Eden Early Learning Centre Preschool

Happy New Year!!!

The Universe and Planets is a very interesting subject for little ones!

Autumn in Eden Preschool is very colourful!

Happy Halloween, at Eden Preschool!

A great first week in Eden!

Blythe argued that balance is crucial for a child’s healthy physical development. She emphasised that there was a distinct link between a child’s senses and their balance. For example, balancing eyes to control eye movements and gaze.

⭐️ In order to master the skills of remaining completely still, children need opportunities to move their bodies and strengthen their muscle and subsequent movements.

⭐️ Balance allows a child to be in control of their body, which promotes their autonomy and independence.

⭐️ Balance supports children to engage in sports and physical games.

How can we support children’s balance in practice?

✨ Implement balance beams in the outdoor environment.

✨Create a hopscotch outside, let the children design it to make it even more child centred.

✨ Bring in child centred yoga to promote balance.

✨ Offer different materials such as Lego and block for children to learn about balance through stacking and building towers.

✨Utilise pretend play games like pirates walking the plank or acrobats walking the right rope.

Rachel ✨

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Eden Fees & Calendar For 2024.

Merry Christmas from Eden!!!

Language is one of the core areas of a child’s development. There has been many theories put forward in regard to how a child acquires language. For example;

⭐️Naom Chomsky believed in the nature perspective. He believed that children were born with an innate system called a language acquisition device or universal grammar that predisposed them to acquire language. He argued that rules of language such as sentence formation and syntax were too complex to teach a child or for them to discover themselves. An example of this is when a child says sheeps. They have not been taught this word as it is incorrect but they are attempting to make it plural.

⭐️B.F Skinner proposed the theory that children learn language through operant conditioning. Parents and early years practitioners reinforce language. For example, a baby being praised for saying mama or baba more than likely will result in these sounds being repeated.

⭐️Albert Bandura’s social learning theory proposes that children learn through the imitation of their role models. In regard to language, children can copy and repeat the words they have heard spoken by the people around them. This is something we have seen in practice but even more so in our own circles. Whilst children can copy words like please and thank you they can and often do repeat words that we wish they wouldn’t and we have all been there! 🤣 This is more so evident outside the setting context, usually in our own homes 🙊 this is something for us to always keep in mind.

Rachel ✨

I personally don’t like or appreciate the term challenging behaviour. This is purely because I’m a firm believer that there is a driving force behind a child that is ‘acting out’. An idea that was then reinforced by the wonderful . The child is not acting out for no reason, there could be a number of reasons.

⭐️ They may be struggling to express themselves verbally or communicate their needs and wants.

⭐️They may be struggling to make friends and feel lonely or isolated.

⭐️They may not understand sharing as they have never had to. Sharing and turn taking is a learned skill.

⭐️They may be experiencing levels of loss or grief due to a death, separation or divorce.

⭐️ They could be learning to cope with separation anxiety from parents or there could be a new baby in the house.

⭐️ Or sometimes, as people tend to forget, sometimes they are just having a very bad day, just like us adults can have.

What can we do as practitioners to support children exhibiting these behaviours?

⭐️ Develop strong parental partnerships. Parents are the most important people in a child’s life and know their child best. They can let you know if there have been changes in the child’s life which can help you support them when they come into the classroom.

⭐️ Sensory areas such as the tent with flashlights and the cosy corner can help the child to self regulate and soothe themselves when things get too much.

⭐️ Never engage in timeouts. Timeout is an outdated practice that essentially tells the child that their feelings are not valid. Whilst I absolutely agree that some behaviours are not acceptable such as hitting and punching, silencing the child to a corner is going to do absolutely nothing for you as teacher and more importantly will do more damage to the child. Get to the child’s level, don’t tower over them. See them as your equal and explain using simple concise language why this behaviour is not ok.

Rachel✨