We are experiencing strange and difficult times at the moment. Across the UK, schools have closed to the vast majority of pupils and instead, parents are taking up the baton to home-school their children. For those with younger children, nurseries have closed and stay and play groups have stopped running for the time being. Yet …
Author: Contemplating Childhoods
We are Polly Bolshaw and Jo Josephidou. We both lecture at universities in the UK in the discipline of early childhood.
Where are the babies? A report on babies’ and toddlers’ engagement with the outdoors
We hope our readers are doing okay in these difficult times. We know that it must be especially hard for those of you with young children; you will want to ensure that they get both some exercise and also fresh air. Those with gardens can at least enjoy some of the sunshine we have had …
From novice talker to human dictionary: pretend play’s role in vocabulary.
This week’s blog post has been written by Tasha-Ro Granger, a Year 3 Early Childhood Studies student. She’s focussing on how pretend play can support children’s language development. ‘Play’. A concept that flips the well known saying “easier said than done” on its head! Play is one of those words that baffles people when asked …
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Children’s Imaginary Friends
You may have seen, or want to see, the 2019 comedy-drama film JoJo Rabbit, about a Hitler Youth member who has an imaginary friend in the form of Adolf Hitler. It was nominated for a raft of awards in the 2020 awards season and won a BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay. This week’s blog post is …
A new book! Understanding Gender and Early Childhood: An Introduction to the Key Debates
We were delighted to receive through the post this week several copies of our new book; we were even more delighted to see it displayed in the university bookshop. We began thinking about this book in 2016, in fact we submitted the proposal the day after we finished the final draft of our first co-authored …
Keeping children safe online
This week Ofcom was appointed as the “online harms regulator” for the UK. Part of their role will be to make sure websites where users are able to share content (such as videos, comments or in forums) remove illegal content (such as child abuse images) quickly. They will also have powers to ensure that these …
The Duchess of Cambridge’s Five Big Questions
This week we are reflecting on the Five Big Questions that the Duchess of Cambridge for the Royal Foundation has posed to every adult living in the UK. If you’ve not heard of them, they are part of a survey to try and increase knowledge of what parents understand about the importance of early childhood. …
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Educating babies and the EYFS
Last week we highlighted the consultation for the proposed changes to the EYFS which needs to be completed by 31st January. We hope you have been able to have a look at it and make a contribution. We have been busy working on our response this week and it has really got us thinking. A …
Speaking up for children: the DfE’s consultation on reforms to the EYFS
We’d like to start this blog by saying Happy New Year! We know it’s been a while since we last posted, but we are starting 2020 afresh with a New Year’s resolution to continue to contemplate childhoods with a new article every week. Thinking about our 2020 New Year’s resolution has made us reflect back …
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Rockabye baby: infants sleeping outdoors
You may remember in a previous post we told you about some research we are involved in which focuses on young children’s engagement (ie 0-2s) with the outdoors. The project is funded by the Froebel Trust and you can read about it here. One of the interesting things we have discovered through our reading is …
Contemplating Childhoods 