Promoting Positive Approaches to Food & Mealtimes

With Covid-19 throwing all of our lives into disarray, routines out of the window, and contributing to noticeable changes in our children’s routines and behaviours – perhaps mealtimes have become a struggle in your household or setting. Many of our current cohort are at the age and stage where they may become more ‘vocal’ in…

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Preparing for School Transitions – Covid 19.

In this blog we will re-visit our previous piece on getting children ‘school ready’ and what the much-disputed term ‘school readiness’ means for us. In light of the current situation we will also touch upon on how we intend to work with you and the schools to support our school leaver children with their transition…

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What Next? Thinking About Life Post Covid-19.

With so much uncertainty surrounding our sector, our businesses and our current situations, many of us have started to think ‘What next?’ Is re-opening going to be a smooth and easy transition? There will be many challenges, not only are there business and policy implications to consider for those settings with more staff, but the…

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Activity Guide: 5 years+

This week we will be focusing on activity and learning ideas for our school aged children. Whilst most children will have been set formal learning and school work from their school to be working on whilst their schools are closed, we felt it was important to provide some ideas for fun, play-based experiences that children…

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Activity Guide: 3-5 years.

As reality sets in and we all begin to adjust to our new ‘normal’ of being and working from home with young children in tow, we thought we would offer some virtual support and advice on ways in which to keep the Under 5’s occupied at home. We will be posting an age group per…

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Activity Guide: 2-3 years

As reality sets in and we all begin to adjust to our new ‘normal’ of being and working from home with young children in tow, we thought we would offer some virtual support and advice on ways in which to keep the Under 5’s occupied at home. We will be posting an age group per…

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Activity Guide: 1-2 Years

As reality sets in and we all begin to adjust to our new ‘normal’ of being and working from home with young children in tow, we thought we would offer some virtual support and advice on ways in which to keep the Under 5’s occupied at home. We will be posting an age group per…

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EY smart

In times of such uncertainty and now many of us within the Early Years Sector find ourselves working from home due to the Government’s partial closures of schools and Early Years settings. Pre-Covid 19, high quality, accessible and affordable CPD was hard to come by – either too expensive, implications on your working day or…

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STEM projects

When we think of STEM projects, we often think of busy boys in Reception designing, constructing and problem-solving using hands-on malleable materials, but what about STEM projects within our Early Years? Do these types of activities and projects have a place with our younger children? Are these skills beneficial to children’s learning and development within…

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Accessible Resources & Enabling Environments

In a recent article we spent time reflecting on the benefits of children in home-based childcare growing up in mixed aged groups and the value of ‘family rooms’ in some nurseries where children are not grouped as a result of their age. Upon reflection, we began to dissect the concept further and began watching and…

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Mealtime Experiences in the Early Years

With both of us coming from nursery backgrounds and both having our own journeys personally and professionally with food, mealtimes and feeding experiences, positive attitudes towards food and creating unpressured, slow-paced, meal time environments was something of increased importance to us both when creating Pebbles Childcare. In a larger nursery type of environment, mealtimes can…

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Early Learning Goals Consultation – Expressive Arts and Design

Upon reading the ELG consultation, as professionals we are incredibly concerned by the reform, over the series of our next few blogs we will be dissecting the proposed changes for each area of learning; this week we will be looking at Expressive Arts and Design and the proposed changes to this area of learning. Our…

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