Free Play used to be a part of the childhood experience, a process that was natural and taken for granted, not something to be instigated or contrived. However, times have changed and sadly the opportunities for children to play and explore freely have greatly diminished over the decades, so much so that now parents and educators are starting to think about ways to actively engage children more in a world of free play. More
Storytelling has stood the test of time. We all love stories, whether a fascinating story around a campfire; an interesting story of heritage and history, passed down through the generations; an enjoyable novel on holiday or listening to a child’s first go at stringing events together in a factual or amusing traditional or personal tale.
Storytelling Week is a celebration of all things story: from adventure stories to traditional tales, from mysteries to science fiction. Stories inspire the imagination and record histories from modern day to the distant past. Storytelling supports the acquirement of so many skills from baby, through to child and onward into adulthood. It provides a holistic approach to personal development, building upon vocabulary, memory, imagination, emotional awareness and informing physical, spiritual and intellectual understanding.
At Schoolscapes we truly value the importance of storytelling and creative and imaginative thinking and this informs a large part of our innovative, outdoor playground designs. Why limit storytelling to the indoors? The opportunities to inspire children both through quality books and through physical, active storytelling outdoors are limitless.
People have loved solving puzzles for generations, whether they are simple or challenging, tactile or virtual. But are there any real benefits of solving puzzles for child development?
Early on in life, puzzles may have large wooden knobs to help children to manipulate the parts. They may have smaller parts that join to make a whole picture or match shapes to pictures of objects. It is usual for many children to experience a range of jigsaw puzzles of varying complexity both at school and at home, an interest that some take into adulthood, or others may return to in the calmer, later years of life.
Often there is an image to help you to complete the puzzle, the result which will stay the same. But puzzles have now become more complex and more challenging than ever, so much so some people even become experts in their specific puzzle field and enter competitions worldwide!
Mathematics Mastery is an approach to mathematics teaching and learning which is based on learners developing mastery and in-depth understanding of maths principles at their level of understanding; children are expected to achieve a high level of competence and demonstrate mastery of a maths concept, before progressing onto the next level.
The Maths Mastery approach originates from high performing Asian nations such as Singapore. It aims to enable children to develop their mathematical fluency without resorting to rote learning, so they are equipped to solve non-routine maths problems.
Time is so important to every one of us… we all get the same amount of time every day, but how we use and manage our time can change the dynamics of our day. Understanding time and having good time keeping can reduce stress levels, improve work-life balance and be an essential skill in the modern world of work.
So if telling the time is such an important, everyday skill, why are our children finding it harder and harder to tell the time, especially in an analogue format?
Is it because we live in a world where time is increasingly represented in a digital format, where children do not have to think about the meaning of time? Is it because our children’s chances to see and practise telling the time with a clock with moving hands is decreasing year upon year?
