Niki Buchan Natural Learning

27/09/2026

Thank you Lizzie for pointing out the importance of positive feedback. So often busy and distracted adults comment on children’s behaviour they don’t like and this is the picture the child builds of themselves. Positive feedback improves behaviour.

🌿 What happens in your brain when someone notices something kind you’ve done?

Imagine a child hears…

“I noticed you waited for your friend.”

“You made sure everyone had a turn.”

“You were so gentle with the baby chicks.”

Those aren’t just nice comments.

They’re helping the child’s brain answer one of the biggest questions of childhood:

“Who am I?”

Our brains are constantly collecting evidence about ourselves.

The more children hear genuine, specific observations about their kindness, courage and curiosity, the more those pathways are strengthened.

Over time, those messages become part of the story they tell themselves.

“I am kind.”

“I am helpful.”

“I make people feel safe.”

That’s why I try not to simply say, “Good job.”

Instead, I love describing exactly what I noticed.

Because specific words help children see the wonderful qualities that already live inside them. 💛

23/09/2026

Knowing a child takes time, interest, knowledge and a dedicated educator who really cares about the child. How many children are really known by those who are responsible for them?

Every child deserves to be known. Not simply counted. Not simply included in a ratio. Known.

Known well enough for an educator to notice when something has changed.

Known well enough for distress to be understood in context.

Known by someone who remembers yesterday’s story and will still be there tomorrow.

This thought-provoking contribution asks whether Australia’s expanding early childhood education and care system is paying enough attention to something far harder to measure: relational capacity.

Minimum educator-to-child ratios tell us what services cannot go below. But do they tell us whether educators have the time, continuity and capacity required to build the relationships that underpin quality early childhood education?

The article introduces the idea of relational load, the changing interactive and emotional demands within an early learning environment and asks what it could mean for workforce planning, regulation, access and reform.

It is a piece likely to prompt conversation across the sector.

Read Every child deserves to be known: https://ap1.hubs.ly/H01nRW70

20/09/2026

A wonderful project to create with the children using simple every day objects. Developing knowledge and a love of our environment. Thank you Parkside School, I learnt something new today.

As the temperatures start to drop our amphibian and reptile friends will be seeking warmer places to hide away. 🐸 🐍

Looking for something to do this weekend? A hibernaculum is a place where an animal seeks refuge and by building one in a sunny spot you'll be providing the perfect cosy corner and you could soon be welcoming some new friends!

22/08/2026

Terri and Daniel have developed an approach that has proven life changing for children and educators struggling with some of the challenging behaviours children display in settings and schools. This approach benefits all children including children who have suffered trauma or have inherited trauma from previous generations.

Budgets are tight. Staffing is stretched. Children’s needs are becoming more complex.

And still, every day, there are children who are struggling to cope in school.

Children who are anxious, overwhelmed, dysregulated, withdrawn, reactive, or finding it hard to join in and feel that they belong.

Teachers and support staff are often trying to meet all of these needs with limited time, limited space and limited resources.

So how do we build targeted support in a way that feels realistic?

One answer is to develop the skills and confidence of existing staff.

Nature Nurture in Practice is a live online course for practitioners who want to deliver targeted outdoor-based support using the outdoor spaces you already have.

Over 24 weeks, one hour weekly live sessions combine taught input, practical guidance, group coaching and peer support.

The course helps practitioners understand children’s needs more deeply and develop structured, responsive outdoor support that can help children feel safer, more engaged, better regulated and more resilient.

This is for practitioners who want to grow in confidence, strengthen their professional practice and make a meaningful difference for children who need something more.

A September cohort is currently forming.

Comment 'course info' or send me a message and I’ll share the course structure and prices.
Or visit our website to see all the professional development opportunities available https://salugen.uk/

15/08/2026

Wonder what happens to the old play dough when it is replaced weekly? Throwing it away is not very environmentally friendly.

Play dough has high levels of salt, not conducive to bacterial or common viral growth. Drying it in the sunshine or oven can give it another life as a sensorial object created by the children, objects that can be used in role play or small loose parts as used here by Blackalls Park Preschool.

What do you do with ‘old’ play dough?

15/07/2026

"They fight the child instead of understanding the brain."

Every child is so different when it comes to some of the behaviours adults find challenging. Stepping back, observing and reflecting on what is actually happening for the child, why is it happening and why now are important questions to consider.

09/06/2026

Playing with 4 year olds and rules….so beautifully explained.

We were playing hide and seek. A four year old asked me if two people can count at the same time.
Lev Vygotsky (not him again!) wrote heaps about children and rules. Rules start off hidden. If you are having a game of chasey the unspoken rule is, one person gets chased, the other has to chase. Without following this rule, the game would be called ‘senseless running’.
Next, they understand the concept of the spoken (or written) rules (they see our society covered in them). However, at the age of 3-6 they don’t place a lot of importance on how strict rules are. Rules will change depending on the outcome you want. For instance, in chasey, you’re not ‘out’ if someone touches you, unless you want to be out.
When you get a bit older, you start to appreciate strict rule, as it adds to the challenge. For instance, in “what’s the time Mr wolf’, all 4-year-olds want to be the wolf. You have a hundred wolves, and one person sneaking up. When the coalition of wolves yell out a number, say twenty fifty o’clock, the sneaker-upper basically adds a thousand more steps, because they really want to be standing an inch from the dinner-time wolf as soon as possible.
7 year olds, on the other hand have one wolf, and everybody is heavily scrutinised to make sure they only step the required steps. And there are no ‘100 o’clocks.’ They value rules as a means of enabling an activity to run smoothly, fairly, and with a level of predictability. Just like societal rules.
So, when the 4 year old kid asks me if two people can count at the same time, I say “sure! It isn’t the internationally accepted rules of hide and seek, but when you’re four, rules are meant to be explored, not obeyed. You have a whole life of rules ahead of you. Enjoy your anarchist existence while you can”

09/04/2026

Look for the wild places. Go to parks, but play on the edges in the creeks and the bushes. Follow the animal tracks for interesting adventures. Walk up fire trails to go higher and see the world from above, and play low in the bushes and branches. Paddocks offer an abundance of space to use our bodies, and microhabitats to discover. Wild nature is everywhere.
This is how we play.

Image of Little Birdwings children playing and quotes are both attributed to Niki Buchan Natural Learning