The Inspired EC Blog
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Why are we watching chickens hatch in plastic boxes?
This is a post from several years ago that we've just found in the archives! This week, I have seen several posts on social media from services ... -
4 Steps to Embracing Risky Play
Embracing risky play can be challenging for many of us. We might logically understand the importance of children having opportunities to engage in risky play, and yet we might still be apprehensive - concerned about safety, worried about incidents. -
It's raining, it's pouring... but we're going outside anyway!
"I hate rainy days when we get stuck inside and the children go wild."
I have lost count of the number of times over my two decades in early childhood, that I have heard some version of this sentiment. For the first couple of years, I said it myself - many times.
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Rest Time or Restoration Time?
What was it we were really trying to achieve? We wanted children to relax, to rest their bodies, to restore their energy. And for some reason, we had thought that meant to sleep or at least be silent. -
Who needs worksheets and rote learning when you have nature and time to explore?
Simple, and child led. It's what learning needs to be. Why do we have a tendency to overcomplicate the way in which children learn? When we head out into nature, when we slow down and let children explore and create and wonder, magical things happen. Learning happens. -
Lessons from the Birds
A few months ago, my 7 year old daughter called to me from her bedroom. I could tell she was excited before I even went in, but when I saw her f... -
How to Embrace Rainy Day Play
Yesterday morning I sat at my desk watching the kookaburras and the magpies forage in the grass - the incessant rain having bought worms to the surface. And then I spotted her. A child of about three stepped across the soggy grass, her gumboots squelching, toward the birds. -
5 Practical Ways to Support Mud Play
Sometimes I hear from educators that mud play is too much work, that the inevitable clean-up is too hard, that the time spent is too long. But I have to ask the question - what else are we doing that is more important? -
Return, and Return Again: How Revisiting Natural Spaces Benefits Children
What does it mean to return to the same natural spaces again and again with children? How does it benefit them, and the big question - won't they get bored? -
4 Ways to Support Barefoot Play
I spend a lot of time barefoot. I am barefoot indoors, I am barefoot outdoors, and I prefer to drive with barefeet. This explains how one morning,... -
From Gaming to Games: 4 Ways to Spark Imaginative Play for School Aged Children
** This post was originally written in 2019 and has been updated and resposted ** Two boys arrive at our TimberNook program full of stories of o... -
Lessons In Nature
Right now, in Lake Macquarie, we are in lockdown. As I write this, it is day 6 of 7 (although there is the strong possibility that it won't all ...
