Little Woodlands - Quality Home Childcare

🌑😎🌞

🌙 On Wednesday 12th August 2026 - Europe will experience its first total solar eclipse since 1999. ☀️

And this time for the last time.. 🫶🏻
🥹 So proud of each and every one of them.

It’s that time of year again… The season of transition reports, school visits, teacher meetings, and preparing children for their next big adventure. 🌍

And no matter how many times I experience it, it never gets easier.

As early years professionals, we spend years helping children grow into confident, capable little people. We celebrate first words, first friendships, newfound independence, and all the tiny moments in between that shape who they are becoming.

We know from the very beginning that one day they will move on… But knowing it’s coming doesn’t make it hurt any less. ❤️‍🩹

There is so much pride in watching a child become ready for their next chapter. Pride in knowing you’ve played a small part in their journey. Pride in seeing them walk off with confidence, curiosity, and excitement.

But alongside that pride sits something else.

A quiet sadness.

Because every transition report tells the story of how far they’ve come. Every conversation with a teacher is a reminder that your chapter together is drawing to a close.

The bittersweet truth of working in early years is that our greatest success is helping children spread their wings, even when part of us wishes we could keep them little for just a little longer. 🥹

What a distinct privilege it is to be part of their story.

And what an honour it is to watch them begin the next chapter of it. 🌈🫶🏻❤️

Sir David Attenborough celebrates his one hundredth birthday today. His career, spanning seven decades, has been transformative in the world of conservation and wildlife film-making. He continues to inspire current and future generations to take care of the natural world around them, a message that he highlighted this year in his most recent documentaries, Wild London and Secret Garden.

Celebrate Sir David Attenborough in your setting > https://www.twinkl.co.uk/r/1m5uru

St George's day!

Language development, stories, singing, mark making, those funny gooey set ups, role play, small world imagination, building, play-dough, climbing, lifting, digging, action rhymes, physical play... and so much more which all pave the way towards being writer!
Being rich in experiences and vocabulary, strong physically and being given time to develop their own imaginative games through play gives children great foundations to be ready for writing as they develop.
Play, play,play!

A firm believer in the importance of true independent play.

When we accidentally spoil deep play…

Earlier this week, I watched a child sit on the floor with a small collection of wooden blocks.

He wasn’t building quickly.
He wasn’t talking.
He was turning each piece slowly in his hands, testing balance, adjusting, trying again.

For several minutes, nothing else existed.

This is deep play — the kind where learning is sustained, purposeful, and deeply satisfying.

And then… it gets interrupted.

🔹 An adult leans in with a question:
“What are you making?”

🔹 Or joins in with their own agenda:
“Shall we turn it into a castle?”

🔹 Or the space becomes overloaded — more resources added, more choices introduced, more noise created.

The tower wobbles.
The child pauses.
The focus is lost.

Not because the child was finished —
but because the conditions for concentration were broken.

Sometimes the most supportive thing we can do is nothing at all.

No questions.
No redirection.
No adult ideas layered on top.

Just:
✨ time
✨ space
✨ trust

Fewer materials.
Fewer interruptions.
More observing.

Deep play doesn’t need us to lead it.
It needs us to protect it.

💭 A gentle reflection:
When a child is deeply involved today…
will I step in — or will I step back?

🌱 If this resonates, my Hygge in the Early Years™ training explores how to notice, protect and nurture deep play through calm environments and intentional adult practice — supporting children’s wellbeing and your own.

You’re very welcome to explore it when the time feels right.

So important to understand, in Early Years Physical development and gross motor skills are the foundations to writing.
Play, climb, push, lift, move, throw, build, carry, paint, draw, roll, squeeze, hold!

Fine motor control doesn’t develop in isolation.
It is built on strong bodies, stable shoulders and confident movement.
When children struggle with writing, the answer is rarely “more practice at the table”.
It’s more opportunity to move, push, pull, squeeze, climb and play.
The hand cannot do what the body cannot support and this is why movement must sit at the heart of early writing provision.
Strong foundations first.
Writing follows.

A special visitor came to our Christmas party! Sooo exciting! 🫶🏻 Thank you Christmas Bear!

Autumn Term, an orangy brown kind of term! 🍂🍁 We have filled our weeks with language enriching activities, singing, dancing at every opportunity, learning about the life cycle of a tree, apple turn over cooking, autumn treasure hunts, conkers, cows, painting, museums, playdough making, walks, parks, story retelling, role play, scissor skills and lots of reading, counting, rhythmn and rhyme and more! 🫶🏻