Spending two weeks in the woods, learning how to be a forest school leader was without doubt the most inspiring training I have done in my 16 years working with children. The next 10 months of research, a pilot project, many observations and the final evaluation, have changed my practice so much and the impact we have seen at Landbeach has been incredible.

Teaching children about sustainability from an early age helps them develop lifelong respect and care for the world around them. At Beach Babies, we’re passionate about inspiring a love for sustainability in our children through hands-on activities, nature exploration, and by involving them in our Climate Action Plans. In this blog, Charlotte suggests simple ways you can support this journey at home and help build a more caring and sustainable future with your children.

Would you know what to do in an emergency? First aid is a great skill for everyone to learn and refresh their knowledge of.

Looking for nursery spaces can be a frustrating challenge, especially when left too late. To make sure you get the space booked that you need, you need to start looking as early as 12 weeks pregnant. Nursery spaces everywhere are very limited and this blog aims to explain why this is and how you can get ahead and get the spaces you need.

I’ve spent decades contemplating how to best guide children toward becoming capable, resilient adults. Initially inspired by my own kids, I’ve developed evolving principles seen at Beach Babies. These include using natural materials to engage all senses, allowing child-led exploration, providing some adult guidance to extend learning, offering open-ended resources to foster creativity, maintaining a calm environment with natural colours, minimising noise to promote focus, modelling purposeful activities, and organising resources accessibly to encourage independent use.

At nursery, we engage children in philosophical discussions, fostering critical thinking and empathy from a young age. These open-ended conversations, sparked by objects or questions during free moments, help develop reasoning skills. Encouraging diverse perspectives, you can turn everyday delays into opportunities for valuable reflection and discussion.

Creativity is a powerful part of childhood development. Nurturing imagination helps children focus, explore, and solve problems. Valuing their ideas and the creative process over the final product builds confidence and resilience, encouraging emotional grounding and the ability to share with others. Discover practical tips to foster creativity at home through art, mark making, and music.

Schemas are repetitive patterns of behavior or thought that children (and adults) use to make sense of the world and develop understanding. They help all of us organise and process our thoughts and feelings. They help us to think. As we get older – our schemas do not go away, they just get more and more sophisticated.

Have you ever bought your child a toy and they have spent more time playing with the box than what was inside it? Have you ever collected stones and used them as jewels, coins or treasure? If you have, then you’ve already experienced loose parts. Loose parts play is essentially using open ended objects to enhance natural curiosity and imagination in play.

Babies and children learn best when using all five senses. Heuristic play is a child-led play where one or more children play with different objects and move around, often moving the objects with them.

Treasure baskets, devised by educational psychologist Elinor Goldschmied, offer infants aged 6 months and older a sensory-rich learning experience with everyday objects, fostering neural development through exploration, play, and interaction, while also enhancing fine motor skills, concentration, confidence, and decision-making abilities.

Explore play’s role in learning, guided by Piaget, Vygotsky, Montessori.

Understanding Early Years funding: eligibility, application, and challenges in childcare provision.

Discover the keys to achieving a fulfilling work-life balance in our latest blog article, where we explore practical strategies for enhancing well-being in the post-COVID world.

As a setting we are often asked how we support children with undesired or tricky behaviours. Today, we share some of our strategies that are open ended and are embedded in our practice.

Explore a blend of imaginative, educational, and entertaining activities to keep your children engaged during the lengthy summer holidays while nurturing their creativity and independence.

Beach Babies: Nurturing Children, Empowering Communities, and Ensuring a Sustainable Future.

Childcare has made it to the top of the agenda. It was the headline in March’s budget, and even has articles in the Economist.

We discuss the importance of talking to children about death and provide tips on how to do so, such as using clear language and encouraging questions.

We take a closer look at tooth brushing and explore why it’s something to be passionate about from an early age.