Familiar or Similar

In my last post I walked about the difference between exploration and play. In this post I want to talk about why it’s so important to source resources for your continuous provision that are ‘familiar or similar.’

Ok, firstly let’s start off with a thought experiment. You walk into a brand-new café in your hometown. It has a totally different style than you’re used to. The tables are all fancy, there’s no counter and you can’t see any wait staff. What do you do? How do you know what to do? You could walk out because it’s confusing or overwhelming. But you’re more likely to apply previous experiences of cafes. You know you usually sit down at a table, so you do this. You know there are often wait staff to attend to you, so you wait. Whilst you’re waiting you may glance at the counter as you know sometimes people need to go up to order.  What you’re doing here is taking your previous similar experiences and applying them to this slightly different context.

Now, let’s imagine you’re providing this to a child:

They’ve never seen it before. They don’t know what to do with it. They may choose to apply affordances (more on that in the future) and throw it, whack with it, post it etc. But when it comes to using it as part of deep play (e.g. problem solving, using it for a purpose or as part of complex play), this alludes them. Why? Because they don’t know what they can do with it yet. They have to explore it, use it in different contexts and only then will play become possible.

This takes time!

Exploration is important but it can be a limiter to deeper play (such as problem solving).

Not knowing how to use an object stops a child from doing more things with it.

So, when it comes to sourcing items for your continuous provision it’s important to source items that children can get down and play with quickly. We want them to be able to select an item to use for pretend play etc. That’s where ‘familiar or similar’ comes in.

Familiar – Seen this item before

Similar – Seen something like this item before.

By providing items that are familiar or similar to children they are able to apply their previous exploration and move forward to play quickly.

Where does that leave exploration?

Children MUST be exposed to new items and new experiences otherwise they do not develop. However, I advocate for balance! I suggest that settings only introduce new items to the children as enhancements as part of their learning journey and even then, the steps between what they know, and the new item should be small

How are you going to know what’s familiar or similar?

This is where getting to know your children comes in. Through your home visits, ‘getting to know you’ forms, transition visits, conversations with parents and staff, and your knowledge of your community all contribute to this. But you’re never going to be 100% spot on. Instead, you have to use your judgement to decide what is likely to be new to the child and what is familiar or similar.

And remember, this is only for continuous provision. As you develop your space throughout your year/over time you’ll be adding enhancements based on the children’s learning journeys which will include lots of exploratory opportunities.