Early Years Inspiration

13/06/2021

Maggie Dent does it again! You took the words right out of my mouth.
Children, particularly in the first few years of school, do not need to be doing homework.
Reading as a family and giving opportunities for a beginner reader to have a go within real life experiences at home gives far greater value to this skill and assists in these skills emerging. Formal homework does not improve outcomes for children. If anything, it can breed a resentment for learning as it is arduous. They NEED to play!
If you want to add a little to your child learning I can not stress enough to simply involve your children in cooking at home, read the recipe together, write down a recipe shared with you, measure the ingredients, watch the reactions when things are mixed, heated or cooled. It is the perfect everyday experience that involves literacy, maths and science, not to mention the fine motor development and skill in cutting up the veggies etc., self help and life long skills being learnt.

As one of Australia’s leading parenting educators I regularly travel the length and breadth of this country including cities, remote communities, rural communities and of course the digital world. Everywhere I go I hear about the distress of many young children who are struggling — kids struggli...

06/10/2020

Nathan Wallis is a favourite of mine. He makes so much sense of current research.

Let the children play, and by children I mean those above 5 as well!

24/08/2020

This is so true! Learning from home is hard and now as we (in Victoria) move into week 6 of Term 3 in this format, exhaustion sets in for everyone. This is some great advice to help get you through. Please remember to talk with your child’s teacher and negotiate any schedules that are simply not working at this point.

17/08/2020

This is another really easy little science experiment (perfect for science week) to help children understand that air is a gas all around us even though we can’t see it, it fills space.

14/08/2020

This was such a simple experiment which gave a really impressive outcome. All you need is a glass, an egg, some vinegar and some cling wrap and maybe an elastic band to hold it on. Leave it to sit in the glass for 3 days. Just be careful as it will burst. Give it a go!

10/07/2020

Day 2 of lockdown here in Melbourne called for some slime making. My two loved this and played with it for ages. It’s now in a snap lock bag waiting for more fun tomorrow. Controversially I use borax in my slime. I use so little and supervise so I have no issue using it. First make your activator using 2 cups warm water and 1 tsp of borax. Stir and dissolve. Next we used white glue, some food colouring, lots of shaving cream and 4 tbsp of cornflour. Mix well, slowly adding the activator mixture. I probably used nearly half a cup of activator, but add slowly until you have the consistency you like. This made for a more fluffy and almost ooblek quality slime. My two loved the science of this and talking about the ingredients reacting to each other and changing the consistency.

08/07/2020

Yep! Seems about right...

25/04/2020

And just to add to this, no healthy child’s brain just switches off and doesn’t learn. No child will lose a years worth of education. They may not learn what is on the curriculum this year, but there are great possibilities for learning how to be a good human being and learning about things of interest to the child in the family home without you compromising your job!

21/04/2020

We had so much fun today creating roads on the floor with painters tape. Such a simple experience that both Mr 5 and Mr 3 were engaged in for over an hour. I even managed to sneak in a Zoom conference call for work while they played, winning!!!!

16/04/2020

To all those parents who found yesterday a bit a of “sh*tshow” take a step back, and have a listen. I will attempt to break this down a little more clearer in some more videos, if people want it. Ask questions in the comments and I will address them. I have a lot to say on this topic, so I tried to restrain myself.
Our education system has needed an overhaul for a long time. Children are not built to sit at a computer screen. If this is what you are finding challenging. I can help with lots of ideas about how our children can learn that need to move.

15/04/2020

So, how did Day 1 of “Homeschool” go for you?