Ponyara Pre-School

28/08/2026

08/08/2026

For the train lovers!

🚂 All aboard for a Thomas & Friends adventure!

Get ready for a day of fun and unforgettable memories as Thomas rolls into the NSW Rail Museum. Meet your favourite blue engine, enjoy a magical train ride and explore a world of railway history the whole family will love. 💙

📅 21, 22, 23, 28, 29 & 30 August

Bookings essential - secure your tickets before they’re gone!

📷 Thanks for tagging

06/08/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1KfnCNvAR6/

Little Builders brings 500+ sqm of sand and 100+ interactive toys to Marketfair Campbelltown from October to December 2026.

01/08/2026

13/07/2026

🌿 Great play doesn't come from expensive resources. It comes from imagination.

There’s something beautifully simple happening here…

A piece of cardboard becomes a ramp. A slope becomes a challenge. Children become engineers, risk assessors, collaborators, problem-solvers and storytellers—all without a single “toy” telling them how to play.

This is what happens when we trust children with open-ended resources and time.

They don’t need everything to be polished, branded or expensive. They need space to test ideas, to take risks, to negotiate with friends, to fail and try again—and to turn the ordinary into something extraordinary.

What looks like “just cardboard” is actually:
💡 problem solving
💬 communication
🤝 teamwork
🧠 critical thinking
💪 resilience

This is play in its purest form.

And the learning? It’s happening naturally, without pressure, without instruction sheets, without limits.

Just imagination doing what it does best.

💚 What’s the simplest resource that’s created the richest play in your setting?

18/06/2026

If your setting feels overwhelming right now, start here.

Behaviour feels harder.
Children seem more dysregulated.
The room feels louder.
And you’re ending each day exhausted.

I want to gently challenge something:

What if the answer isn’t more?

Not more interventions.
Not more adult-led activities.
Not more structure.

Because often, in trying to “help” children, we unintentionally remove the very things they need most.

As this quote says:

“Outdoor play isn’t something children outgrow. It’s something we slowly take away.”

Replaced with schedules.
Screens.
Targets.
Constant transitions.

Until play, movement, wonder and fresh air become the “extra.”

And yet these are the very things that regulate children.

That build resilience.
Confidence.
Problem solving.
Creativity.

The things I saw prioritised so powerfully in Scandinavian education.

And when I began bringing that into my own practice?

Everything shifted.

The children became calmer.
Behaviour improved.
Learning deepened.
And I stopped carrying the weight of trying to force outcomes.

If your setting feels heavy right now…

it might not need more.

It might need less.

🌿 In my free training, I’ll show you the 3 Scandinavian shifts that transformed my practice and can help you create a calmer, more connected classroom too.

Because if nothing changes, the overwhelm stays.

https://www.hyggeintheearlyyears.co.uk/blank-page-c59b8933-2688-43eb-8483-215520b9c3ac

04/06/2026

10/05/2026

Finland starts school at 7, protects early childhood from pressure — and leads the world.
Everything about Finland's approach to early education contradicts the instinct most modern parents and systems feel — to start earlier, push harder, and introduce academic content as soon as possible.
Finnish children don't begin formal schooling until age 7. The years before that are deliberately protected — not from learning, but from academic pressure. Instead of worksheets, drills, and structured literacy programs, early childhood in Finland centers on play, social development, emotional skills, and the kind of physical, imaginative exploration that develops the foundational cognitive architecture formal learning will later require.
This isn't idealism. It's developmental strategy.
The brain regions most critical for creativity, problem-solving, self-regulation, and sustained attention are being built in the early years — and they require appropriate stimulation to develop properly. Play, social interaction, and unstructured exploration provide that stimulation in ways that premature academic pressure doesn't. Children who reach formal schooling with strong emotional regulation, social competence, and genuine curiosity engage with learning more effectively than those who arrive already fatigued by years of inappropriate academic demand.
By the time Finnish children begin structured academics at 7, they're developmentally ready — able to focus, follow instruction, and absorb material in ways that make the learning land rather than simply pass through.
Finland's system also features shorter school days, minimal homework, and highly trained, trusted teachers — all of which protect engagement and prevent the burnout that early academic pressure routinely produces elsewhere.
The results, consistently measured across international assessments, speak clearly: stronger outcomes, measurably happier students.
Readiness matters more than speed. Building the foundation takes longer than drilling the content — and pays compounding returns across an entire educational life."

08/05/2026

For train fans…

The kids will talk about this one for years.