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
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 …
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
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 …
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 …
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 …
Continue reading From novice talker to human dictionary: pretend play’s role in vocabulary.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
Continue reading The Duchess of Cambridge’s Five Big Questions
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 …
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 …
Continue reading Speaking up for children: the DfE’s consultation on reforms to the EYFS
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 …
Last week we visited the Discover Children’s Story Centre in Stratford, London. It’s billed as “a place for children and their families to play, learn and create stories together”, comprising of two indoor “Story Worlds” and an outdoor “Story Garden” which are exploratory play spaces designed to promote children’s creativity, imagination and literacy. They give …
Continue reading Discovering the depth of children’s stories
We always get really excited by research and we know that some of you now will be thinking about designing studies for dissertations. In the past, we’ve always had to encourage students not to think ‘too big’ in terms of research, however it is always interesting to hear about what big research teams are doing …
This week we went to see The National Monument against Violence and Aggression, better known as The Knife Angel. It’s a 20ft high sculpture of an angel made from 100,000 knives either seized or surrendered as part of amnesties. It’s touring round cathedrals in England and is in Rochester until Sunday 29th September 2019. When we …
Did you get chance to read the recent children’s manifesto, Guess how much we love you: Why politicians urgently need to help our children, ? It was published by the children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield. In it she sets out the commitment that all political parties need to make to children to ensure they can …
This week we seem to have been talking to lots of people who are experiencing (or whose children are experiencing) transitions – into nurseries, childminders’ settings, primary schools, secondary schools and universities. Transitions can be an unsettling and uncertain time – taking on a new challenge, meeting a lot of new people and absorbing a …
Welcome back to the start of the new academic year; we hope you had a lovely summer and managed to have a little rest and recuperation time. One positive about taking a little time out, is that it gives you chance to put your brain in a different gear and reflect on life in a …
Continue reading Summer’s over: How are children socialised to keep themselves safe?
We’ve been enjoying the summer so far; both of us have recently had the chance to get away from our computer screens and explore some of the UK. Polly went to Newcastle last week and visited The National Centre for Children’s Books, Seven Stories. The museum aims to “collect, champion and celebrate” children’s literature, and …
We are starting off with an apology this week; our regular readers will have noticed that we have missed a few posts recently. Mostly this is because life has caught up with us and we are furiously focused on meeting the deadline for our next book Understanding Gender and Early Childhood: An introduction to the …
Last Saturday (1st June) we were wished a Happy Children’s Day by one of our Polish friends. Whilst in the UK we celebrate Universal Children’s Day on 20th November (which we’ve considered in a previous post), in Poland (along with almost 50 other countries) the dedicated day for celebrating children is 1st June. Our friend …
Scrolling through social media as a dog lover, I come across numerous, delightful videos of charming dogs doing cute things. At the same time, there are very many clips of dogs with babies which I choose not to watch as they always make me feel a bit uncomfortable. Dog owners may think they have the …
This week Polly received a letter in the post from the Department for Education (DfE)! She has been randomly selected by Ipsos Mori, an independent research organisation commissioned by the DfE, to complete an online survey about parental views of childcare and out of school activities. The letter arrived with a free reusable shopping bag …
Continue reading Parents’ perspectives of childcare and early years
This week’s post has been written by one of our regular contributors, Karen Matthews, who is an early years practitioner. Thanks once again Karen for a great post! Many areas of life are spurred on by trends or hot topics and the early years sector is no different. It’s all too easy to get drawn …
Last weekend one of us went to see a theatre performance aimed at children aged from six to eighteen months.
Rebecca Reynolds is an independent early years literacy consultant; this is the third blog in a series on children’s early writing that she has written for us. What does moving at your own speed look like in the classroom? In my second blog about handwriting (as distinct from writing in its other forms), I explored …
This week the World Health Organisation has updated some of their recommendations for children under five.
Thanks to Paula Stone for this week's article; are some children seen as more important than others in our society? Since reading the article in the Guardian on 25thMarch “Too poor to play: children in social housing blocked from communal playground” I have been deeply, deeply troubled. The story reports how a housing …
Should we do away with school attendance prizes and prosecuting for term-time holidays? Or do you think we should return to medals for those pupils who don’t miss any lessons?
Busy times for us both at the moment because, as well as everything else going on in our lives, we are working on the first draft of our second book. Generally, this seems to involve occasionally meeting up for coffee and comparing notes on how much (or how little!) we have done and promising to …
Yesterday the Local Government Association (LGA) claimed that Sure Start children’s centres in England and Wales are in a “fight for survival” as the amount of funding for them fell by 25% between 2014/15 and 2017/18.
A poignant post this week from an early years practitioner who wishes to remain anonymous. Creeping towards 43 years old, with a career in early years that started when I was 16, I recently undertook a role as a nursery teacher in a maintained nursery class. My experience within the early years sector is vast …
Continue reading Professional identity; who am I and how do others see me?
In what ways have you seen LEGO play a part in children’s learning and development, either at home or in their educational settings?
Rebecca Reynolds is an independent early years literacy consultant. This is the second of a series of 3 posts she is writing for us on the subject of children's handwriting. For a child, the ability to write their own name is one of their most noticeable achievements, one which they become very proud of. It …
Another great blog to get us thinking by Dr Paula Stone; let Paula know what you think about this initiative by adding your comments. This week (20 February), the Education Secretary Damian Hinds has announced the roll-out of free access to educational apps to families from disadvantaged backgrounds in a bid to boost early literacy …
This week’s blog is written by Charlotte Hanks a final year Early Childhood Studies student. Recently I have been reading ‘Swallows and Amazons’ by Ransome (1930). I can’t help but think how lovely it is to read about the adventures these children have sailing and camping on an island with no adults around. However, …
Continue reading ‘Get some fresh air’ – The importance of outdoor play
We are both fans of the programme and were interested to find out whether any research has been carried out about it – should parents make time for Teletubbies?
Rebecca Reynolds is an independent early years literacy consultant. Whilst visiting a school recently I was struck by a little girl next to me who had been asked to attempt to write a cursive ‘b’ after a phonics lesson. The teacher explained that whilst in the phonics lesson the letter was shown in print but …
Do you agree with Prof Runciman - should the minimum voting age be lowered to six?
Thank you Dr Paula Stone for another timely post. On Wednesday, I was heartened to hear the news about OfSTED’s plans to issue new guidelines for inspection that will shift the focus towards quality of education rather than purely educational ‘outcomes’ or attainment. It is proposed that this will be the biggest overhaul of the inspection …
Continue reading OfSTED’s proposed new guidelines for inspection. A step in the right direction?
When I taught in a primary school there was a Dr Seuss nonsense song that the children loved to sing with great enthusiasm. It was called The Super-Supper March and began ‘Hungry, hungry, I am hungry, I could eat a pickled plum...’. Do you remember it? Perhaps you sang it too. When I …
Continue reading ‘Hungry, hungry, I am hungry…’; young children and food insecurity.
We are taking a break for the Christmas holidays and will be back online on 4th January 2019. Thank you for all your support for Contemplating Childhoods this year and if you would like to contribute a post in 2019 then do please get in touch. Polly and Jo
Dr. Paula Stone is Senior Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University. Her interests are class and education. I have been struck by the number of recent articles and debates around the use of social media and the impact that this is having on young people. As highlighted by Harriet Smithers in her recent blog which …
Continue reading Good words are worth much …. (George Herbert)
This week we have been reflecting on the BBC Two series Babies: Their Wonderful World again.
We watched the first episode of a new television series called Babies: Their Wonderful World on BBC Two this week.
Did you do anything special to celebrate Universal Children’s Day on 20th November this week? Here is a short piece of writing we were asked to compose around listening to the child’s voice... In times gone by, when we wanted to find out about children we had to draw on research conducted on them. This positioning …
This week’s post is slightly different to usual because we are celebrating. Our first book, Introducing Research in Early Childhood, has been published by Sage Publications.
Yesterday Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, released a report called Who knows what about me?.
Thank you Dr. Paula Stone for once again giving us lots to ponder on in this week's post. Austerity is a term often bandied about in politics and the media; over recent years it seems to represent ‘a difficult economic situation caused by a government reducing the amount of money it spends’ i.e. not an economic …
Continue reading Is this really the end of the era of austerity? What will this mean for children?
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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?
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
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