Educators' perceptions play a crucial role in shaping children's experiences. This exploratory study aimed to gather feedback from preschool educators who had conducted lessons at a natural play space in Singapore. The study site, known as a Nature Playgarden, is a green space within a public park. Created mostly with natural materials, the Nature…

Child care preferences are as diverse as California's families themselves. According to one California parent, the ideal arrangement for her preschooler would be "a nanny that is embedded in our lifestyle and available for evenings […] but I will still like to keep our child in preschool for socializing." For another parent, the ideal…

The purpose of this article is to describe Ibn Sina and Ghazali's philosophical views on soul and body on the one hand and to express their views on physical movements on the other hand in order to explain the relationship between their philosophical views on games and physical exercises related to body and soul. The research method was…

Purpose: Anxiety disorders are a common mental health problem on college campuses. Underused creative programs offer intrinsic value to the successful integration of college students. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of the use of building block therapy (LEGO® ) in stress management/reduction in comparison to traditional art…

This is a meditative piece generated by a walk in Sheffield during the pandemic. The author explores the notion of curiosity and considers what a curiosity-led curriculum might be like, contrasting it with current schooling practices in England. She links this to playful pedagogies and echoes the call for a pedagogy left in peace, then concludes…

Drawing on evolutionary theory, the author questions which cognitive processes underlie the capacities to play and to pretend play and the degree to which they are present in both humans and nonhuman animals. Considering cognitive capacities not all-or-nothing phenomena, she argues they are present in varying degrees in a wide range of species.…

Motor experiences and active exploration during early childhood may affect individual differences in a wide range of perceptual and cognitive abilities. In the current study, we suggest that active exploration of objects facilitates the ability to process object forms and magnitudes, which in turn impacts the development of numerosity perception.…

School-age educare centres in Sweden have previously not engaged in teaching guided by objectives, but since 2016 there has been a legal requirement to do so as part of an assignment to complement the knowledge requirements in school. Through focus group discussions with children and school-age educare teachers this study explores "how"…

Digitalisation and the accompanying transformation processes, involving data, technology and people, are part of children's life and will shape their future. Competences, such as digital skills, as well as creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving are crucial to these transformation processes. In early…

Fuji Kindergarten in Tachikawa, Japan, is an innovative school design. The building itself, designed by Tezuka Architects, is a key part of the children's education. In this article, the architects describe how the project developed and their inspirations and goals for this unique education facility that places children at the center. The spaces…

Children's right to participate has become internationally recognised and the early years are a pivotal phase for realising children's rights. Knowledge of how young children can enact their right to participation in different environmental and educational contexts is important for improving and facilitating pedagogical practices around the world.…

Twenty years ago, the "Colorado Paper" developed a theoretical concept of the Play Cycle and described a hierarchy of four levels of intervention which playworkers might use to support the Play Cycle: play maintenance; simple intervention, medial intervention and complex intervention. This study of 157 playworkers from around the world…

There is limited information on the use of non-directive, child-initiated and child-directed play in occupational therapy. Play as an occupation characterized by internal control, intrinsic motivation, suspension from reality, and engaged in with focus on the process rather than the product necessitates child-centeredness with initiation and…

Children's engagement in risk-taking has been on the agenda for early childhood education for the past 10-15 years. At a time when some say the minority world has become overly risk averse, early childhood education aims to support confident, competent and resilient children through the inclusion of beneficial risk in early childhood education.…

This article examines the role of play-based early childhood programs in perpetuating or interrupting messages of white supremacy which murder the spirits of Black children while reinforcing a sense of entitlement in white children. We ask educators to consider what children's play might look like if pro-Black teaching and anti-racist teaching…