International Day of Play
🌍As we celebrate the International Day of Play, it’s the perfect time to reconnect with something beautifully simple: playing together outdoors. Children don’t need expensive toys or busy schedules to thrive—just a little space, a bit of fresh air, and the freedom to explore.
Here’s a week of easy, low-cost ideas to help you and your children enjoy the magic of the outdoors—one playful day at a time.
🌿 Day 1: Why Getting Outside Matters
There’s something truly special about stepping outdoors as a family. Nature is always changing—no two days look the same—and for children, this creates a rich, multi-sensory world full of wonder.
Outside, children can move freely: running, jumping, splashing, and shouting in ways that indoor spaces rarely allow. Everyday natural objects—leaves, sticks, stones, and puddles—become tools for imagination. A stick transforms into a wand, a leaf into a boat, and a puddle into an adventure waiting to happen.
Spending time outside benefits the whole family, too. Fresh air and movement can support better sleep, improve mood, and help everyone feel calmer. Most importantly, these early experiences nurture a lifelong love of being active and connected to nature.
🎨 Day 2: Slow Down with Observational Art
In our busy world, outdoor art offers a chance to pause and really notice.
Take a sketchpad and pencils to a local park or your garden. Encourage your child to look closely at the details around them—the patterns on leaves, the textures of tree bark, or the shapes drifting across the sky.
This isn’t about creating perfect pictures. It’s about mindful exploration—seeing, touching, listening, and simply being present. And if your child prefers talking over drawing, that’s just as meaningful. Describing what they notice builds language, curiosity, and confidence.
🖼️ Day 3: Picture Making with Nature
Nature is the ultimate art box—you just need to frame it.
Place an old picture frame on the ground and invite your child to create a scene using natural treasures like twigs, leaves, pinecones, or flowers. When they’re done, take a photo to capture their “artwork within a frame.”
You can also encourage them to hold the frame up and explore their surroundings through it. They’ll quickly discover how stepping back helps fit a whole tree inside! It’s a playful introduction to perspective and observation—without any formal teaching.
🐞 Day 4: Create a Bug Hotel
Turn curiosity into care by building a cozy home for wildlife.
Gather materials like logs, sticks, bricks, leaves, and twigs. Then stack and layer them in a quiet corner of your garden or park space. Fill gaps with soil and leaves to create hiding spots for insects.
Children love imagining tiny creatures moving in, and it opens gentle conversations about respecting and protecting nature. Plus, the building process itself encourages teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving.
🌸 Day 5: Nature Collections and Rubbings
Sometimes the simplest activities are the most engaging.
Challenge your child to collect leaves of different shapes, colours, and textures. You might be surprised at the variety you discover together.
Extend the activity with bark rubbings—place paper against a tree trunk and rub over it with a crayon to reveal hidden patterns. Comparing different textures sparks curiosity and helps develop observation skills in a fun, hands-on way.
🌱 Day 6: Get Messy with Planting and Outdoor Play
Outdoor play is meant to be wonderfully messy!
Planting bulbs is a perfect family activity. Children can dig, plant, and water—then later enjoy the excitement of seeing flowers grow from their efforts. It’s a powerful (and magical) way to understand growth and patience.
You could also create a simple outdoor “mud kitchen” with old pots and pans. Watch as your child mixes potions, cooks imaginary meals, and dives into creative play. The mess? Completely worth it.
🌬️ Day 7: Active Outdoor Fun and Games
End the week with movement, laughter, and play.
On breezy days, flying a kite is a joyful way to encourage running and coordination. But even without equipment, nature offers endless game ideas:
- Create a tic-tac-toe grid with sticks and use stones or acorns as counters
- Hide small “treasures” in leaf piles to discover
- Build mini dens for toys using natural materials
These simple games support physical development, imagination, and problem-solving—while creating precious family memories.
🌈 A Final Thought
You don’t need grand plans or perfect weather to celebrate the joy of play. A garden, a local park, or even a single tree on your street can become a space for discovery.
This International Day of Play, remember:
one small outdoor moment each day can make a big difference.
So step outside, follow your child’s curiosity, and let nature do the rest. 🌿
Early Literacy through Play
The best learning happens through play, everyday moments, and having fun together! Children learn language, communication, and early reading and writing skills when they are engaged, curious, and enjoying themselves.
🗣️ Talk & Play With Words
Children learn language through playful conversations and listening to others.
- Talk about what you are doing during the day
- Describe things you can see on walks or at home
- Ask questions and encourage your child to share ideas
- Play simple games like “I Spy” or silly rhyming games
👉 Talking through play helps build vocabulary, listening skills, confidence, and communication.
🎶 Sing, Dance & Rhyme
Songs and nursery rhymes are a fun and playful way to develop language skills.
- Sing favourite songs together again and again
- Add actions, movement, and dancing
- Clap rhythms or make up silly rhymes together
👉 Singing helps children hear sounds within words, develop memory skills, and build early phonics awareness.
📚 Read Together
Sharing stories helps children develop a love of books and imagination.
- Read together every day, even for a few minutes
- Let your child choose favourite books
- Talk about pictures, characters, and what might happen next
- Encourage your child to join in with repeated phrases
👉 Storytime through play and imagination helps children build vocabulary, understanding, and storytelling skills.
✏️ Explore Mark-Making
Early writing begins with playful mark-making.
- Encourage drawing, painting, scribbling, and doodling
- Write in sand, foam, mud, or with chalk outdoors
- Celebrate “invented spelling” and early attempts at writing
👉 These playful experiences help children understand that marks, symbols, and words all have meaning.
🎭 Learn Through Play
Play is one of the most powerful ways children learn literacy skills.
- Use role play, puppets, or small world toys
- Act out stories or make up new adventures together
- Encourage your child to pretend, imagine, and tell stories
👉 Play helps children develop creativity, communication, storytelling, and thinking skills.
💡 Top Tip
Keep it playful, follow your child’s interests, and celebrate every effort. Children learn best when they feel happy, confident, and free to explore through play! ✨
DAY TWO🌟 Supporting Your Child’s Early Mark-Making Through Creative Play
Mark-making is one of the very first steps towards writing. Long before children can form letters or write their name, they learn through playful exploration and creativity. Every swirl, splat, scribble, and squiggle helps build the important skills they will need for writing later on.
Through creative play, children discover that their movements, ideas, and imagination can leave marks and tell stories.
What skills are children developing?
As children explore mark-making, they are developing important physical and creative skills.
✨ Gross Motor Skills
These are the large movements using arms, shoulders, and the whole body. Activities such as painting on big paper, drawing outdoors with chalk, or making sweeping movements in sand help strengthen these muscles and support later writing control.
✨ Fine Motor Skills
These involve the smaller muscles in the hands and fingers. Holding crayons, squeezing paint, poking dough, or using chalk all help children develop the hand strength and control needed for writing tools.
Children are also learning:
👀 Hand–Eye Coordination
They begin to connect what they see with how their hands move, helping them gain control and confidence.
💡 Cause and Effect
Children learn that their actions create something exciting and meaningful — a finger through paint leaves a trail, a crayon creates a colourful line, or muddy feet make footprints.
🎨 What does mark-making look like?
Mark-making happens naturally through creative, sensory, and everyday play experiences.
- Babies may squish food, paint, or cornflour and watch the patterns they create
- Toddlers might splash in puddles, make footprints in mud, or draw in sand
- Young children may enjoy painting, doodling, making patterns, or experimenting with lines, dots, and shapes using different tools and materials
Mark-making does not have to look like writing. Every playful experience helps children explore, imagine, and express themselves in their own way.
🌈 Why is mark-making important?
Mark-making encourages creativity, confidence, and self-expression. As children begin to attach meaning to their marks, they are taking their first steps towards drawing, storytelling, writing, and communication.
Most importantly, playful mark-making allows children to learn through curiosity, exploration, and imagination.
🏡 How can you support creative mark-making at home?
You can encourage your child through simple, fun, and playful activities:
- Offer crayons, chalks, paints, pencils, or chunky markers
- Draw on different surfaces such as paper, cardboard, foil, or outdoors with chalk
- Explore messy play with sand, water, flour, shaving foam, or mud
- Try painting with brushes, fingers, sponges, sticks, or toy cars
- Encourage large movements by painting on the floor, fence, or large sheets of paper
- Talk about the marks your child makes and celebrate their ideas and creativity
Remember — there is no right or wrong way to make marks. The magic happens when children are free to explore, experiment, create, and most importantly… have fun! ✨
Here is our first blog post celebrating International Day of Play
🌈 Early Childhood Schemas
Play in Action - Little Learners, Big Discoveries!
If you have ever watched a young child, endlessly drop a spoon from their highchair or spin in circles with pure joy, you have already seen schemas in action! In early childhood, schemas are repeated patterns of behaviours that children use to explore and understand the world. They are an import part of play that should not be overlooked.
Let’s take a look at some common early childhood schemas which you may have seen your child do at home.
🔄 Trajectory Schema
Ever wonder why baby’s chuck toys over the side of the pram, you pick it up and they throw it back over again? This is all about movement; throwing, dropping, or watching things fly is a trajectory schema!
Example: Throwing toys or objects across the room, dropping items from a highchair or table, kicking or rolling balls, watching things fly through the air, running, jumping, or climbing up and down
🧱 Enclosing Schema
An enclosing schema is when a child uses creative ways to surround or “wrap around” things—whether that’s toys, objects, or even themselves! It’s their way of experimenting with space and structure in a fun and hands-on way.
Example: Building a fence of blocks around their toys or drawing circles around objects, climbing inside boxes, hiding things in boxes or even hiding themselves under.
🚗 Transporting Schema
A transporting schema is when a child loves to move things from one place to another, often using bags, boxes, or vehicles. It’s their way of exploring how objects travel and how they can control their environment.
Example: Carrying toys around in a bag, bucket, or even their pockets! Pushing balls down slops, moving vehicles around.
🌀 Rotational Schema
A rotational schema is when a child loves anything that goes round and round—from spinning themselves to turning objects. It’s their way of exploring movement, control, and the fascinating world of rotations.
Example: Twirling ribbons, spinning wheels, or simply spinning in circles.
🧭 Positioning Schema
A positioning schema is when a child enjoys placing things in particular positions or patterns. Whether it’s lining up toys or arranging objects carefully, it’s their way of exploring order and control in the world around them.
Example: Lining up cars in a perfect row or carefully placing toys side by side.
🧗 Connecting Schema
A connecting schema is when a child enjoys joining things together or pulling them apart. It’s their way of discovering how objects relate, connect, and function in the world around them.
Example: Linking train tracks, stacking blocks, or sticking items together with tape.
🎉 Why Schemas Matter
Schemas are more than just play- they are the building blocks of learning! Through these repeated actions, children develop critical thinking skills, coordination, and understanding of how the world works.
The best part? By recognising schemas, adults can support children’s interests and create richer learning experiences. So next time a child insists on filling and emptying a basket over and over again, you all know - it is not mischief, it’s meaningful learning in action!
Use the links below to learn more about schemas, why they matter and how they promote children’s learning and development.