Brockhouse Day Nursery

Little explorers, big imaginations 🌿✨ From climbing and mud-kitchen creations to make-believe play and water discoveries, every moment is an adventure when you’re learning through play. 💛

On Monday we had a visit from:

The Fascinating and Curious Museum

The ‘Fascinating and Curious Museum’ encourages young children aged 0-5 years to explore and interact with heritage objects from the stores at the Somerset Heritage Centre. Objects featured in this touring museum are designed to inspire imagination and encourage creative activity such as: storytelling, building, imagining, talking, pretending, handling, interacting, sharing, and unpacking.

It was an interactive, hands on experience, perfect for our curiously approach setting and our ethos.

🎓 Graduation… done the Brock way 🌿🐢

For us, graduation isn’t about a procession of children in matching caps and gowns or a formal ceremony.

As a Curiosity Approach accredited setting, we love the idea of graduation as a ritual — a meaningful moment that celebrates each unique child, the memories they’ve made, the relationships they’ve built and the incredible journey they’ve been on with us. ❤️

Rituals can give children a sense of connection, belonging and purpose. They make moments feel special without needing to turn them into a performance.

So, naturally, we do ours a little differently…

We do it the Brock way. 💚

We leave the nursery behind and head out together into our local community, walking down to our local brook for a very special graduation adventure.

🫖 We enjoy a tea party using a beautiful real china tea set.
💦 We take off our shoes and paddle in the brook.
🫐 We pick blackberries when nature provides them.
🌿 We slow down, explore, laugh and enjoy being together.

And yes, there are still graduation gowns and hats if the children want them — but with our own little twist! The children can make their own hats, choose whether they want to dress up and celebrate in a way that feels right for them.

No big stage.
No expectation to perform.
No need for every child to look or behave the same.

Just children,and educators coming together to mark the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. 🥹 with photos for their families.

Because school readiness is about so much more than being able to sit still for a photograph or take part in a ceremony.

It’s about confidence. Independence. Relationships. Curiosity. Resilience. Feeling loved, valued and secure in who you are.

Our graduation ritual reflects what we want childhood at Brock to be — full of love and laughter, rooted in our community, connected to nature and with the child at the very heart of everything we do.

A little bit unconventional.
A little bit muddy.
And completely, wonderfully Brock. 🌿💦🎓❤️

How long should it take a child to settle into nursery?

A week?

A month?

Longer?

After more than 20 years working in Early Years, I’ve seen children settle in all sorts of different ways.

I’ve seen children walk through the door on their first day and immediately begin exploring.

I’ve seen children who have needed weeks, and sometimes months, before they really felt comfortable.

And I’ve seen children who appeared to settle beautifully, only to become unsettled again further down the line.

And it has reminded me of something really important:

No two settling-in journeys are the same.

Perhaps we need to stop asking "Has this child settled yet?" and start asking "What is this child telling me about how they are feeling?"

Because settling isn't a race, and it isn't a timetable.

It is about building trust, developing relationships and helping children feel emotionally secure enough to gradually become themselves in a new environment.

I've written the second article in my Early Insights September Series: Building Belonging in the Early Years, exploring what settling in really means and why we shouldn't compare one child's journey with another.

👉 Read the new blog here:
https://www.earlyinsights.co.uk/post/understanding-what-settling-in-really-means

I'd love this one to make practitioners stop and reflect on how we think about "settled" children.

There was a little dreamer
Who, from just the age of three
Spent all his time imagining
What he could do and be

He wanted to invent things
Give the world something brand new
He wanted to change lives
Even if he only changed a few

His wild imagination
Was like a jar without a lid
And they nurtured and encouraged it
Whilst he was still a kid

But as he grew and his dreams
Showed no signs that they would slow
They tried to tame them, rein them in
And screw the jar lid closed

They told him he should think
More realistically instead
Yet, almost everything that’s real
Was once thought up in someone’s head

If everyone stopped dreaming
We’d be stuck right where we are
But they tell us that, as adults
We must live inside the jar

So he parked his dreams up in the clouds
Said he’d return some day
But his dreams grew all redundant
As his life got in the way

Yes, the dreamer stopped his dreaming
And they were all left wondering why
Well, they said the sky’s the limit
Then put a ceiling on the sky

*******

Becky Hemsley 2020
Artwork by Keith Proctor

‘The Jar’ is from Talking to the Wild: https://amzlink.to/az0k4h7DadU0K
(affiliate link)

🌿 Curiosity in action — exploring, experimenting and learning through doing. ✨

Our Curiosity Approach environment is designed to give children opportunities to investigate in ways that feel meaningful to them. From caring for dolls and completing puzzles, to making marks outdoors, exploring familiar stories and experimenting with colour, water and different materials, every experience offers another opportunity to wonder, “What happens if I…?”

These experiences are about so much more than keeping little hands busy. 🥰 Puzzles encourage problem-solving, concentration and fine motor control. Caring for dolls supports empathy and understanding of everyday routines. Mark making builds the foundations for early writing and self-expression, while pouring, mixing and experimenting introduce early ideas around cause and effect, colour, quantity and change.

Most importantly, the children are active participants rather than simply being shown what to do. They can make choices, repeat something that fascinates them, work alongside friends, communicate their ideas and discover things for themselves.

That’s where the magic happens: we provide the invitation, but the children’s curiosity takes the learning in its own direction. 💚

🌿✨ An invitation to imagine, create and make it their own…

In our Curiosity Approach setting, we carefully consider the environments and resources we offer, creating beautiful invitations that spark interest without deciding where the children’s play must go.

Natural materials, loose parts, small-world figures, authentic crockery, water, mark-making opportunities and familiar everyday objects can become anything in the hands of a curious child. A piece of wood can become a seat, a stone can become treasure, a teacup can inspire a whole story and water can lead to endless investigation. 💭

Open-ended play like this supports imagination, storytelling, communication, early literacy, problem-solving, creativity and fine motor development. It also gives children ownership of their learning as they make choices, test their ideas, change their plans and create their own narratives.

We don’t need to provide all the answers or decide what the finished play should look like. Sometimes our most important role is simply to create an inspiring space and then give children the time, freedom and trust to take their curiosity wherever it leads. 💚

Because when a resource can become anything, a child’s imagination can go everywhere. ✨

✨ Real experiences, real resources, real learning ✨

At our Curiosity Approach setting, we believe children deserve environments filled with opportunities to explore, investigate and make meaningful connections with the world around them. 🌿

From enjoying a tea party with real cups and saucers, to creating imaginative stories in small world play, making marks with purpose, pouring and mixing outdoors, or simply becoming fascinated by the movement and reflection of water — these experiences invite children to think, question and discover for themselves.

Using authentic and open-ended resources encourages children to handle objects with care, develop independence and build confidence. Along the way they are strengthening communication and language, early literacy and maths, fine motor skills, imagination, concentration and problem-solving.

Rather than directing every moment, we create an inviting environment, observe where the children’s interests take them and give them time to become deeply involved in their play. 💚

Because the magic isn’t in creating the perfect activity — it’s in creating the opportunity for curiosity to take over. ✨

🌿 Curiosity has no limits — sometimes it even means looking at the world upside down! ✨

In our Curiosity Approach setting, we value the little moments that allow children to investigate, experiment and make sense of the world for themselves.

From exploring numbers through everyday resources, to testing what their bodies can do, heading out into our local community and stopping to notice the natural world around them — every experience offers a new opportunity to learn.

These moments support early mathematical thinking, physical development, confidence, communication and problem-solving, while trips beyond the setting help children develop an understanding of their community and a connection with nature. 🌳

Most importantly, we give children the time and freedom to stop, notice, wonder and investigate rather than rushing towards an adult-led outcome.

Because sometimes the best learning begins with a child simply wondering… “What’s over here?” “What can I do?” or “What happens if…?” 💚