Calling All Superheroes highlights the enormous potential of superhero play in supporting learning and development in early childhood. Using examples from practice, it provides guidance on how to effectively manage and implement superhero play and set appropriate boundaries in early years settings and schools. Illustrated with engaging photographs and case studies, the book gives ideas about how superhero play can be used to promote positive values and teach children essential life skills. Offering practical strategies and questions for reflection designed to facilitate further development, chapters address important topics and challenges such as: Child development, the characteristics of effective learning and the benefits of superhero play, including making sense of right and wrong and increasing moral awareness How to broach difficult themes like death, killing, weapons, aggressive play and gender-related issues Supporting children to recognise everyday heroes and how to find heroic abilities within themselves The role of the adults in managing superhero play, engaging parents and creating effective learning environments Written by a leading expert with 20 years’ experience in the early years sector, this book is an essential resource for early years teachers, practitioners and anyone with a key interest in young children’s education and learning.

Evolved through conversations with key early childhood education experts, Schemas in the Early Years focuses on the value of ‘repeated patterns’ of action or ‘schemas’ in young children’s play. It stimulates readers to ask questions of themselves, to watch children closely, and to create a dialogue with parents and other educators as well. Contributors to this fascinating book discuss their observation of children in naturalistic situations when they are deeply involved in play and identify topics or themes that can be linked to and inspire professional development opportunities. This book provides an antidote to beginning with the curriculum rather than the child and really considers children as learners. Each chapter focuses on young children and schemas, considering a wide age range from babies to children attending statutory schooling. Schemas in the Early Years is an accessible and inspiring text and serves as essential reading for educators wanting to think further and in more depth about schemas. Newcomers to schema theory or anyone currently using schema theory to understand children will also find these enquiries useful. All royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to Shelter – the housing and homelessness charity.

Have you ever wondered why children behave the way they do or why they can become overwhelmed with emotions so quickly? This practical resource has been created to help educators effectively support their children’s behaviour and better understand their emotions. The book focuses on the idea that all behaviour is a form of communication and explores central areas such as self-regulation and attachment, offering strategies that can be used to support challenging behaviour. Each chapter includes examples of practice, reflective questions and an activity for the reader to help consolidate their learning and encourage them to become ‘behaviour detectives’. Key topics discussed include: • Attachment theory, adverse childhood experiences and the importance of feeling safe and secure in the home and setting. • Characteristics of children during conflict situations or moments of challenging behaviour. • Developmentally appropriate expectations for children, and why it is vital that expectations are realistic. • Emotion coaching and the significance of acknowledging and validating feelings. • Linking behaviour with schematic play. Written from first-hand experience and filled with practical advice as well as recommendations for further reading and resources, Supporting Behaviour and Emotions in the Early Years is an essential read for early years educators.

Care and caring are key to early childhood education and yet love can be viewed as a taboo word within early childhood settings. This book guides practitioners through the potentially problematic area of loving the children they care for. It shows where a loving pedagogy can fit within professional practice and how this can enrich experiences for children and educators. The book explores how educators can support their children by holding them in mind, valuing them and promoting their best interests. Focusing on how relationships, attachment and connections underpin our settings and practice, the chapters cover: the fundamentals of professional love appropriate touch in practice the different ways in which children feel loved the rights of the child empowering children through love working with parents and carers. Including case studies and questions for reflection, this is vital reading for practitioners wanting to develop a nurturing and loving pedagogy that places the child at the centre of their practice.

What is the role of early childhood practice in understanding the needs of parents and carers today? This book: *Considers the perspectives of those parents/carers marginalised by current practice *Provokes thinking about how settings can become more inclusive in their practice *Supports students to challenge their own assumptions about parents Each chapter considers a group of families that may be marginalised in practice. The book suggests respectful, co-productive ways for students and early childhood practitioners, across the sectors, to work together. Each chapter asks current and future practitioners to reflect on and challenge their current practice.

Nurturing Self-Regulation in Early Childhood explores how young children develop self-regulation and offers practical guidance on helping them to manage their feelings and behaviour. It considers the skills, attitudes and dispositions children need to be able to self-regulate and how their wellbeing and self-esteem can affect their ability to do this. Grimmer and Geens show how schools and settings can adopt an ethos where self-regulation permeates their whole provision. Considering the broad and multifaceted nature of self-regulation and how this key area of development shapes children and their learning, the chapters cover: developing empathy emotion coaching the practitioner as a co-regulator executive function and the sense of self and wellbeing international approaches to promoting self-regulation the role of the adult and environment in encouraging skills for self-regulation working effectively with parents and carers to ensure a consistent approach With a focus on developmentally appropriate expectations, this book is essential reading for all early childhood educators who want to develop their understanding of self-regulation and embrace an approach that underpins their practice and changes children’s lives.

A Hero Like You looks at everyday heroes and highlights qualities such as loyalty, compassion, resourcefulness, justice, and courage. The lyrical rhyme and relatable illustrations remind us that we all have the opportunity to be a hero by helping others, doing right and making the world a better place. "What the world needs is a hero like you!"

'Children's Play' explores the many facets of play and how it develops from infancy through late childhood. The authors discuss major revolutions in the way the children of today engage in play, including changes in organised youth sports children's humour, and electronic play.

A fun engaging I spy book to encourage children to be active and play

"A significant contribution to the continuing exploration of the issues surrounding the learning potential of young children's play. Holland's writing is engaging, her subject is of considerable interest, and her approach succeeds in challenging many of the taken-for-granted assumptions in several areas of the debate. Early childhood educators, those preparing to become early childhood educators, and those who accompany them on this journey will find much that is worthwhile and provocative in this book." Discourse "This book will be a valuable support to all practitioners who do not enjoy 'policing' children's play themes." Nursery World War, weapon and superhero play has been banned in many early childhood settings for over 30 years. This book explores the development and application of a zero tolerance approach through the eyes of children and practitioners. The author challenges the key rationale for linking aggressive play themes to violent behaviour. She examines play where children are allowed to construct weapons and enact goodies/baddies and superhero scenarios with sensitive adult guidance, and explores the generally positive experiences of children and practitioners. Rather than reading this form of play as the beginning of the slippery slope towards anti-social behaviour, readers are invited to view it as an entry point to imaginative play and social development. We don't play with guns here is a fascinating and insightful contribution to this area of much debate in the early childhood community. The book is key reading for early childhood practitioners, teachers, students, parents and policy makers.