Archive for category: General

A child spills a jug of water at morning tea. Before anyone reaches for a cloth, the child looks up to see how the adults will respond. An educator says, “It happens. I’ll get a towel and we can clean it up together.” There is a great deal of a service’s philosophy in what happens in those few seconds.

For Christian early learning services, that philosophy begins with a belief about the child. Every child is made in the image of God and is worthy of care and respect. That belief shapes how we plan for children, how we speak to them and how we respond when the day goes sideways. It also shapes what children see adults do when we make mistakes ourselves.

Bible stories, prayer and songs have a meaningful place in a Christian program. Their meaning deepens when children see the adults around them practise what those stories teach. A child can hear about loving their neighbour and then watch an educator make room at the table for someone who has been left out. A room leader can talk about grace and also apologise to a colleague when they’ve spoken sharply. Children see faith take shape in relationships they know.

Christian identity has implications for decisions made well away from the room, too. It matters when a director explains the service’s approach to faith to a family who is new to Christianity. It matters when a team plans a celebration and thinks about how to welcome families whose traditions are different. It matters when a board decides how to resource the time educators need to know children and families well.

At your next team meeting, choose one ordinary part of the day. It might be arrival, mealtimes or how you respond when children want the same thing. Ask each other what a child learns about their worth from the way adults handle that moment. Then choose one detail to pay closer attention to during the week. The way you welcome a child tomorrow morning is one place your Christian philosophy becomes something a family can recognise.

A team is reviewing a learning story about two children building a bridge. One child has been doing most of the talking. The other places a block underneath a section that keeps falling. An educator notices and asks the quieter child to show the group what they tried. The bridge holds. As the team reads the story, someone asks which contributions they typically notice first.

That question brings a Christian philosophy into conversation with everyday practice. If we believe each child bears the image of God, how does that shape whose ideas we make time for? Which children appear most often in our documentation? What do the stories we write tell families about the things we value?

Observation gives a team somewhere concrete to begin. Start by describing what happened and what adults did to make participation possible. In the bridge example, the educator slowed the group down long enough for a child to share an idea in their own way. The team can then ask whether their routines give children similar opportunities at mealtimes, outdoors or in a busy group discussion.

Families will often notice different things. A parent might explain that their child talks at length about a Bible story at home even though they rarely speak during group time. Another family might tell you their child feels uncertain about how to participate when the group prays. Both conversations give educators a way to reflect on the opportunities they offer, the words they use and the freedom children have to engage at their own pace.

Choose a value from your philosophy and take it into your next planning discussion. If the value is hospitality, look at two or three examples of children joining an activity. Notice who was invited, how the invitation was made and what happened when a child wanted to take part differently. Agree on one change to try and come back to the same routine in a few weeks.

We can be thoughtful about the experiences we offer and careful about how we interpret what we see. A learning story can show how adults made room for a child’s voice. It can give us good reasons to change our practice. Children can explore faith in their own time, with adults who make space for their questions.

A cardboard box has a surprisingly short life as a cardboard box. Turn it on its side and it becomes a dog kennel. Cut a window in it and someone starts taking orders for coffee. By lunchtime it’s a bus, and there’s a dispute about whether the driver gets to decide where everyone is going.

There’s something lovely about a child spending half an hour making a place for an imaginary dog simply because they’re absorbed in the idea.

In Christian early learning, we often talk about nurturing the whole child. That includes giving children time to get carried away with a good idea. The biblical picture of creation has room for delight in what has been made. There’s a little of that delight in the child who calls you over, opens a crooked cardboard door and says, with complete seriousness, “This is where the dog sleeps.”

Adults have an interesting part to play. Sometimes we join the game because we’ve been handed a paper coffee. Sometimes we offer tape because the roof is about to fall in. And sometimes the best thing we can do is leave the box where it is until tomorrow. In a busy room, that last decision can take some doing. There’s tidying to get through, floor space to reclaim and a fresh activity ready to go. But the children may still have plans for that box.

We often ask children what they made. It’s worth asking what they’re still making. You might hear that the dog needs a bigger bed, the café is opening a second window, or the bus is finally going somewhere everyone has agreed on. That’s a good reason to leave the box out for another day. What would you do with the box at the end of a busy day?