Leading a Positive Team Culture in the Baby Room
They say that culture eats strategy for breakfast and in nurseries, this couldn’t be more true. You can have the best-written improvement plans, the most innovative…
Discovering the World: Heuristic Play in the Baby Room
If you were to pause for a moment and really look around the environment you’re in, what object would you pick out as fascinating for a…
Fostering Secure Attachment during Settling in
Settling in a baby to nursery isn’t just about routines, paperwork, and polite hellos at the door. It’s a profound emotional process—for the baby, for their…
Thriving in the Second Six Months of Life: From Explorer to Communicator
By the time babies reach the second half of their first year, they’re on the move—physically, socially, and emotionally. Development isn’t linear, and no two babies…
Thriving in the First Six Months of Life
In the first six months of life, babies undergo an incredible transformation—from tiny newborns adjusting to life outside the womb to curious, active explorers eager to…
Supporting Self-Determination in the Baby Room
When we talk about offering rights-based learning and care in the baby room, it can sound like a lofty ideal—something perhaps more suited to older children…
Motivating Staff in the Baby Room: Understanding and Responding to Different Types of Motivation
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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-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…
FREE baby room booklet – order your copy now
I’ve written a super practical and visual guide to the baby room in collaboration with Community Playthings. It’s free to order (yes, you’ll get a lovely…
Baby, what are you discovering?
A six month old baby is mouthing a metal whisk they’ve picked up from the treasure basket. What discoveries are they making? Babies are always asking…
Musical creativity in the baby room – Part 1
In part 1 of this blogpost series, I’m going to talk about why we need to bring musical creativity into the baby room. In part 2,…
Musical creativity in the baby room – Part 2
In the first part of this series, we looked at why it’s so important to embrace musical creativity in the baby room. In this second part,…
Creativity in the Baby Room
I want us to start thinking differently about creativity in the baby room. Instead of asking the question ‘What can we do that’s creative?’, let’s ask…
Outdoor play experiences in the baby room
Outdoor play is great for learning, development and wellbeing. When we’re out in nature and fresh air, whether we’re babies, children and adults, we tend to…
Six types of visualisation to improve practice in the baby room
I am passionate about the power of visualisation, so much so that I think about visualisation as a leader’s superpower. In the baby room, we can…
It’s mealtime in the baby room…
It’s the mealtime in the baby room. The babies are in their high chairs ready to be nourished, ready to experiment with food and ready to…
Let’s see it from the baby room educator’s perspective
I bought myself a slightly strange Christmas present – This. It’s the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (3rd Edition), otherwise known as ITERS-3. It’s a tool typically…
Reflective Practice in the Baby Room: Description, Analysis & Evaluation
There are many models of reflection out there. It can feel overwhelming when you do a course on reflective practice in the early years or read…
Reciprocity: Nel Noddings’ vision of care in the baby room
Caring for babies involves a lot of giving. We give warmth. We give love and affection. We give emotional support. We give attachment. We give stimulation.…
Babies’ self-determination and agency: looking at how we do personal hygiene and care in the baby room
You’ll know from previous blogposts, that I’m particularly interested at the moment in how babies show self-determination and agency – how they make choices for themselves…
Babies’ self-determination and agency: thinking about touch and affection in the baby room
You’ll know from previous blogposts, that I’m particularly interested at the moment in how babies show self-determination and agency – how they make choices for themselves…
Babies’ self-determination and agency
What does it mean to provide ‘rights-based learning and care’ in the baby room? What makes anything ‘rights-based’? Children’s rights go hand in hand with thinking…