Motivating others is one of the most important parts of leadership—no matter the context. For baby room leaders, this is especially true. You’re not just supporting babies and families; you’re also shaping the experience of your team, and that means tapping into what drives them to show up and give their best each day. InContinue reading “Motivating Staff in the Baby Room: Understanding and Responding to Different Types of Motivation”
Author Archives: msakrmdx
Making Art with Babies: A Joyful and Developmentally Appropriate Approach
Making art with babies can be a joyful, affirming experience – for them and for us. But too often, art activities with babies are designed from an adult perspective: they’re product-focused, too structured, and developmentally inappropriate. Instead of offering genuine creative exploration, these activities often prioritise producing physical products that will make parents smile –Continue reading “Making Art with Babies: A Joyful and Developmentally Appropriate Approach”
Supporting discovery play in the baby room
In the baby room, discovery is happening all the time—often in ways that go unnoticed unless we tune in closely. Babies are natural scientists, constantly observing, experimenting, and making sense of the world through their senses and actions. As baby room educators, shifting our mindset to see through their eyes opens up a new wayContinue reading “Supporting discovery play in the baby room”
Learning to BE with Babies: A Mindful Approach to the Baby Room
In the hustle of daily routines in a baby room, it’s easy to focus on all the doing: the nappies, bottles, tidying and pick-ups. But pause and ask yourself: what truly matters most in a day with babies? When you’re heading home at the end of the day, how do you know it’s been aContinue reading “Learning to BE with Babies: A Mindful Approach to the Baby Room”
Forest School for Babies
In this blogpost, I’ll talk about why you might want to consider bringing Forest School into your baby room practice. We’ll explore what Forest School is and what it means to adapt it for babies. I’ll offer a set of principles that can help you to develop Forest School practice in your particular baby room,Continue reading “Forest School for Babies”
Responding to a baby’s nervous system
In this post, I’ll share a basic overview of a baby’s nervous system as understood through polyvagal theory. Polyvagal theory helps us to make sense of the different nervous states that a baby can be in, and this in turn, helps to shape how we respond to babies. What is the nervous system? The nervousContinue reading “Responding to a baby’s nervous system”
Fostering secure attachment in the baby room – part 2
In the first part of this two-part blogpost series, we looked at the four attachment styles: secure, avoidant, ambivalent and disorganised attachment. We explored how they each manifest in babies as well as adults, and the early interaction patterns that can reinforce them. This is a strong foundation to then consider how we can practicallyContinue reading “Fostering secure attachment in the baby room – part 2”
Fostering secure attachment in the baby room – part 1
Have you ever behaved in an adult relationship in a way that you didn’t, deep down, want to behave? Have you ever started an argument when you didn’t really want to? Have you ever clung onto someone even when you knew you actually needed to let them go? Have you ever shut down and distancedContinue reading “Fostering secure attachment in the baby room – part 1”
Creative outdoor provocations for babies
Getting outdoors with babies can be difficult. There is always a lot to consider in the transition from indoors to outdoors (Outdoor play experiences in the baby room). But even once you’re outside with babies, there can still be challenges. We tend to romanticise outdoor play and assume that every child, including every baby, isContinue reading “Creative outdoor provocations for babies”
Baby-led planning: What is it and how do you do it?
In this blogpost, I’m going to share the principles of baby-led planning: As I talk it through, I’ll prompt you to go through a process relating to the babies in your baby room so that you can do some baby-led planning while you’re reading. What is baby-led planning? Baby-led planning is the process of respondingContinue reading “Baby-led planning: What is it and how do you do it?”