Another thought provoking post by Emily Dawson who is currently studying for a PhD in Education at Canterbury Christ Church University and works as a childminder from her home. As in the previous post, all names are anonymised. Thank you Emily - lots to think about here! I am a mother and yet, because of …
Author: Contemplating Childhoods
We are Polly Bolshaw and Jo Josephidou. We both lecture at universities in the UK in the discipline of early childhood.
Professional love and childminders
A great post by Emily Dawson who is currently studying for a PhD in Education at Canterbury Christ Church University and works as a childminder from her home. All names have been anonymised. As a childminder, I welcome lots of children into my home and my heart. One day, a child was being dropped off by …
The impact of COVID-19 on young children
I was fortunate last week to be able to attend a virtual meeting with colleagues from across the globe who all have either a professional role in working with young children or a research interest in finding out the impacts and experiences of young children’s lives. Each attendee shared news of how very young children …
Questions of quality and the EYFS
No doubt you will have been following the reaction to the EYFS reforms from the Early Childhood community. There is genuine outrage that responses to the consultation have been ignore and that the DfE has ploughed on regardless without listening to the concerns and recommendations of those who have years of expertise in working and …
Being outside: why is it so important for babies and toddlers?
It’s a wet and windy kind of day here in the north of England; not the sort of weather you would hope for at the end of June. As I check the forecast to see what time would be best to go for a walk in the fresh air, I am reminded of a conversation …
Continue reading Being outside: why is it so important for babies and toddlers?
The importance of the home learning environment
In this strange time when young children have never spent more of their waking hours at home, the home learning environment has never been more important. But what is it, and what should it look like? The term “home learning environment” (HLE) might conjure up an image of a child sitting at a table or …
Continue reading The importance of the home learning environment
Time use in trying times
Last week the Institute for Fiscal Studies published a report called Trying times: how might the lockdown change time use in families?. It’s had us thinking about what changes the current lockdown is having on how children and parents are spending their time. Perhaps the most obvious one is that currently most children aren’t at …
Extending the early years curriculum to seven years old
This week we’ve been reading about a petition that is gaining traction at change.org, having originally started back in 2016. Elaine Bennett, co-founder of grassroots organisation Keeping Early Years Unique, is petitioning to extend the Early Years Foundation Stage so that it covers children from birth to seven years old. Currently the EYFS is the …
Continue reading Extending the early years curriculum to seven years old
A trip to the Babylab
This is a blog post we've been meaning to write for a while. Back in February 2020 Polly took her little one to Birkbeck's Babylab, to take part in a study about toddler’s language development. The study was in three parts. Firstly, participants watch a short film of different video clips on a computer, whilst …
Access all areas: Unequal access to the outdoors
There are so many aspects of our daily life we are trying to get right at the moment; we have to look after our mental and physical health, take care of others and follow important government guidelines. As we do so, appreciating all the things we have to be thankful for, the inequalities in our …
Continue reading Access all areas: Unequal access to the outdoors
Contemplating Childhoods 