My Story
I am currently an Early Years Lead in a primary school and oversee the 2-5 year olds. I am also the nursery teacher and lead phonics within my school. My experiences over the years have led me to develop a thorough understanding of how children learn and how best to engage young children in learning through play. Aside from teaching, I have worked with children on cruise ships, taught abroad in Fiji, worked in Summer camps and been a nanny. From all these experiences I have learnt that the most important thing is ensuring learning is fun. Keeping young children engaged can be challenging and through my work I have met lots of parents that have asked for support with helping teach their children at home. In our current fast paced society this can be difficult as parents can be juggling many things at once. In my experience sensory and messy play are one of the most important experiences a child can have... they are also the area parents least want to do, for reasons such as time to prepare and the mess made. The aim of my business is to allow parents to buy play packs that support this type of play and provide resources that are ready to use and can be played with many times and support children's learning and development across many key areas. I also focus on 'dry' sensory play which is the easiest type to clean up! Alongside this I hope to support parents in developing their understanding of the Early Years and the stages of development that children go through. My Instagram page offers lots of advice, activities you can do and links to resources to support teaching your child at home.
Sensory and Messy Play
What is sensory/ messy play?
Sensory and messy play are phrases that are often used interchangeably. Sensory play is play that encourages children to use their 5 senses and is often very 'hands on'. Messy play is play that often involves materials that can cause a mess such as paint, mud, sand, water ,cornflour and grains/pasta. Whilst many parents dread hearing the words messy play and some actively discourage their child to get messy it is important that we understand the huge benefits from children engaging in this play.
Why is messy play important?
"Messy play can make an enormous contribution to babies' and young children's cognitive and creative development...This sort of play is important because its lack of a focus on making or producing something leaves the child free to explore all sorts of possibilities. It taps into children's innate curiosity about the world around them and their strong desire to explore and find out more."*
Messy play supports children's developments across all areas of the curriculum and can support development in the following areas:
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Fine and Gross Motor Skills
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Hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness and body control and balance.
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Creativity
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Problem Solving
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Language Development
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Building Relationships ( when playing with others at the same tray).
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Cognitive Development

