Family Day Care within Fern Bay. Learning invitations and spaces that foster creativity, resourcefulness and connection with others.
***UPDATE- The Woodland Child Family Day Care is set to open its door on Monday January 4th 2016. We are now taking enquires and enrolments for placements. We will be operating Monday to Friday 7am-6pm (extended hours upon request)
The Woodland Child Family Day Care is underpinned and reflective of current educational research and practice. As an educator I take inspiration and guidance from a r
Dreamy park visits with a preschool group today exploring the possibilities that’s shadows gift us. When we looked into the mirror to see the vine/leafy tunnel above our learner exclaimed “I just want to dive in” ….. a portal to another world.
Do you purchase a felt kit today? Here is a video of a bit of wet felting in action! It will complement your instructions that are in the pack. Happy felting!
Caves beach …. No bears found yet
19/11/2025
So you have a collector in your family? Or are you still the collector? Have feathers in your handbag? Driftwood in your boot? Stones in your pockets…. It’s okay…. Me too. Are you the one who notices beauty and specialness in the world around them. A smooth rock, a spiny seed pod, a twisty stick. Children often gather these tiny treasures with such reverence. They are practising the art of noticing.
We love to hold space in our play environments for these beautiful found items. They invite storytelling, imagination and connection. They become characters, landscapes, ingredients, tools and companions. They help us slow down and pay attention to the small moments of beauty that sit quietly in a child’s day.
These objects remind us to see the world through a child’s eyes. To honour their curiosity. To recognise that learning lives in the ordinary and the extraordinary, often all at once.
As educators we have a responsibility to be fully present in children’s play. Our role is not to stand back and supervise but to listen, notice and interpret. We tune in to the small moments that reveal children’s theories, their motivations and the ideas they are trying to make sense of.
We watch for patterns. We pay attention to how children use their bodies, how they move toward materials and how they test possibilities. We notice what they choose, what they ignore and what they return to again and again. These threads of play are invitations for us to understand the learner in front of us and to respond with care and intention.
Here are the questions we might hold as we observe
• What materials do they seek out or leave behind?
• What choices do they make when offered time and freedom?
• How do they position and use their bodies in the space?
• What actions or moments do they return to?
• What questions might they be asking through their play?
• What ideas or theories are they testing?
• What does their engagement reveal about their thinking patterns and play urges?
This way of noticing is not passive. It is active, thoughtful and deeply respectful. It is how we honour the capable child and shape environments and experiences that help their ideas unfold.
25/10/2025
Three wonderful days in Rome exploring before heading to my “professional pilgrimage” to Reggio Emilia for a study tour with and the most amazing group of educators.
21/10/2025
What happens when we move beyond what the catalogues tell us is “appropriate” for young learners?
When we loosen our grip on the prepackaged and the preapproved, we begin to see how many possibilities have been quietly contained.
What stories do our choices tell about who we believe children are?
What happens when materials invite many ways to play, when there is no single right use, no fixed outcome?
Offering open and intriguing materials is an act of trust.
Trust in children’s capacity to explore and invent.
Trust in ourselves to stand back, listen and co-research alongside them.
Pedagogy lives not in the product but in the possibilities we are willing to offer.
17/10/2025
Holding the Difficult and the Joyful – Deepening Leadership Practice
Leadership is rarely tidy work. It asks us to hold both truth and joy, courage and care, resistance and possibility.
This mornings 3rd webinar of my leadership series explored feedback as an act of respect, the art of courageous conversations, and the emotional labour of leading with heart.
We spoke about being visible in our becoming, letting our learning and imperfection become part of the vision we are growing.