Sticks & Stones Education

🌿 NEW RESOURCE FOR EDUCATORS & FAMILIES 🌿

After months and months of writing, refining, and drawing on nearly 30 years in early childhood…

✨ It’s finally here. ✨

Developmental Milestones
aligned with the EYLF 2.0 & National Quality Standard

This is the resource I wish I had years ago.

Not just checklist…
Not just theory…

But something that actually brings it all together in a way that makes sense in real practice. It's a companion!

📖 Inside you’ll find:

✔ 165 pages of content
✔ Developmental milestones from birth to 5 years
✔ Clear links to EYLF 2.0 learning outcomes
✔ “When to seek help” guidance for early intervention
✔ Family engagement ideas you can actually use
✔ Connections to developmental theorists (without the overwhelm)
✔ Beautiful, practical pages designed for real educators

This is for:

👩‍🏫 Early childhood educators
👶 Families and caregivers
🏡 Family day care providers
📚 Students and new educators

Because understanding development shouldn’t feel like decoding a policy document.

It should feel like:
🌿 clarity
🌿 confidence
🌿 connection

💛 Created with love by Sticks & Stones Education

👉 Link in Comments! (because that's how Facebook likes it!)

📣 I’d love your support:
Like • Share • Tag an educator who needs this

And truly… thank you for being part of this community.
This one means a lot. Grab it while it's on sale!

✨

ECE FRIENDS - You need to register for the Summit. Our voices matter.

If you’ve registered for the Early Childhood Education Summit 2026, this is your reminder to complete the Educator Voices Survey.

Survey responses are guiding — shaping priorities, strengthening the evidence, and informing the demands that will be taken forward. Every response adds weight to the collective voice advocating for change.

If you’ve already registered, your survey link has been emailed to you. Please take a few moments to complete it and add your voice.

If you’ve completed the survey, we also invite you to join the Early Childhood Education Summit Facebook Community and, if you would like to - upload a short video (up to two minutes) directly onto the page, sharing one issue that matters to you and why. This is another way to ensure what is important is heard, seen, and carried forward.

This Early Childhood Education Summit has been made possible through volunteered time, shared resources, and collective care, in collaboration with the University of Sydney.

👉 Links to the official webpage and Facebook community are in the comments on Facebook and in the bio on Instagram.

“It matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with.”
—Donna Haraway (2016)

🚨EOFY SALE IS HERE 🚨
We’re in end-of-financial-year BEAST MODE now. 💅🔥
💥 Up to 50% OFF storewide
🛒 Loose parts? Discounted.
🎨 Arts & crafts? On sale.
🦕 Dinosaur figurines? Practically roaring into your cart.

✨ Exclusions apply (Tuff Trays, Furniture & Yellow Door—sorry fancy friends)
📆 Sale ends 30 June or while stock lasts.
📦 Tax-deductible? Probably. Fun? Absolutely.

👉 Tap the link and go wild.

https://www.sticksandstoneseducation.com.au/

📢 Why Small World Play is a BIG Deal! 🌍✨
🎭 A tiny jungle with roaring lions. A farmyard full of busy animals. An undersea world where mermaids and fish have tea parties. Sounds magical, right? That’s the power of small world play! ✨

But here’s the thing—it’s not just fun (although it totally is). It’s also one of the best ways kids learn. 🧠💡

✅ Language & storytelling skills (because every astronaut needs a good mission briefing 🚀)
✅ Social & emotional growth (working through feelings = small world therapy)
✅ Problem-solving & STEM (figuring out how to build the perfect dinosaur cave is serious business 🦖)
✅ Creativity & imagination (turning a few rocks & twigs into an enchanted fairy land = genius)

We broke it ALL down in our latest blog post, and trust us—you’re going to want to read this one.

📍 READ IT NOW: https://www.sticksandstoneseducation.com.au/blogs/ourstories/the-benefits-of-small-world-play?

Tag a fellow educator or parent who NEEDS to know about the magic of small world play! What’s your child’s favourite small world setup? Drop it below! ⬇️

📢 “Harmony Week: Because Sharing Cultures is Way Cooler Than Sharing Germs” 🌏✨

🚨 ATTENTION, EDUCATORS! 🚨
It’s Harmony Week (March 17-23), which means it’s time to celebrate diversity, embrace inclusion, and teach little humans that the world is BIG, BEAUTIFUL, and FULL of amazing cultures! Harmony Day is on the 21st! 🌍💛

And listen, we know what you’re thinking—
"How do I turn Harmony Week into a meaningful experience instead of a last-minute craft where children glue flags onto paper?"
Oh, babe, WE GOT YOU. 👏

🎭 Drama & Role Play: Let kids run a "world café" and pretend to serve up foods from different cultures (bonus points if it includes imaginary overpriced lattes).
🎵 Music & Dance: Blast tunes from around the world and let the kids vibe—because nothing says global harmony like a bunch of toddlers attempting a Bollywood dance-off.
📚 Storytelling Time: Read books that showcase different traditions and cultures. Bonus points if you do the voices.
🎨 Art & Craft: Skip the generic flag-printing and try something unique like cultural pattern painting or collaborative murals that represent the kids’ backgrounds.
🍲 Food Exploration: Try (safe) taste-testing or food-related sensory play. 👀

Want more actual good ideas that don’t require a panic trip to the craft store? We wrote a whole blog on it! 🎉

🔗 READ IT HERE ➡️ https://www.sticksandstoneseducation.com.au/blogs/significant-days-for-early-childhood-education-and-care/celebrate-harmony-day-in-ece

Drop a 🌏 in the comments if you’re celebrating Harmony Week in your classroom!

📢 The Magic of Small World Play! 🌍✨

🚀 LITTLE HANDS, BIG WORLDS! 🚀

Okay, real talk—small world play is basically the greatest thing ever. It’s storytelling, creativity, problem-solving, AND sensory play all rolled into one tiny, magical universe.

Want your child to explore the jungle? Done. 🌿🦁
Meet mermaids under the sea? No problem. 🧜‍♀️🐚
Go on a prehistoric dinosaur adventure? RAWWWR! 🦖✨
Travel to outer space as an astronaut? 🚀🪐
Discover the wonders of Australian animals & farm life? 🦘🐮

With small world play, kids build stories, stretch their imaginations, and even practice language, social skills, and problem-solving—all while having an absolute blast. 🎉

And guess what? We have EVERYTHING you need to bring their tiny worlds to life. 🌏✨ From playsets to figurines to natural elements that make every scene feel real, our collection is ready to inspire hours of immersive, open-ended play.

🎨 SHOP SMALL WORLD PLAY HERE ➡️ https://www.sticksandstoneseducation.com.au/collections/small-world-play

Tag a parent or educator who NEEDS to level up their small world play setups! What’s your kid’s favourite small world theme? Drop it below! ⬇️

Milestones vs. Learning Trajectories – What’s the Difference?
🚀 NEW BLOG ALERT! 🚀

Alright, educators, parents, and anyone who's ever wondered "Is my kid supposed to be doing that right now?"—this one’s for you.

We just dropped a brand-new article on learning trajectories vs. developmental milestones, and let’s just say… it’s the clarity you didn’t know you needed.

🔍 Milestones = the big checkpoints (like "first steps" or "talking in sentences").
📈 Learning Trajectories = the journey that gets children there (because nobody goes from crawling to running overnight—there’s a whole wobbly, chaotic process in between).

✨ Why does this matter? ✨
👉 It helps educators scaffold learning effectively.
👉 It reassures parents that progress is a journey, not a checklist.
👉 It aligns beautifully with the EYLF 2.0, so we can support children at their actual stage of learning, not just a “one-size-fits-all” milestone.

📝 We break it all down in this blog—check it out now!
📍 https://www.sticksandstoneseducation.com.au/blogs/educators-notebook-the-early-years-edition/the-difference-between-learning-trajectories-and-developmental-milestones

Have you ever seen a child hit a milestone in the most unexpected way? Tell us your best "developmental glow-up" story in the comments! ⬇️



- Jane the Head Pebble @ Sticks & Stones Education

👋 Hey hey, party people! My name’s Jane, and I’m the new operational manager here at Sticks & Stones Education – which basically means I’m the one making sure the shelves are stocked, the sales are rolling, and the toys are flying into your carts.

Do I have a formal background in running a toy empire? No.
Do I have a deep and slightly concerning passion for small world play, wild children, and selling sticks like they’re designer handbags? Absolutely.

I'll be running things for a while, so expect:
✔️ Sales. Big ones. Maybe too big. (Oops.)
✔️ Unhinged marketing ideas that may or may not involve enchanted toys and wooden discs.
✔️ Vibes. Just… vibes.

So if you’re here for fun, chaos, and the best toys + resources for your wild little ones, you’re in the right place. Let’s do this. 🚀

Drop a 👋 in the comments and tell me: what’s the weirdest thing your kid has ever turned into a toy? (Winner gets nothing but my admiration and maybe a deeply discounted stick.)

Anyone else feeling left out?! Northern?! Southern?! 🤣

FYI! Another episode dropped!