After writing several articles over the past few years on our ‘cotton wool culture’ and increasing aversion to risk, seeing some Venezuelan children go out hunting on the BBC documentary Human Planet did make me chuckle.

In the episode, entitled Trees, the children, of whom all look no older than ten, go wandering off into the jungle, without adult supervision, in search of tarantulas that they plan to eat for dinner.

Read More »

It’s an all too familiar scene, young children sitting with their parents in a coffee shop sipping on an adult sized drink, rather than playing in the park or engaged in an age appropriate activity, so when and why did treating children as adults become normal?

Read More »

There was great disappointment among many private and voluntary sector nurseries when the new Government decided to press ahead with the Code of Practice on the free entitlement rather than suspend it as the Conservatives had promised pre-election.
Read More »

Since my in-laws came to stay, previously unseen dangers have started lurking everywhere my toddler ventures. Could she bang her head on the table? Might she hit her fingers while playing with the hammer block?  Read More »

The language of Government Bills and Acts is not what most of us would call ‘plain English’! So it is necessary to turn to the accompanying notes for illumination, and, even then, some very careful reading is required to decipher what the impact of legislative change could be.
Read More »