Tag

thinking

Monitoring well-being and involvement

By | Creativity, Education, Family, Learning, Play | No Comments

Monitoring well-being and involvement by Rev Peter Michell In the UK the most immediate association made with assessment is the Early Years Foundation Stage and the ‘outcomes’. We also think of endless laborious record keeping. This first association has to be called into question because it is not the only kind of assessment and it is not the most important either. If…

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Let’s Play book reviews

By | Creativity, Education, Family, Joy, Learning, Love, Outdoors, Play, Prayer, Spirituality | No Comments

The reviews on this website are strictly speaking not just for book reviews but resource reviews. The theme of play might suggest all sorts of ‘toys’, but actually the best resources in all the world are natural ones: sticks, sand, insects, mud. We might well add unit blocks, but we probably shouldn’t spend much on resources for children’s play because they…

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The Part Parents Play

By | Creativity, Education, Family, Joy, Learning, Love, Play, Prayer, Spirituality | No Comments

Principal stakeholders  in education, after the children themselves , are the parents. The Bible makes the assumption that responsibility for the nurture of children belongs to parents, referring to fathers in particular. For example: It is to fathers that these words are addressed: …bring them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4, Authorised  Version) or …bring them up in…

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Imagination and Outside Play

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A childminder’s perspective We have always had a big emphasis on imaginative play in our setting. I love to see the children’s imagination running free. Imagination is such a vital part of faith. God asks us to use our imagination. He told Abraham to go outside at night and count the stars – that’s how many grandchildren and great grandchildren…

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Transient Art

By | Creativity, Education, Family, Joy, Learning, Love, Music, Outdoors, Play, Prayer, Spirituality | No Comments

It’s great fun to make art that can be moved or changed; by children, adults or even the wind and rain! Transient art is non-permanent, constantly changing and focused on the process of creativity in action. When children work on transient art projects they manipulate, explore and experiment as they work individually or collaboratively, on either large- or small- scale artworks….

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Story telling – Playing with Parables

By | Creativity, Education, Family, Joy, Learning, Love, Play, Prayer, Spirituality | No Comments

We are all born storytellers. Story defines our identity both as individuals as well as a society. It comes so naturally to invent stories. We may altogether ignore the propensity in children or we may provoke, support, record and celebrate children’s stories. Provocations can be immensely effective and one example is the use of a suitcase containing suggestive items (A…

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