Little Acorns Nursery blog: news articles, information & updates for parents

Activities for Children, Childcare, Chorley, Chorley Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Early Years Education, Forest School, Nature, Nurseries, Nursery, Parenting

Bird Feeding for Under-Fives

As autumn fades and winter begins in late December, wild birds struggle more to find food. Natural foods like insects, fruit, nectar, caterpillars and grubs are nowhere to be found. Even recently-abundant seeds have now dropped to the ground and are either buried or already eaten. With the colder temperatures, birds also need more food because they burn calories trying to stay warm. With all that in mind, we’ve been feeding our wild birds each day to keep them from going hungry. Today’s post explains how children and under-fives can also get involved in the rewarding activity of feeding wild birds.

Children Love Feeding Birds!

Feeding wild birds is something that children can definitely get involved in. It’s not only great for the birds, assuming it’s done properly of course, but it’s also a wonderful thing for children. If they keep it up, they’ll soon get to recognise the ‘regulars’ who will turn up each day. If they get used to a particular feeding time and place, some birds may even start to wait nearby once they begin to trust you and your child. That can take significant time, though, so children must learn to be patient (a great skill to have) and remain calm and quiet when wild animals and birds are nearby.

Good for Birds & Great for Children

Providing food for birds is a win-win for everyone — humans and birds alike. Birds obviously get to eat much needed food without huge effort and children get to learn more about nature and perhaps individual bird visitors. (We even name our regulars! “Vern” is a tame blackbird, for example, having been named after a character in the famous movie Rain Man). By encouraging birds to visit, children will soon be able to recognise and name the different species of bird too, particularly if given some help from a parent or bird book. Visitors might include robins, blackbirds, blue tits, great tits, long-tailed tits (our favourite), thrushes, starlings and, if they’re lucky, more unusual, colourful birds like nuthatches, woodpeckers, bull finches and gold finches. As it gets colder, some species will travel to warmer countries to overwinter. For those that stay in the UK, however, food from a friendly young nature-lover will be a real lifeline.

Learning to Appreciate Nature & Other Creatures

If children do get involved in feeding wild birds, they’ll soon begin to realise how delightful the little beings are. They each have their own character, likes and dislikes. Children will get to appreciate this if they keep up the feeding and the birds will soon realise where to find the food each day. Children will get to understand the importance of nature and learn skills like empathy, understanding and responsibility as they nurture the wellbeing of these beautiful wild visitors. Animals, birds and insects are all individuals and it’s good for children to recognise this. By feeding birds and other animals, they will also be able to continue to appreciate nature and the natural world, just like they do in our Forest School at Little Acorns Nursery School. Nature teaches children so much about the natural world as well as about themselves. It also makes them more aware of ecological issues and, as such, can make them more inclined to …

10th December 2021/by Mark

Active Play, Childcare, Chorley, Chorley Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Early Years Education, Education, Forest School, Lancashire, Nurseries, Nursery, Pre-School, Pre-Schools

Why Nature is So Important to Children

Today we’ll look at the immense benefits of nature to children. While the long-term benefits of nature are reasonably well-known, it turns out short-term exposure to the natural environment also has¹ clear benefits for people of any age. The benefits are even more beneficial, though, for young people during their early years, at school and in higher education.

The greatest benefits come when children and young adults are able to spend time actually in the outdoors, surrounded by natural things like trees, flowers, grass and wildlife. Even a short break spent in such an environment will help to restore attention, cognitive function and mental resilience — and this is backed up by many studies. Incredibly, some³ have demonstrated that there are cognitive and performance benefits even when there is just a view of the natural environment, for example sight of green grass and trees through an open window in the classroom. That’s remarkable when you think about it.

The Benefits of Nature to Children

One of the wonderful things about nature is that immersing oneself in it need not cost a penny. With so many proven benefits, it just goes to show that the old adage that ‘the best things in life are free’ really is true when it comes to nature. Exposure to the natural environment and green surroundings has been shown to have clear benefits …

Attention Restoration

Nature is a great healer; time spent in the natural environment helps to counteract the depletion of mental resources, particularly after periods of perhaps intense mental work, for example following a series of lessons or tasks. The fascinating quality of nature is also key to this as it requires a kind of ‘softer’ attention, with the brain working on an almost involuntary basis. This is part of what’s known as Attention Restoration Theory (‘ART’). It is thought to work in such a way as to allow cognitive function to …

12th November 2021/by Mark

Childcare, Chorley, Clayton-le-Woods, Early Years Education, Education, Nurseries, Nursery, Parenting, Pre-School, Pre-Schools

15-30 Hours of Free Childcare for 2, 3 & 4-Year-Olds

Children living in England are very fortunate to have their early years childcare supported financially by a variety of Government funding schemes. The 3 most important, popular and widely-available schemes are:

15 hours per week of free childcare for eligible 3 & 4-year-olds;
30 hours per week of free childcare for eligible 3 & 4-year-olds;
15 hours per week of free childcare for eligible 2-year-olds.

Little Acorns Nursery School supports all three schemes for families who have been successful with their funding applications.

This free childcare can really help families, especially parents who wish to return to work and those wishing to improve their standard of living. With more people working, it also benefits the economy, of course.

Perhaps most importantly, Government funding of early years childcare greatly helps children. Studies have shown that children who receive a good early years education, for example at nursery or pre-school, really do benefit. That’s in both the short term and the long term. A Department for Education study showed that children attending high quality early years education settings benefit socially, behaviourally, cognitively and, of course, educationally. Indeed it’s abundantly clear that early years education gives children a very healthy head-start so they can really hit the ground running by the time they start school around the age of 5. Many of the benefits of early years education are, as we said before, much longer-lasting, even into adulthood. Perhaps we’ll cover more detail on that in a future post. Either way, though, it’s clear that this financial support from the Government is incredibly important.

Let’s look at each of the schemes …

Please note: in all funding cases discussed here, the Government funding is paid direct to the setting (not the family) and strict rules apply to settings in order to be eligible for the funding. Little Acorns Nursery School qualifies on all counts and welcomes families whose childcare is funded in this way.

Free Childcare for 3 to 4-Year-Olds

15 Funded Hours for Children Aged 3-4

The great news is that all children aged 3 to 4 living in England are eligible to receive …

13th October 2021/by Mark

Childcare, Chorley, Chorley Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Early Years Education, Forest School, Lancashire, Nurseries, Nursery, Pre-School, Pre-Schools

New Pre-School Build Nears Completion

The nursery owners and staff are very excited to show you the new pre-school build, which is making great progress. Take a look at the photographs to see just how good it’s beginning to look, especially now that the high quality timber cladding is almost complete. This is going to be such a lovely new space for the children play and learn in.

A New Home for Our Pre-School & Forest School

The new build is going to be used as our pre-school area and also as our Forest School unit. So, a lovely timber finish is rather apt when you think about it. Our children will also find its attractive design and finish very appealing and much more exciting than a standard, brick-built unit. The building even has its own kitchen area and toilet facilities, so will be very self-contained. However, it has lots of large windows and doors to let the natural light in and will allow easy, free-flowing access for outdoor play when appropriate.

Being a modular, timber-framed construction means …

12th September 2021/by Mark

Active Play, Childcare, Chorley, Clayton-le-Woods, Exercise, Nurseries, Nursery, Parenting, Pre-School

Exercise & Active Play for Under-Fives

A healthy lifestyle is crucially important for health and wellbeing at any age, but it’s even more important in the early years. At this age, children are still at a critical time in their physical and mental development. We wrote last month about the need for healthy eating for toddlers and preschoolers and now follow this up by exploring the importance of exercise and active play for under fives.

The Importance of Exercise for Under-Fives

Generally speaking, under-fives should be encouraged to be active. There are many benefits of this including remaining physically fit, getting to know and enhancing physical abilities, honing motor skills (fine and gross) and improving coordination and balance. In addition, it helps the very young to develop visual and sensory skills. Physical activity is also part and parcel of the development of new neurological pathways in the brain. All these skills and benefits will become increasingly important as children grow, develop and become ever-more active and independent.

Exercise for Babies — Tummy Time

Exercise for babies comes in the form of light, active play. At this early age, even starting as newborns, they can begin via floor activities known commonly as Tummy Time. Here, the supervising adult places them on their stomach on a suitably comfy, safe and soft area of the floor and encourages them to move their head, arms and legs.

Close supervision is essential for your baby’s safety and, of course, the baby must always be awake when they’re in this ‘prone’ position

Allowing babies to move on their tummies will help to strengthen limbs, neck, shoulder and back muscles and also help the infant to develop their motor, coordination and visual skills. It’s also believed to help babies avoid ‘positional conditions’, including the development of skull deformations and neck problems. As we mentioned before, it even helps babies’ brains to form new neural pathways.

Tummy time should last only 3 to 5 minutes when they first start as young babies, with the infants attempting it only 2 to 3 times over the course of each day initially. As they grow towards the age of 12 months, this can be slowly increased to suit the baby’s increasing strength and physical abilities. Eventually, the baby will be able to roll over sideways in both directions, be able to sit and self-direct — and may indeed be crawling by the time they’re around 7 to 9 months of age.

Exercise for Toddlers

By the time they are toddlers (1-2 years old), they will usually have mastered all of the above and be adept at self-directing, grasping, pulling, pushing and moving around unaided. Indeed, toddlers should now be active each day for around …

12th August 2021/by Mark

Childcare, Chorley, Clayton-le-Woods, Food & Drink, Healthy Eating, Nurseries, Nursery, Nutrition, Parenting, Pre-Schools

Healthy Eating for Toddlers & Preschoolers

Eating a healthy, balanced diet is important at any age. However, during their formative years when they’re still growing, it’s even more important for under-fives. Their young bodies and brains are still developing, so getting the right balance of food types, vitamins and nutrients is essential in order to maintain optimum health, cognitive function and even sufficient energy levels. (Regular exercise is also essential, of course – however, we’ll cover that separately in a future post).

The Benefits of a Healthy Diet

The benefits of maintaining a healthy eating regime are far-reaching and important, especially for young children. At this age, it’s important for them to get into good eating habits rather than bad ones. So, setting them on the right path at an early age is essential. As well as feeding their bodies and brains with everything they need to properly develop, some of the significant benefits of healthy eating include:

Improved cognitive function and attention, with all the leaning benefits that these will bring;
Sufficient energy levels to undertake all their daily tasks;
A greater chance of avoiding certain diseases in later life, potentially including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems and even cancer;
Maintaining more even moods;
Maintaining a more healthy body weight and, through so doing, avoiding potential obesity. Avoiding becoming obese also leaves them less prone to bullying;
A greater sense of self-image and self-esteem, leading to greater self-confidence;
Overall, improved mental and physical wellbeing.

That’s a huge and important list of benefits. Advice from Public Health England also suggests that

15th July 2021/by Mark

Chorley, Chorley Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Lancashire, Nurseries, Nursery, Pre-School

Days Out Near Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley

Little Acorns Nursery School is located in Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley. This is a wonderful location with great amenities, attractions, outdoor spaces and leisure facilities all within a short distance. In today’s guide, we explore some of the more interesting places that local families can visit nearby, perhaps for a day out. There are some great ideas below and every one of them receives top reviews from previous visitors:

Cuerden Valley Park

Right alongside Clayton is the lovely Cuerden Valley Park, an award-winning natural open space. Just over a mile away from the nursery, it covers 650 acres. Its wonderful beauty includes parkland, farmland, natural open spaces, flower meadows, lakes, woodlands, the River Lostock, a huge variety of wildlife and even orienteering trails. The park also boasts its own modern visitor centre with a lovely café offering indoor and outdoor seating with hot and cold food and refreshments. Cuerden Valley Park is well worth a visit!

Kem Mill Ruins

Just 1.4 miles to the South of Clayton and our nursery, also along the edge of River Lostock, are the ruins of Kem Mill. These are just North of Whittle-le-Woods. These are well worth a visit if you like walking in the natural world, enjoy local history or are a dog-walker. The old mill’s footprints are still clearly visible and the history of it can be learned via information signs.

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum is another high quality place to visit if you live near Clayton-le-Woods or the Chorley area. It’s located just 2.3 miles from Little Acorns Nursery over at Leyland. As one recent visitor explained in a review, it’s a “fascinating museum with lots of informative display material and immaculately maintained vehicles.” These include early fire engines and vintage commercial vehicles, buses, lorries and suchlike. There are interactive displays and games, including an area for younger children and helpful, knowledgeable staff. The museum also has a nice little gift shop and also a café. It gets great reviews, so is well worth a visit.

Worden Park

Worden Park is 3.4 miles west of our nursery in Clayton-le-Woods, in the southern outskirts of Leyland. It’s an

15th June 2021/by Mark

Childcare, Chorley Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Early Years Education, Education, Nurseries, Nursery, Pre-School

Our EYFS Nursery Curriculum

The curriculum at our Clayton-le-Woods nursery adheres to what’s known as the Early Years Foundation Stage (‘EYFS’) framework. This educational framework is specified by the UK Government and its implementation is overseen and appraised by Ofsted. It’s down to individual nurseries like Little Acorns to implement the framework and we strive to do so in the optimum way. This is all achieved in a stress-free, relaxed way, almost entirely through active play. This approach makes learning natural — and immense fun!

“Children learn by leading their own play, and by taking part in play which is guided by adults.” (Department for Education).

The EYFS curriculum covers all the critically important areas of learning and development for babies (from birth) up to children aged 5. As such, it’s a perfect fit for children at Little Acorns Nursery.

The 3 Prime Areas of the Curriculum

There are 7 key areas within the early years curriculum. These include 3 ‘prime’ areas which, in turn, interconnect and enhance the remaining four — each helping to improve the other.

Communication & Language is the first of the three prime areas of our EYFS-based curriculum. Without good communication and language skills, all other areas of learning could suffer, so these are critically important skills for children to master in their early years. Staff at the nursery therefore encourage rich communications between staff and children — and from peer to peer — from the very first day they join the nursery. Language and communication skills grow naturally to children through engaging, fun activities like role-play, story-telling and question-and-answer games. High quality books and other rich reading materials are also employed by staff to read with children in an interactive way. Using these kind of approaches helps children to learn new vocabulary and grammar, to improve reading and comprehension and to almost effortlessly broaden their language and communication skills as they grow.
Physical Development is the second of the prime areas of the nursery’s EYFS-based curriculum. At this formative age, the …
Read more

19th May 2021/by Mark

Childcare, Chorley, Chorley Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods, Early Years Education, Education, Nurseries, Nursery, Parenting

Why Every Parent Should Be Involved in Their Child’s Education

Compelling evidence shows that there are enormous benefits for children when parents are closely and proactively involved in their education. Indeed, parents can be thought of as key to their children’s success, if they support children’s education in the right ways. We’ll go through exactly what that means, along with some of the many benefits, in this article.

During the earliest years of schooling … students with active parents are almost twice as likely to succeed. (Pinantoan)

Additional research also concluded that children are statistically far more successful in school when their parents “invest time and place value on their children’s education.”

So, How Can Parents Help?

Children will benefit in a multitude of ways when parents involve themselves in the child’s education. That involvement can take many forms …

15th April 2021/by Mark

Childcare, Chorley, Clayton-le-Woods, Early Years Education, Forest School, Nurseries, Nursery, Pre-School

Ultimate Guide To Forest School

Little Acorns Nursery offers Forest School sessions and, indeed, was the first childcare setting in the Chorley area to offer them. Many parents understand that ‘Forest School’ offers children outdoor discovery sessions where they can explore nature and all that the Great Outdoors has to offer. However, what’s it really about? What is the ethos behind it? How did it come about and what is its history? Perhaps most importantly, what are its benefits to children? Here we’ll answer all those questions and more, in our Ultimate Guide to Forest School.

9th March 2021/by Mark

Nursery news and interesting information

Nursery news and interesting information

Our Little Acorns Nursery Blog

Our Little Acorns Nursery Blog

Bird Feeding for Under-Fives

Children Love Feeding Birds!

Good for Birds & Great for Children

Learning to Appreciate Nature & Other Creatures

Why Nature is So Important to Children

The Benefits of Nature to Children

Attention Restoration

15-30 Hours of Free Childcare for 2, 3 & 4-Year-Olds

Free Childcare for 3 to 4-Year-Olds

15 Funded Hours for Children Aged 3-4

New Pre-School Build Nears Completion

A New Home for Our Pre-School & Forest School

Exercise & Active Play for Under-Fives

The Importance of Exercise for Under-Fives

Exercise for Babies — Tummy Time

Exercise for Toddlers

Healthy Eating for Toddlers & Preschoolers

The Benefits of a Healthy Diet

Days Out Near Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley

Cuerden Valley Park

Kem Mill Ruins

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum

Worden Park

Our EYFS Nursery Curriculum

The 3 Prime Areas of the Curriculum

Why Every Parent Should Be Involved in Their Child’s Education

So, How Can Parents Help?

Ultimate Guide To Forest School

Latest News

Little Acorns Nursery

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