Young children and technology

ICT – what’s it all about? ICT is information and communications technology. The term simply means all the technology around us, things like mobile phones, computers, CD and DVD players, and digital cameras. ICT describes children learning about different technologies within their setting and school. There are microchips everywhere – tiny circuit boards which programme […]

Toddlers and very early learning

Toddlers are very busy people. They are keen to learn about the world around them and ready to be fascinated by things that seem ordinary to you. They can spend part of a morning thrilled to run around the park – getting better at starting, stopping, going forwards then backwards, and at making quick right […]

Science all around

Children’s curiosity about the world around them is apparent from the day they are born. Babies quickly use all their senses to explore themselves and their surroundings as they start to make sense of the world. Long before they can talk they will be investigating, asking questions, solving problems and making choices as they eat, […]

The road to reading

Reading is fun. It’s also a key skill that helps us to learn and to live our lives – so starting to read is an exciting and important stage in children’s development. As with so much of their learning, children practise many of the skills they need for reading over a long period, starting years […]

Questions and answers

What? Why? When? Where? What for? – and Why? yet again. Sometimes children’s questions just keep on coming. It can be wearing, especially if you are tired or very sure you have already answered as best you can. But it is well worth the effort to listen and answer properly. Children’s questions, and their comments, […]

Maths is everywhere

It’s true, maths really is everywhere, and learning about it doesn’t happen just at school or nursery. Young children have lots of important mathematical experiences every day and there are lots of ways to help them begin to develop their mathematical skills. We all use maths many times a day. Numbers and shapes, measuring and […]

Mark making – children’s early writing

What is mark making? Mark making is the term used to describe the marks that children in their early years make on paper and is the first steps towards learning to write. Being able to write is one of the many things that most of us take for granted. Even if we’re not keen writers, […]

Making a noise for music

The role of music in the early years Everyone knows how much young children love to sing and dance, but all too often music is thought of as something which only a few specially talented or gifted people will be good at. And it is children’s experiences of music in the early years which have […]

Helping children with their behaviour

Children learn how to behave All children are individuals, because they are born with their own character. This is why even children within the same family do not react in the same way to similar situations. Even so, a great deal of young children’s behaviour is learned through experience. They learn from how important people […]

Helping children cope with change

Early childhood seems like a time of constant change to adults. Just as you’ve got used to a predictable daytime nap, your child decides that she would rather play and chat than sleep. And just when you’ve worked out how to change her nappy while she’s standing up (because she won’t lie down), she insists […]