Interaction Imagination

18 months ago I engaged in a dialogue in an Australian group about whether or not children should stay at the lunch table when they had finished eating... there were a lot of people saying no , they should not, and also a lot saying yes, they should... I am more of a "well it depends kind of person..." this was my reply... "it really does depend... if the child is a fast eater and the others are all terribly slow eaters maybe yes but if the child is avoiding eating to go d

Today or tomorrow I will get my answer as to whether or not I have been approved to be a Swedish citizen. It has got me thinking about belonging. This is a word that came up often during my trip to Australia... not just about creating spaces that belong to the children, but also about indigenous people and their right to belong - to the land that was taken from them and also to belong to society as equals where their culture is valued and not "othered" or only found in museum

(på svenska efter bilderna) A long time ago I was told that I would never be able to have children... after failed IVFs and years of trying, my husband and I decided enough was enough and that we would stop the stress of trying and think about adopting. in order to close one part of our lives together and start another we decided on a trip to Italy... Starting in Naples, train to Florence and then ending in Rome... John could meet his sleep researcher colleagues there, I coul

The International Fairy Tea Party is more than just a bit of fun... it is fun, and it is meant to be a whole heap of fun... but there is more to it... There are more and more articles lamenting the loss of play, about the lack of value imagination is given within the curriculum (despite people considering it important that we are creative), about a lack of connection with nature, about gender divides and stereotypes, the need to have empathy and understanding with other cul

This post can be read in English... here.... Över på min Instagram använder jag hashtag #slowdown och #lookclosely ofta ... vanligtvis med bilder av insekter och blommor, regndroppar eller något annat ... Det handlar inte bara om att ta närbilder av naturen ... utan ett sätt att avvika ... att inte följa samhällets hastighet, inte bara förbli inom status quo, att se saker som vi alltid ser dem ... utan att pausa, titta runt, att lägga märke till och upptäcka nya möjligheter o

Over on my Instagram I use the hashtags #slowdown and #lookclosely often... usually including photos of bugs and flowers, raindrops or something else... It is not just about taking close-ups of nature... but a means to be divergent.. not to follow the speed of society, not to just stay within the status quo, to see things as we always see them... but to pause, to look around, to take notice and discover new possibilities and new perspectives. This is the same for the "thinkin

(blå text är på svenska) I have always liked collaborative art... of working together... I find that often the focus is on the individual, which is an essential part of working as an educator... to see each individual child and to enable them to reach their potential... but individuals live, work and play in groups, so they need to work out how to be themselves in not just one group, but in a variety of groups and social situations. Together art gives children the opportuni

I love the fact that the Swedish preschool curriculum does not have goals for the children... but goals for the teachers and the education/service they provide. When I look at curriculums from many other parts of the world the focus is always on the goals the children need to reach, and that the rule is the teacher is to get the children there... if the goal focus is, instead, on the teacher and the setting then the rules are very different. They are no longer about getting t

So how comfortable are you adding to the work of others...? here is what some teachers wrote down at one of the workshops at Boulder Journey School in the summer of 2013... I appreciated having a blueprint or framework to build from/on the work inspired me it was an interesting concept to add to someone elses work/art - feeling like you were misrepresenting their idea it makes me feel uncomfortable adding to or modifying someone elses work. Collaborating makes me feel more

It was a few years ago when I was first drawn to AnjiPlay, I don't remember exactly how many, but I do remember feeling a connection to the approach, just in the same way that I had felt a connection with the Reggio Emilia Approach... not so much a wow, this is amazing, but more, this feels like home. I think we are all going to have different responses to revolutionary educational practice. For some it might seem too much and the mere idea of the approach is scary... for oth

Over the years I have worked in places that have had dysfunctional groups as well as groups that have played well together. I have often reflected over what makes a group work. How do we support a functional group? How do we give children the freedom to play? I define a dysfunctional group as stressed, focussed on the problems of maybe one, two or more children disrupting play for whatever reasons so that play does not flow as usual. It made me realise just how much struc

Suzanne: Getting the opportunity to listen to you talk at the Play on Early Childhood Conference in Athens in mid April was a magical moment for me... it was like listening to someone who spoke the same language as myself. The magic door. This border between adulthood and childhood, between reality and imagination, between chronos and aeon. It reminded me so clearly of why I started the International Fairy Tea Party in 2013 - not just a celebration of play and imagination but

Listen with your ears, eyes, heart and mind. This is how I start a philosophy session with my preschoolers. A simple reminder that there is not one way to listen... not even with listening is there a single story. Many of the activities I did with the children was to give the children time and opportunity to practice their listening skills... to listen with their ears, to listen with their eyes, to listen with their hearts and to listen with their minds. I want to live in a w

I really love all resources that allow us to see the diversity of life and nature - and so this post is sharing a poster I have come across showing a variety of ladybirds... or ladybugs as some call them. As a child I had inherited my mother's fear of insects... by observing her behaviour and mirroring it... I made the conscious decision as a mother to hide my fear of insects from my children so that they could develop their own relationship with creepy crawlies... I am ha

I have, over the years, frequently seen discussions around whether or not young children should be engaging in circle time... and really this is one of those things that cannot be a "to do or not to do", as, with most things in life, it is not about what we are doing, but why we are doing what we are doing. There is not just one way to do "circle time" and yet most dialogues about the subject suppose that this meeting of children is about a teacher talking and the children

Before we can start with the children there is a need to start with ourselves... as educators. So this post will focus on that before moving onto the children and learning... How do WE communicate? To create a safe space... Knowledge... to explore ideas... learning... etc Do we speak in different ways depending on who we are talking to - age, gender etc... and why do we do this? Is it appropriate? When we communicate are we leaving enough space for others to communi

The #FridaysForFuture movement is very much a part of my home-life now. Both my daughters are engaged in their different ways, one here on the east coast of Sweden in Stockholm, and the other on the west coast of Sweden in Lysekil. As a parent here in Sweden it is my job to make sure they go to school, it is the law that all children attend school (not get an education, but attend school - I guess the attendance means they get an education!!). As many of you who have followed

I am not a particularly political person... I have said this before... and this is not a post about politics - but this post does touch on the fact that education is a political entity. It is through education that values are taught. It is through education that history is taught... what is included, what is excluded, what bias, who is the narrator It is through education that children are being prepared for society... especially in standardised education where there are r

The more I read and learn about neuro-diversity the more overwhelming it starts to feel. There are articles about it, and reactions to the articles... but what I feel the most is that there is an "us and them" approach of which I feel absolutely no connection to whatsoever... I simply don't get it... and that can be part of my neuro-diversity in the sense that all these "us and them" definitions have been strange for me to truly comprehend... class, gender, race etc etc bec