The First 1000 Days
The importance of our children’s early years remains high on the public and political agenda, and for very good reason. When it comes to the health and happiness of your child, the first 1000 days of life are the building blocks of their future.
‘Five Big Questions’ is a landmark survey recently launched by the Duchess of Cambridge. It aims to discover what we as a society feel are the things that provide children with the best possible start in life.
The survey prompted us to take at the first 1000 days in a child’s life, and how together we can make them amazing.
THE FIRST 1000 DAYS - WHY THEY MATTER.
From conception to the age of three, your child will learn more, and develop faster, than at any other point in their life. During this time, your child is capable of forming up to 1,000 neural connections every second. More mind-boggling is the fact that your three year old’s brain works twice as fast as yours - this probably explains why you sometimes need a second pair of eyes in the back of your head!
HOW WE’RE NURTURING YOUR CHILD’S EARLY YEARS.
From the moment your baby joins our nursery, we look for the things that spark their interest and make them smile. We’re constantly planning the next steps on their learning adventure. One of the ways we do this is by observing some of the seemingly weird but really wonderful things that your child may become fascinated with.
Schemas are recurring patterns of behaviour that give your child a cognitive blueprint to find the best and most efficient ways of carrying out future tasks. Essentially, schema play is your child making sense of the world around them when they encounter something new.
It’s important to remember that every child is different. Your child may display examples of some schemas or none at all, and that’s OK. Our job is to encourage each schema if and when those behaviours are displayed. Below, you’ll find some examples of how we’re doing just that.
Rotation and Transporting.
You might see your little one turning in circles, or taking any opportunity to roll down a hill. These are both classic examples of the rotation schema. We encourage the children’s interest in circular and curved objects, and those that rotate, to support their exploration of all things that spin.
Children love to move objects around in and around their environment. We encourage them to use handbags, basket and also their hands, to transport their playthings around the nursery.
Enveloping and Trajectory.
To encourage enveloping behaviour, we let the children wrap themselves in blankets and scarves, which is a lot of fun! We provide them with paper and other material so that they can wrap up various objects around them. We also let them experiment with small containers with lids.
There is a current fascination in the Pre-School room with rolling things down pipes and tubes. In addition, we’ve found that encouraging children to roll marbles down the slide is a great way to nurture the trajectory area of their development*. Children love to learn about how things move. It’s why they enjoy repeatedly dropping things from surfaces, playing on swings and putting their hands under running water.
(*Please note that marbles are only used in our pre-school room under close supervision).
Enclosing and Connecting.
We recognise the enclosing schema when children enjoy things like making dens and climbing into just about anything. We love to see them climbing into (and hiding in) our wooden tunnels.
We never cease to be amazed by the children’s fascination with how things connect! From magnetic trains and spoons to lego, glue and sticky tape, we provide them with the opportunity to explore how the things around them fit together.
Here at Inspirations, we’re dedicated to supporting your child through the first 1000 days and beyond. As a parent, you know your child better than anyone. We’re always happy to hear from you so that together we can encourage your child’s learning every step of the way.
If you’d like any further information about the Five Big Questions Survey or would like to discuss any aspect of your child’s development, contact us now.
A little update on the construction at Inspirations, work has begun to make the foundations for the Yurt, which will now be on a separate and slightly lower deck of its own to allow rain water to drain off the outer yurt canvas.
On Going Work
Work is in full swing out the back of Inspirations, grass is in the process of being laid and the ground is being levelled out for the yurt and outdoor classroom.
The deck will be supported on 6×2” treated timber rails on 0.5 metre centres attached to 4” treated posts in concrete footings in compacted soil. This is being built to support a yurt at one end and an outdoor classroom on the other. The remaining area is currently having grass laid upon it for a free play area.
More updates to follow…
Saturday 7th July
We had a really wonderful day down at Inspirations on Saturday for the Horsforth Walk of Art and to celebrate our name change. Art, music, sunshine and food were the perfect ingredients to a perfect day…. enjoy the photos and thank you to all who helped out and came along. If you were lucky enough to get a packet of seeds from us don’t forget to send us your pictures when they start growing.
Walk of Art
Join us on Saturday 7th July for our opening day with live music from the amazing Biscuit Head and the Biscuit Badgers at 2.30pm.
Expect a clay workshop, a needle felted display, food and drink, campfire with marshmallow toasting and a freebie for the first 100 families to come.
Join us in the sunshine for a day of art and music.
Goodbye Dolphins
It’s official, this week we say goodbye to the name Dolphins Day Nursery, our identity for over 14 years.
From 7th July 2018 we will be known as Inspirations Nurseries and Forest Schools. As we’ve moved over to a Reggio Emilia Approach to learning we feel as though the name Dolphins no longer captures us as a nursery or matches our identity. It’s very exciting times for us at Inspirations with the building work for our new outdoor classroom in full flow, our Mongolian Yurt being delivered in 2 months and a brand new art studio arriving at the end of July.
Watch this space.
