Sally Featherstone

A wealth of great ideas for parents or carers of young babies.

Stage 1: 0-20Months

50 Fantastic Things to Do with Babies

Ros Bayley

Why do boys and girls behave differently? Why do most boys read and write later than girls? Why do boys never seem to listen? Avoid gender stereotypes. This book explains how and why boys and girls brains differ, how that affects their learning and what you can do about it.

Not Better Or Worse, Just Different

Boys and Girls Come Out to Play

Nicola Call

Gregory is having a bad day. It's raining and he can't go outside to play. Nothing is going right ... until the sun comes out. Maybe Gregory will have some fun today, after all!

Gregory's Grumpy Day

This book will help you to understand what works for the growing brain, and (even more important) what doesn't! It is more and more evident that HOW children learn is much more important then WHAT they learn. Babies are born with a drive to learn, but as babies become children this drive can falter. What are the keys to keeping the momentum going, so children are ready for each stage of their childhood as they reach it? We can influence the quality of learning, without buying specialist DVDs, choosing expensive toys or becoming a 'helicopter adult” hovering over children and controlling everything they do. Busy parents and practitioners can make sure that the times they have with children are both enjoyable in the present and useful in the future. This book introduces you to some of the things that affect children's learning, explains these in readable terms, and gives you simple ways of making sure that children get the best start in their lifelong learning journey.

Learning to Learn

Max is excited as he gets ready for his first day at school - but he's a bit worried too. Each time he starts to worry, Dad is there to reassure him. And in the end, it's Dad who is left alone, as Max runs off to play with his best friend Yuka!

Max's First Day

Liz Williams

This book gives ideas for introducing and extending experiences of sound and music for babies and young children. Each page spread contains a range of experiences and a selection of ideas ffor each of the six stages in Development Matters (Revised EYFS 2012).The Baby&Beyond series takes simple activities or resources and shows how they can be used with children at each of the EYFS development stages, from birth to 60+ months. Each activity is laid out so that you can see progression at a glance.

Progression in Play for Babies and Children

Sound and Music

Rev. ed. of: Foundations for independence. Lutterworth: Featherstone Education, 2002.

Independent Learning in the Foundation Stage

Clare Beswick

Stella Louis

What are schemas and why do they matter? Again! Again! provides an introduction to understanding and supporting schemas and schema play in young children. Practitioners will find an overview of schemas with guidance on where they fit within the EYFS. There are examples of schemas, with illustrations and descriptions of common behaviour patterns, and these are set within the general context of child development. The intention is to help early years practitioners identify schemas and to understand both how important they are and the vital role they play in the growing child's learning. The aim is to help the reader understand how they can develop, plan and resource activities which support children's learning through experiment and play.

Again! Again!

Understanding Schemas in Young Children

This Little Book offers fifty different lists, each containing fifty items (2,500 ideas). These include resource ideas, things to do, thoughts and ideas to discuss, challenges and some that are just lists.

Little

Country Flowers was inspired by the book Flora, ten years among the flowers of an endangered landscape, which describes the unique range of flowers growing in seven small fields on the hills above the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire. Readers of Flora, while enjoying the full sized, lavishly illustrated volume, with its 400 colour photos and detailed context, said they would find a pocket-sized version of the individual flower pages useful to take with them on walks through the Pennine countryside and the hay meadows of West Yorkshire. Country Flowers has been compiled to contain all the flowers from Flora, expanded to include a wider range of common British wildflowers. Each page carries essential information to help you to identify individual flowers from their key features, including colour photographs, the Latin name, some of the country names, which are often more amusing and descriptive than the official ones, the size and colour of the flower, historical and herbal details, and fascinating facts about each one. We are all concerned about the loss of natural environments, and the living things we enjoy and want to protect. Little wildflowers, often grow unnoticed on the footpath verges, in hedgerows, field margins, or in the protected flower meadows of our beautiful, increasingly threatened countryside. As well as delighting us with the colours of their blooms, wildflowers support a myriad of animals and insects, flying, hopping, crawling and munching, and helping to pollinate and propagating the flowers of food crops as well as those in the wild. Like me, you may have found an unfamiliar flower, or one that you recognise, but with a name you can no longer remember! Country Flowers will help your memory for the names you used to know, and introduce you to new varieties. The plants in Country Flowers have been selected to enhance your enjoyment of walks in the countryside, alone or with your friends and family. Over 100 photographs of individual flowers, taken in their natural surroundings, are accompanied by details of country uses, 'fascinating facts' about their history, and culinary or medicinal uses. The meadows where they grow are endangered habitats, and could be permanently damaged by trampling or picking the flowers, or even walking among them. We must preserve the places where wildflowers grow, so our children and grandchildren can enjoy them too. Living through a pandemic has made us all appreciate the countryside so much more, and we know that taking time to stop and look in detail at nature can improve both our mental and physical health. I hope this book will enhance your enjoyment of our sometimes overlooked country flowers.

Country Flowers

Sam Goodman

Elaine Massey

Make the most of your environment to help young children develop and learn.

Setting the Scene

Mark Making: Progression in Play for Babies and Children gives ideas for introducing and extending mark making activities and experiences for babies and young children. Each page contains a range of experiences and a selection of ideas for each of the six stages in Development Matters (Revised EYFS 2012). The experiences with mark making materials described in this book encourages development and learning through active play using all the senses. Enhancing experiences of mark making from babyhood will encourage children's independence and involvement in communication through meaningful marks.

Mark Making

This story celebrates the many things that a young child can do independently. Natasha is very proud of her self-help skills. She can pour her own drink, wash her hands, dress herself, and even get her own breakfast.

What Natasha Can Do

Phill Featherstone

Messy play is at the heart of the early years curriculum, supporting creativity and imagination, and giving children opportunities to experiment with tactile materials. This book will offer 50 ideas working with natural resources, simple household items and recycled resources for low cost inspiration. Practitioners and teachers in the early years are always looking for new ideas for messy and 'hands-on' play, and this book will give children many opportunities for exploration and investigation through sensory play.

50 Fantastic Ideas for Messy Play

Molly is learning about what it takes to be a best friends to Sunita, who can be quiet, funny, crazy and sometimes even grumpy! But Molly realises that no matter what, Sunita will always be her best friend.

My Best Friend

Simple Games to Play with Your New Baby

Getting to Know You

Anne Cummings

Role Play is an important part of every child's entitlement. This lively book will guide you in planning, stimulating and organising role play inside and out. Part 1 discussed why role play is important. Part 2 presents activities suitable for a range of role play situations. There are ideas for materials, equipment and locations, including advice on making the most of limited resources. Unlock your imagination and help your children to bring out what's inside!

Developing Imagination and Creativity Through Role Play

Role Play in the Early Years

You only need to watch children to know that boys and girls learn differently! It's not that girls don't like to be outdoors, to get messy or to be noisily active, they do - they are just able control their muscles at a younger age, so they can sit, watch and listen to adults more easily. They can also manipulate materials and tools such as pencils (called fine motor skills) earlier than many boys, so they are ready for the reading and writing activities in school. But we must resist the temptation to think that boys are not as good as girls - they are just different. Their skills and interests draw them to activities that are big, adventurous, risky and messy, and of course, they love being outside. All children like pretend play, but this is sometimes limited to domestic activity in the home corner, rather than allowing boys to experiment with roles often associated with grown up men. This book offers you fifty ideas for things that make the most of the ways boys learn, capturing their interest and helping them to learn. Many offer opportunities for early writing, mathematics and reading, as well as technology, science and role-play.

Sally Featherstone

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