with pumpkins, squash, twigs, pine cones and acorns.
🧡Make a blackberry crumble
🍂Hand an autumn wreath on your door at home and setting
🧡Fill jars with autumn leaves and fairy lights
🍂Make a gratitude list and be thankful for the moments and things you have
🧡Set up a seasonal small world scene of your local area
🧡Add seasonal items and books to your nature shelf see the photos for some of mine!
For more seasonal ideas see my Wanderlust Child Nature Study Programme https://www.hyggeintheearlyyears.co.uk/nature-study
 
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Natural Treasures

Sep 11, 2020
 

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...

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How often do you allow children to pause?

Sep 11, 2020

A curiosity, a day dream or a question... this is often how learning begins. So how often do you allow children to pause? To walk slowly and wonder about the world around them. Offering opportunities to dawdle and see the world for the very first time? We're often so guilty of rushing along and taking children on our own agenda that we forget theirs!

Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that it is the process thats important. Not just when it comes to doing an activity but in life in general. I’ve been thinking about it lots this week. Noticing while in Scotland so many people even rushing to get to the viewpoint on a hike... I must admit I’m more of a dawdler myself and like to take in the small moments of the hike- the wind through the trees, the smell of the pine or the crunch under foot. Young children are very good at stopping, looking and being curious as they walk along. Perhaps we can turn to our children to learn this again from them. The importance of slowness...

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Little Red Hen

Sep 10, 2020
The Little Red Hen
 
My nursery and reception children used to love learning this story of the Little Red Hen.
 
Following recommendations from Pie Corbett we would read the story to begin with a few times. Then we would start to put some repetitive actions to the different parts of the story to help the language stick and made these into a map. This map was also sent home to families and put up around our learning spaces.
 
We then created a small world version of the farm for the children to use in their play and added into the area the mapped story.
 
We provided children with the sensory opportunities of making their own bread and visiting a farm. It was a fantastic way to help children’s language development and story telling skills. We then explored changing a few parts of the story like the characters or how it ended.
 
What are your favourite stories to tell?
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Use Every Opportunity To Learn

Sep 09, 2020

‘Put your coat on Joe’
‘Jumper on Evie!’

The weather creates a brilliant way for us to learn key life skills but if we find ourselves just telling children what to do they won’t always understand the why.

Instead we can use experiences as a learning tool. Sometimes we need to let children go outside for a few minutes without a coat in winter but make sure our adult interactions support a learning opportunity here. Talking to the children about the weather, the way the coldness feels on the skin, wondering with the child what they could do to stay warmer. Linking back moments and other experiences. ‘Remember when we went to the farm last week and the wind was blowing and we were so cold. We wished we had our hats on to keep our ears warm!’

I also like to talk about the weather with the children as part of our morning meeting. Checking the weather forecast together and opening up discussions about what to wear, or to predict what might...

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Getting Outside in September!

Sep 08, 2020

As the weather starts to change and we move into the Autumn this has to be one of my favourite times of the year to spend time outside with young children. There is just so much to see and discover! Here are a few ideas to get you started...

Go on an autumn walk 

Head for a local walk and see what natural treasures can you collect that show you signs of Autumn? You might give children a numbered paper bag and see if they can collect that amount. Or how about giving each child a colour swatch card and matching nature to their shade?

Forage
Go foraging for berries and come back and bake a fruit crumble!

Gruffalo
Read the story of the Gruffalo and retell it outside! Set up a small world scene or retell with actions outside.

Go for a heather hunt
Did you know spotting white heather is a sign of  good luck? Why not take a walk and explore the smell of heather. You might try some heather honey or do some observational paintings of heather outside.

Make a leaf crown
Go on a...

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Reducing My Provision

Sep 07, 2020
If I have to limit my provision what areas should I prioritise?
 
Remember here that one of the best resources we have is YOU! Any learning can happen when we have an interested adult, who knows the child and has a good understanding of child development knowledge.
 
Also children learn holistically and therefore we can offer opportunities for mark making, maths, language development throughout our provision. No longer requiring separate maths areas.
 
If due to Covid you’re having to limit the number of areas you have to have here are some of my thoughts on areas to include;
 
Block play
Some of the best learning I’ve seen has happened here. Create a huge block area and make small world and loose parts available. I once worked with Miss 3 who showed sustained interest in using the blocks to make a representation of the airport she had visited on her way to Poland. I watched how she liner the blocks up to make a runway then made a plane using...
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Starting The School Year Smoothly

Sep 07, 2020

Here are a few tried and tested ways to start the new school year in a smooth way.

A tour of the school/ setting in small groups and showing who works in school and what they do. 


Tour of your provision in small groups and giving little teams the same tidy up job to do each day.

Share some getting to know you stories like Owl Babies. Offering children the chance to talk about who’s important to them and the things they like. 

No phonics or maths sessions! Instead have a focus here on building relationships and developing a routine. Lots of small group circle times and getting to know you games. Lots of opportunities to revisit phase 1 of letters and sounds. 

Make birthday crowns and display these around your setting. When it's a child's birthday they then get to wear it for the day!


A focus on good sitting, good looking, good listening during small group time. I like to reinforce the spoken words with makaton actions and symbols too.

I used to love...

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Nikki: Wellbeing of the team

Aug 11, 2020

In this weeks blog article my lovely member Nikki,  a daycare manager of a nursery based in Leeds, shares with us how she supports the wellbeing of her team. 

I suffer from burn out. I have done for years. I think Early years lends itself to never ending to do lists and wanting to get it right for children, families and the team. I now know I have to plan self-care in to my routine to look after myself. I make sure I spend time outside throughout the week (usually at the local nature reserve), I use a meditation app daily and to support my sleep and in the darker months I use my daylight lamp to improve my SAD (Seasonal affective disorder). These changes to my life style is what led me to discovering Hygge and then Hygge in the early years.

As early years practitioners we know the importance of children's wellbeing, we even go as far as to monitoring wellbeing levels using the Leuvens scale. We are also aware that low wellbeing results in low levels of involvement and...

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