Tiny Teach Education

This toddler passed me pegs and paddle pop sticks, carefully, slowly and looked up to see if I was watching.

SPOILER ALERT: This moment wasn’t about the pegs.

Around 12 to 24 months, toddlers begin to explore shared attention and early social exchanges, offering toys, passing objects, and watching for your response.

It’s one of the earliest signs of social development:
➡️Learning turn-taking
➡️Beginning to communicate intentionally
➡️Building trust with safe, responsive adults

This little peg game was his way of saying, “I see you. Do you see me?” 🥹

At Tessa | Tiny Teach | Learning through play in Canberra, I create space for these quiet milestones to unfold through slow, intentional play and meaningful moments between children and the adults they trust.

If you’d love to understand more about your baby or toddler’s development and witness these beautiful moments together I’d love to welcome you in!

Join for Term 3 now, we start July 23rd. 11am classes have sold out with only a few places left for 9:15am.

This week Tessa | Tiny Teach | Learning through play in Canberra, I I trialled a new music and movement activity using paint rollers with bells attached.

What started as a simple invitation to explore became an opportunity for children to experiment with movement, sound, cause and effect, and creative expression.

As they rolled, shook, pushed and pulled the rollers, they were discovering how their actions created different sounds and marks. Some children focused on the paint, others were fascinated by the bells, and some combined both as they explored.

These are the moments I love most as an early childhood teacher. A simple activity can support so many areas of development when children are given the freedom to explore in their own way.

At Tiny Teach, our play-based toddler classes are designed to encourage curiosity, problem-solving, creativity and confidence through child-led learning experiences.

Would your little one enjoy this activity?

📌 Save this idea to try at home.

When people hear that Tessa | Tiny Teach | Learning through play in Canberra is for children aged 0-3 years, one of the most common questions I get is:

“But won’t the babies and toddlers be at completely different stages?”

Yes. And that’s exactly why it works.

In this video, one child is exploring the rice with their hands, another is moving confidently around the space, and an older child has climbed into the tray to fully immerse themselves in the sensory experience.

The activity is the same but the learning is different.

The baby is developing sensory awareness, building connections in the brain and learning about textures.

The toddler is practising movement, balance, filling, pouring and problem-solving.

The older child is extending their play through imagination, experimentation and creativity.

Children don’t all need the same activity at the same time. They need opportunities to explore at their own developmental stage.

This is why I love mixed-age, child-led play. One simple invitation can support learning, curiosity and confidence for every child in the room.

Have you noticed your child learning from watching older or younger children?

We’ve all been there, the 2am Google search… it’s so easy to fall down the Google rabbit hole.

“Should my child be doing this yet?”
“Is this normal?”

One search turns into ten, and before you know it, you are comparing your child to milestone charts and conflicting advice.

One of the reasons I love bringing specialists into .education is because families can ask questions in a relaxed, supportive environment and get information from someone they trust.

This week, Emily, our wonderful physio from joined us to chat all things movement and development.

Because parents deserve more reassurance, confidence and a village to support them along the way.

Just for fun and games, what milestone or skill have you found yourself Googling?

This week at .education we celebrated World Picnic Day.

Aside from some very cute set ups, we focused on transferring skills with our picnic set up and “ice cream” sensory station.

Thank you to the lovely and knowledgeable Emily from for joining us across all sessions this week. It’s so lovely to see you connect with families and see the process from our tinies!

Term 3 waitlist is currently open! Tickets will be going live on Wednesday with priority booking for our current and waitlist families before the general public.

Comment CLASS for info or pop into my inbox with any questions!

Reading at 3? Sounds like I was one of those pushy parents who focused on academics over child’s play but if you’ve been following .education for a while, you will know I’m a big believer in play, child-led learning and following children’s interests.

My daughter loved books from a young age. Turning pages, looking at pictures and reading together were some of her favourite things.

When she was around 2, she started showing an interest in letters and sounds.

One day, she became fascinated by the word mat in a book we were reading together.

We grabbed some felt letters and matched the letters M, A and T to the word in the book. We talked about the sounds they made and spent a few minutes playing around with them.

From there, the questions and curiosity flooded in! We slowly added a few more sounds and continued exploring them through books, magnetic letters, whiteboards and everyday conversations.

We found letters in signs, pointed them out in books and chatted about the sounds we could hear in words around us.

Initially it took time, but once she understood that letters represent sounds, she picked up new sounds very quickly.

What I’ve noticed a common mistake lots of parents make is the learning becomes too formal, boring and route learnt. I have never used flash cards or worksheets with my daughter. Everything has been taught through play and only when she was interested.

Follow along for Part 2.