8. Tiffany Ross: Child-led learning and play

The Intentional Mum

"It's not our job as parents to entertain our children"

In this episode I catch up with the brilliant Tiffany Ross. Tiffany is an early years educator with over 17 years experience who helps parents to navigate the tricky toddler years with joyful child-led activities.

Tiffany shares her own parenting journey from overwhelm, exhaustion, burnout and guilt from the pressure of trying to do everything to clearing everything out, embracing minimalism and taking a child-led approach which has allowed her to bring more joy to her parenting.

If you are feeling overwhelmed by just how many different educational philosophies there are out there and don’t know where to start Tiffany shares her advice on how to pick and choose the different techniques that work for you and your child to find more joy.

We have a brilliant discussion about how to get your toy rotation right by paring this right back to a few items to avoid overwhelm (and reduce the burden on you when it comes to tidying up). We also discuss the benefits of open-ended toys, using items from around the house in creative ways and Tiffany shares her secrets for using those loud flashy toys to maximum effect to hold your child’s interest and allow you to get stuff done.

One thing I really struggle with is how to balance demonstrating an activity with giving my child the space to learn and so I asked Tiffany for her advice and she shares some brilliant tips for modelling behaviour and when you don't need to correct your child.

We recorded this before the announcement of schools going back and Tiffany gives some amazing advice about how to take the pressure off when it comes to home-schooling. And although most children will be heading back to school, the ideas that Tiffany shares to bring balance and be child-led will be invaluable if you have to continue home-schooling for any reason.

Tiffany reminds us it’s not our job as parents to entertain our children constantly. Boredom is important for creativity and giving yourself permission to take time to recharge is just as important as trying to keep up learning at home. Ditching the guilt around this is so important to ensure that you are able to fully recharge.

Finally, we discuss where to go for inspiration for activities that doesn’t leave you feeling overwhelmed or inadequate. Tiffany has some brilliant ideas for simple activities that take less than 5 minutes to set up but keep your little one occupied for long enough for you to enjoy a hot cuppa.

Things mentioned in this episode of The Intentional Mum:

• How to choose different educational philosophies that work for you
• Montessori
• Steiner Waldorf – breathing in and breathing out
• Benefits of toy rotation
• Destructive behaviour versus destructive play
• When to change up your toy rotation
• Open-ended toys – toys that don’t have a set purpose and can be lots of different things
• DIY-ing toys and activities
• What to do with single use toys and when to utilise these for maximum impact
• Whether Lego is an open-ended toy
• Lego Masters
• Parallel play – playing separately but next to each other
• Home-schooling and how to break up tasks
• Intentional TV time
• Bluey
• Looking after yourself and your mental health
• Sensory rice
• Sensory play

You can Tiffany over at www.inspirelearnteach.com and @inspire.learn.teach on Instagram.