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Here at The Butterfly Patch, we love The Curiosity Approach! We encourage this in all of our nurseries and believe it’s a wonderful learning tool.
So, let’s find out a little bit more about it…
The Curiosity Approach aims to create ‘thinkers & doers’ by putting children at the centre of their own development and learning.
Toys/technology are taken away from the learning environment, these are replaced with everyday items to encourage children’s natural curiosity to explore and create.
This offers little ones an amazing sensory opportunities to learn through real life, natural, holistic objects, and thingamajigs!
The Curiosity Approach draws from various other philosophies of early education.
It was founded by Lyndsey Hellyn and Stephanie Bennett who between them run six nurseries across the Midlands and have over 50 years of childcare experience.
You can find out more about this by clicking here.
So how does it work in practice?
Firstly, the nurseries are painted in neutral colours to create a serene, ‘homely’ environment, filled with easily accessible resources at eye-level.
Plastic toys are then replaced with ordinary, real-life items made of wood or other natural materials, promoting recycling, upcycling and reuse. They can include anything from cutlery to nuts and bolts.
This encourages children to create their own toys to play with while at the same time learning about the world whilst using imagination, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
The children go ‘back to basics’ and have to use their imagination to figure out what each item is for/how to use it. They are able to explore the various textures and possibilities of authentic resources, incorporating learning into play.
The items can be lined up, counted, combined or be used for drawing or writing.
This gives the children control to shape their playtime, rather than the toy shaping and limiting it, encouraging children to think for them themselves and build confidence.
To find out more about The Curiosity Approach click here!
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