Early Years

Children develop so quickly in their first five years of life – quicker than at any other time in their life. So, it’s important to respond to this by providing opportunities for children in the early years to play, move, explore and communicate. There are many ways to encourage this process, making it enjoyable and fun. Activity Village has a wealth of resources and ideas to help you at home or in your early years setting (with Nurseries, Day Nurseries or Childminders in mind).

Navigating Our Early Years Section

Whether you are a parent or grandparent, childminder or Early Years practitioner or home educator, we want this to become your "go to" page for finding just what you need, when you need it!

Childminders and Early Years Practitioners will be familiar with the structure of the UK Government's Development Matters publication and so we have used that as our structure too, organising our resources into the seven key areas of development and providing ideas and links to Activity Village resources where useful and appropriate.

For those not familiar with Development Matters, simply find the area of development you are interested in, look for the section appropriate for the age of your child, and choose from there. It doesn't matter where in the world you are, what curriculum (if any) you are following, or in what capacity you are caring for children - you will be able to quickly identify and find the subjects, activities and resources that will interest you.

In addition, we have a section on School Readiness. And you can navigate using our Early Years Topic Planning section too.