Based on the Dutch Early Years Blog written by Melissa Be and Anouk van Dijk Dani (4) is building a tower on the floor. Very carefully she places one block on top of another as the tower is already at shoulder height. When Dani is not paying attention, Yara (4) approaches the tower and picks…

This quote belongs to Pippi Longstocking, a fictional main character in a series of children’s books by the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. It is a very optimistic and bold quote, but what can we learn from it? Self-efficacy Pippi Longstocking’s quote concerns the concept of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy[1] refers to your judgement on your own capabilities….

This blog was contributed by Ruth Heuvelman (CED Group).     Take a (critical) look at the picture books in your group. What books are there? Do you see society reflected in the picture books? Can all children identify with the stories and the main characters?  By shared book reading you can combat prejudice and promote inclusion…

This blog was contributed by Ruth Heuvelman (CED-group, the Netherlands). Reading is very good for language development, and especially for infants. According to research, you cannot start early enough[1]. You can even start to read to babies aged around 3 to 4 months. If you start to read at an early age, the child will…

This blog post was contributed by Pauline Slot, assistant professor, and Celeste Bekkering, researcher, at Utrecht University, the Netherlands  “As long as my child is happy.” For parents, that is the most important thing. But when is a child happy? And how can you see or observe this? And how can a professional contribute to the happiness of a child?…

This blog was contributed by Pauline Slot The recent police brutality against a male of color in the United States faces us with the facts again. Issues of racism and discrimination are present in everyday situations. How does this affect children with diverse backgrounds growing up in current society? And what are the lessons for…

The whole world is dealing with the Corona crisis and this also applies to childcare and education. How can you deal with this in the group, when the child care centers and (pre)schools re-open? Local centres for disease control or advisory organizations provide information about medical aspects, but what about the pedagogical side? Should you…

By Annemiek Hoppenbrouwers For a lot of children, closed schools are not a big problem. You can play outside because the weather is great; mom and dad are at home which means you don’t have to go to daycare, and you can often watch television because mom and dad have to work from home. When…

This blog message was contributed by Melissa Be (CED-group). ‘To ensure the best possible guidance for children to become autonomous and critical citizens, we need to speak with them about their ideals, their identity, how they perceive their society and about how they want to change it.’ – de Winter, 2011 Is this also possible with…

By Melissa Be (CED-group) and Desiree van Reeuwijk (CED-group) When the children enter the group they are immediately impressed by the mountain of empty milk and sprinkles cartons in the building corner. The teacher brought these today as a new impulse for play, because she noticed that some of the children were not able to…