Leaves, sticks, fingers and toes - developing fine motor skills in the woods
What are our fine motor skills?
How to foster a love of the outdoors in the first year
The benefits of spending time in the great outdoors are not limited to adults or children. They also extend to new parents and babies. Taking a baby on outdoor adventures may sound crazy or overwhelming, but even small amounts of time spent outdoors will be wonderful for you, and your baby’s health, mood, and spirit.
Freedom, movement and space - gross motor development in a field
There is nothing quite like being in the fresh air. There are so many proven benefits to being outdoors, whatever the weather.
"Splish, splash" - learning and exploring by the stream
The great outdoors is a fantastic learning resource for young children, which can help them learn across many areas of their development. Water is a great tool to help with development and discoveries in many aspects of learning, including cognitive development.
Who's on the phone? Pretend play and executive functioning
If your toddler holds a toy brick to their ear, speaks for a moment, and then hands it to you, you probably hold the brick to your ear and immediately start a conversation with the person on the other end of the ‘phone’. I have lost count of how many imaginary cups of tea I have drunk or pretend cakes I have eaten over the years! We expect our children to pretend and expect to be brought into their play, pretend play is amazing and supports children’s development in many ways. In this blog, I am going to focus on the role of pretend and fantasy play in supporting cognitive development.
Why creativity is important in early child development
When we think about creativity, we often think about creative arts such as dance, sculpture, painting and drawing, but it is also possible to be creative in scientific ways. Creative-scientific explorations can involve problem-solving, testing an idea to see if it works or is true, investigating, discovering and inventing. Creativity was traditionally thought to be limited to a special set of ‘creative’ people, but we can all be creative given the opportunity.
Sleepy babies - learn more about your newborn's sleep
Sleep takes up a lot of your baby’s time and might feature prominently in your thoughts, as well meaning friends and family offer advice about your sleep and about your baby’s sleep. In this blog, we will explore some of what is known about your newborn baby’s sleep.
Exploring and playing with objects - treasure baskets and heuristic play
You might have heard people talking about heuristic play or have seen adverts for various different treasure baskets and wondered what exactly these people were talking about. In this blog, we will explore some of the ideas that underpin treasure baskets and heuristic play, and offer some suggestions about how you could use some of these ideas at home.
Serve and return! Playing with your baby
At My First Five Years, we know that babies, toddlers and children learn through play, but what does learning through play look like for your baby? In this blog, we will explore play and young babies, thinking about how you can play with your baby and how this play supports their development.
Crying - your newborn baby's early communication
For the first few weeks of your baby's life, crying is an important way for them to communicate their needs. They will, in the next few weeks, start to smile, look and move as a means of communicating but crying will remain an important part of their communication. In this blog, we will look at what is known about crying and young babies and some of the things that might soothe your newborn baby.
