Supporting a child's development goes beyond teaching and instruction, an important role tasked to an early childhood educator is to create a rich environment that nurtures, a child's sense of wonder, exploration, belonging and safety. Based on my experiences working in childcare, education, research, and reflective practice, I want to share what I have learned about the effects of the learning environment on a child's development and well-being.
I am grateful for the experiences I've gained from working in childcare settings, pursuing my studies in Early Childhood Education, and serving as a home daycare provider. Each role has offered me unique insights into cultivating an engaging learning environment. These experiences have shown me that in order to provide a nurturing environment requires, observation, responsiveness and planning.
When a new child joins our group, or if I joined a new classroom, I take time to observe before implement any change. This requires me to observe the children within the already staged environment while taking into consideration the placement, layout, and items in the learning environment. Through this, I can gain insight into each child's play style, interests and interactions with the space. When introducing a new family into my home daycare, I found that adding something of special interest to that specific child when they are first starting care helps make them feel more comfortable with the transition.
As I reflect on my experiences and read over past assignments, I am reminded about the importance of creating an organized and calm learning environment. This translates from my experiences as a mother, I have learned that clean, organized and simple spaces are easily accessed by the children. This includes the amount of toys and learning items within the room, with the less is more approach and the ability to rotate items within my home daycare, i have noticed that the children are less over whelmed by their choices and I find children will engage in activities for longer periods of time resulting in less toy dumping. I am inspired to continue improving my home daycare and to eventually open a childcare center. Each day spent with the children in my care reaffirms my passion for early childhood education and fuels my desire to create enriching learning environments where every child can thrive.
Guiding my approach to the learning environment is also the nine features of responsive play spaces. It is my goal, to be able to incorporate more features such as circulation patterns, balance, and spatial partitioning. In my home daycare, I have implemented strategies such as using small carpets to define play areas and incorporating various toys and furniture to guide the flow of the room. These efforts not only help create a structured environment but also promote flexibility and adaptability as children move throughout the space. Responsive play spaces also reminds me of the holistic approach, in Ontario's Pedagogy Framework of How Does Learning Happen? (HDLH?) Incorporating features like quiet corners and flex zone, can help a child sense of belonging, and self regulation.
As educators, we learn to embrace the concept of the environment as the third teacher, and that the environment plays a substantial role in children learning experiences. Our environments are not backgrounds, they must be planned and thought as places to excite, inspire and educate children.
Resources
HiMama. (2023). How to Create Rich and Developmentally Appropriate Learning Experiences to Set Your Classroom Up for Success This Summer. https://www.himama.com/blog/how-to-create-rich-and-developmentally-appropriate-learning-experiences-to-set-your-classroom-up-for-success-this-summer/
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2014). How Does Learning Happen? Ontario's Pedagogy for the Early Years. Queen's Printer for Ontario.
Procare Software. (2021). Child Care Philosophy: Why It Matters & How to Define Yours. https://www.procaresoftware.com/blog/child-care-philosophy-why-it-matters-how-to-define-yours/#:~:text=Set%20Priorities%20for%20Your%20Curriculum%20%26%20Learning%20Environment&text=The%20environment%20you%20set%20up,learning%20materials%20in%20each%20room.
Vanderbilt University. (2024). Creating an Environment That Promotes Positive Behavior. Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/env/cresource/q1/p01/
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