Delight and wonder early childhood consultancy services

09/03/2026

07/03/2026

Thank you for the write-up Anthony Semann
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18CLEG8igE/

POWERFUL PEDAGOGY IS OUT

And in this edition we showcase Belinda Martin, an early childhood teacher from NSW who doesn’t talk about sustainability as a concept in the Early Years Learning Framework. She talks about it as something you do.

‘I don’t think it’s fair for children to have to fight to get what they want,’ she says, reflecting on her return to early childhood teaching after having her own children. ‘Services just don’t have enough resources.’

Download and read your copy at https://semannslattery.cmail19.com/t/d-e-gduuto-yuydjdzkr-k/

12/01/2026

The joy of gathering interesting resources never wavers for me. I've been collecting some pirate things to create an inspiring provocation with silver heuristic resources, loose gems, keys, a treasure chest, a world globe and even gold bullion 😃. Best part is the only thing not from street clean ups or op shops was the hat and some gems. 95 percent has been saved from landfill and what a language and imagination rich play event will be had with this tomorrow .
The huge 21 st key I converted into a gem treasure chest key and what amazing luck to find the gold bullion, the incredibly old key, and the pirate suit in street clean ups on Saturday .
I have a vintage, deeply" privatey"🏴‍☠️ painting of the sea I've just restored with PVA that Il add as a back drop to a tough tray and tables to explore this. Today I introduced the concepts of maps so I'm seeing some tea staining, pretend fire edge burning for maps happening at some point too.
When we see the dirty washing on the line currently being aired across our sector, remember the good parts of our job too. Amid all the crap, remember to find time for pirates and treasure maps .

22/12/2025

In the year that was ....well, was really crap for all of us, let's share some great things we saw in 2025. This is my first time doing casual work in over 25 years, and I've seen the good, the bad and really, just the struggle we all are currently operating under. It really is like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates as a casual teacher, and you never know what you will get. To be fair, neither does the service 😂. They can get casuals standing around catching flies with their mouths, amazing people that hold the centre together in times of crisis and quirky forces of nature like me that roll through the door completely dishevelled with multiple bags of special things that can look like homelessness at first glance.
In my last five months doing agency work I've seen some great stuff too. I think it's important to talk about the good things, the exceptional things and really just the everyday things that can make a difference in children's lives.
So here's a list of some things I saw that gave me hope for our sector that I will defend till the end of days. Please add things in the comments, the positive things, the heartwarming things and the random acts of kindness that demonstrate why despite all the negative stuff out there ATM, we are a special breed of human to do what we do and keep showing up to do it

*Directors that worked tirelessly on the floor without being told they were needed. They knew and they came.
*The very fat, well-loved bearded dragon that the children help feed live insects and named Pancake.( But seriously, do they make lite and easy for lizards?). 😂
*Educators stealing from home for work EVERYWHERE and being resourceful to have resources . Printed and contacted grocery labels on wooden blocks for home corner was a stand out here. Looks fab too!
*A service that ditched the App and had much more time for connection with the children.
*A service that invested in creating gardening areas AFTER assessment, for the children not for the rating.
*The trainee that raised a good point about feeling unmotivated in October because there's room changes for everyone in the new year. Why bother investing in things you won't be around to see come to fruition? With a little encouragement I got her to write a great reflection that impacted the director's perspective. Everyone's opinion matters and understanding this can be a game changer for quality practice.
*Amazing home -like spaces with vintage and retro resources, real wooden furniture, real nature, soft lighting and carpet to mute excessive noise.These environmental inclusions created quality and kept children regulated , happy and relaxed.
*Children given agency with meal times and indoor/ outdoor play on offer.
*A centre that uses warm washers for grotty little faces instead of unsustainable baby wipes.
*Two little birds in a giant cage that were fed by families on a roster over the weekend.
*The overwhelming majority of centres that embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives specific to the land they work on.
*A very cool song I never heard before called
" I know a song that gives me powers".
*Educators who weren't even aware they had just pecked a child on the head or cheek with eyes lit up from love and genuine care. Sorry, I will only ever see this as being human.
*Educators following traditions like creating Christmas gifts that they personally believed in, and the families did. too. It is hard work, and there's lots of reflection to not invest in these old practices but respect for diversity is a two-way street, and every service has different demographics. I can't criticise educators burning the midnight oil to make sure everyone has a Christmas gift if that's something they pedagogically really value.
*Feeling welcome when a service realises I come with experience, resources and a commitment to give 110 per cent over my 8-hour shift.
*A trainee who challenged my perspective on guns when a child bought one in for show and tell. I know the research and understand exploring morality as a process through play. The young educator knew her policies and said
" Not unless we change our policy on this. Stand out, future leader, right there.
*A service that had lanyards for educators to wear when shadowing children with sensory or behavioural issues. The lanyards not only honoured the requirements for funding an additional educator but also had the child's favourite songs, likes, dislikes and strategies to help with meltdowns.
*Seeing male educators standing tall and riding out the incredible storm around them with dignity and professionalism. To the services that avoided the horizontal shifting of males into office and managerial-type roles, thank you for keeping the status quo and not folding like lawn chairs in the face of tremendous pressure to send our sector back 30 years.

Wherever you finish up this year or start next year, please continue to fight the good fight for us and the children. Our work is only as rewarding as we can commit to make it. Little investments in research, professional training and webinars, creating meaningful reflections in the moment they hit you and finding a way to value everybody will go a long way to make positive changes in a sector that needs a facelift stat!
Here's a fantastic article about the value of reflection that I'm always sharing in educational leadership roles. It really highlights how we can be quite stuck in our ways for no other reason than " that's what we always have done" .
Have a great rest everybody, and see you fresh in 2026.

A little girl was watching her mother prepare a fish for dinner. Her mother cut the head and tail off the fish and then placed it into a baking pan. The little girl asked her mother why she cut the head and tail off the fish. Her mother thought for a while and then said, […]

20/12/2025

Great to see my reflection shared by The Sector

In a brutally honest reflection, early childhood teacher and educational leader Belinda Martin unpacks how shifts in focus from children to parents, and from play to performance – have reshaped early learning since the 1990s.

- Real-time updates.
- Parent-focused environments.
- School readiness displays.
- "Learning" crafted for tours, not for children.

Through it all, Belinda asks: What happens to professional pride when we’re asked to record sunscreen but not teach?

An essential read for educators, centre leaders and approved providers committed to reclaiming agency, dignity and purpose in ECEC.

Read the full opinion piece here:
https://ap1.hubs.ly/y0sDls0

20/12/2025

The article attached really highlights why this digital technology train wreck needs to end. We are being tied up with red tape in order to use the very technology that has essentially made our job stressful and joyless. We don't want the stupid devices you are now trying to create more red tape to use. Keep the awful things!
In the current child safety aware climate, we have families wanting their child's image only sent to them, some families wanting only their child's class to see them and educators now not wanting to be pictured at all. Of course, we also have families with the phone in hand and email on speed-send to complain if they don't receive enough pictures of their child either. Who has time to learn, remember, edit photos and follow these specifics when trying to push out a day book like a time-pressed turd? Enough is enough! We don't want these " time savers,", "paper savers" and " A&R evidence rich" Apps that have turned nearly every mum , dad and gran into helicopter parents checking on updates and comparing photo tallies. We don't want excessive checklists to tick and flick and we don't want the opportunity to write meaningless reflections at home to meet quotas, targets or any other neo-liberal collection measurement.

We want to see the joy on children's faces directly, not from behind a lens. We want to be there to watch the hand washing, not mark that a wee took place at this time in history as evidenced by Belinda. We want to feel relaxed enough to eat with children, modelling healthy eating habits while casually interacting together, not scanning faces and bowls, and pressuring fork to mouth to tick off one more thing completed in a never ending day of time sensitive, data entry, imaginary "compliance".



Personally, I would love to see children smile genuinely, not give a fake smirk and bunny ears because this photo ready thing is an all day event now. I don't want children to feel that they need to not make an impact in the room for risk of being the latest target of a hungry iPad needing fresh meat. In all honesty, it's quite invasive to feel like you are being documented and recorded all day.

And that's what this is really. It's the over-scrutinisation of children all day . To a certain extent, our happy snaps and updates on personal body motions have made children susceptible to abuse. They are quite simply abused all day already but under the guise of caring for them and updating every ridiculous normal thing their body did today.

The children are over it.

I'm over it.

Are you over it?

If digital technology is the threat to children,

if it's the biggest stress in your day, then simply

" Delete it".

Three early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in South Australia have been issued Emergency Action Notices by the Education Standards Board (ESB) following findings of non-compliance related to mobile device use, child protection, and adherence to policies and procedures.

08/11/2025

Setting up some of my resources for a block week of casual teaching this week.....
They will break it!
That's not allowed!
You can't have that!
I always hear the same things from inexperienced educators or educators that have not worked in high quality centres.
Yes, you can use real tea sets.
No, they didn't break a single thing.
Yes, you can have nice things for children.
A lovely week that converted educators to a Reggio and Steiner style approach to preparing environments for children and setting children up for success.

13/10/2025

I dragged a tree stump that had been grinded out from a street clean up awhile back. Finally got a chance today to cut the base down flat and transform it into this lovely fairy garden tree.
The fairy stuff I found in a street clean up today.
Stump is stained with black coffee and lacquer applied ( also from a street clean up 😆).
The only thing I purchased was the small axe to cut the base flat.
Creating beautiful things for children gives be so much joy and to know it was all heading to landfill? Well, extra joyfully.

12/06/2025

A shell provocation I created today with a child that's interested in shells

21/05/2025

Some really extraordinary learning arises from conversations with children when there are equitable and respectful relationships..
I had some new resources come this morning including some for a space area that had evolved. One of the pieces was a chimp in a spacesuit and before we knew it we were watching snippets of a documentary on the history of chimps used to see if humans can survive the launch into space.
" That mean" said one four year old. " That's not fair" Says another. The children saw how the chimp was trained to push buttons as required to assist in his own mission. I explained that chimps are the closest species to humans and one child said " My dad said we came from chimps".
"Well, that's true that some people believe that and some people don't " I replied diplomatically. We continued to discuss the ethical considerations of human rights over animal rights and how the astronauts may feel without prior animal testing. We all agreed there's no real, firm right or wrong answer . We then talked about other types of animal testing like make up on pigs and their allergic reactions etc. To be fair, I pointed out we eat animals and we had two boys from farms in today's preschool group .
" But that's ethical consumption" said another educator .
Very true!
Another boy was as concerned as I was with the excess soft plastic in the packaging of the resources .
" My mum takes that to the supermarket to recycle" he said.." We don't need plastic anyway, we make everything fun from boxes" he continued.
" NSW is predicted to have no more landfill space within five years" I said .I suggested we write to the company to mention that extra packaging should be an option just like when we get groceries delivered, bags of no bags. This would be a great opportunity for the children to advocate for less non-sustainable packaging.

We had so many great learning areas and resources to play with today but respectful conversations where children are recognised as citizens and agents of change was by far the highest learning of the day.

03/05/2025

Setting the day for success.
Investment in preparing your environment for the children is possibly the biggest factor in how well your day goes. The Reggio belief that the environment is the third teacher is no more truer than outside. When we think about the majority of incidents that occur during the day, it is the outside where they occur. Yet strangely we tend to invest more thought and planning into the indoor experiences. Having enough to play with prevents accidents from bored children, incidents from not enough to share and creates engaging spaces for the children to get into deep play. But how to create this without spending too much time you don't have or with resources that don't exist?
If you don't know me by now, I'm the street clean up queen. Everything here apart from the tables and small black stand, has been taken from street clean ups. Real pots and pans, an array of cooking ladles and spoons, bakeware and camping plates. A smooth plank and two cable reels create another space for cooking on with a large tree cookie painted as a burner. It broke but we still push the two pieces together to use it. The leaves and soil become the ingredients and veggie patches with herbs and bush Tucker add to the sensory experience . This type of resource can be left out and always available. In days of patchy weather educators are loathe to put things out that they need to run through rain to pack away. Keep it all out but tip it over so rain doesn't sit in it to speed up rusting. When things rust either clean them or throw them away. There are always endless amounts of this kitchenware in council clean ups headed to landfill. Give these pieces one last hurrah before their demise.
When creating a space for children, think about how many children can use it, can they walk around each area, is there enough utensils to match pots ( add sticks if they are around), how long will the children have to engage in this? The constant educator expectation to share annoys me because we wouldn't like to hand over our laptop if we were in the middle of an observation. Sharing a spoon for your pot could be akin to giving the keyboard away but now you just have a monitor. It's not normal for children to share in the extreme ways they need to in organised long day care and preschool. There are too many children and their age is synonymous with egocentricity. No amount of nagging can get children to share in these huge groups in a stage of development that hasn't evolved to sharing. It's unreasonable and frustrating .Create enough of everything by giving plenty of space, plenty of time and plenty of materials. This type of open ended play can go on all day or for several days and evolve over weeks. When we toss things out of the shed, randomly go outside for “runs” and don't put love into our environments, don't expect any magic to evolve.
A tip for collecting things from clean ups is to just understand that one piece will add up to many. I like to take things as I see them and when there's enough I bring it all in for a complete play area. It truly does build into a collection quickly if you keep your eyes open. I understand it's not our job or role to provide resources but as advocates for the environment, we should contribute to reducing landfill occasionally, especially if we are walking or driving past something the children would love. It's in our interests when we can have amazing days without incidents because the children are happy, engaged and not set up for failure