There’s a moment that happens in nurseries all the time, one most adults walk straight past. A child crouches down, completely absorbed, studying a beetle making its way across the path. They’re not following the activity. They’re just there, entirely present, asking a thousand silent questions.
That moment? That’s learning. And it’s arguably more valuable than almost anything we could have planned for them.
At Little Toes, we’ve built our entire approach around the idea that children learn best when they lead and we want to explain why. It’s something we feel strongly about, and think more parents should hear.
What child-led learning actually means
Child-led learning doesn’t mean adults disappear and children run wild. It means that practitioners observe carefully, understanding what each child is drawn to, curious about, and ready for and then create an environment that feeds that curiosity.
It’s an approach rooted in the work of educators like Anna Ephgrave, whose influence shapes how we think about early years practice. The principle is simple but profound: when children choose their own learning, they are more engaged, more persistent, and more likely to retain what they discover.
The problem with always being told what to do
When children spend their days being directed to sit here, do this, now it’s time for that, something subtle happens. They start to wait for instruction. They stop trusting their own instincts. The natural curiosity that every child is born with gets slowly trained out of them.
We see the opposite when children are given genuine agency. They become problem-solvers. They collaborate. They show remarkable concentration because they chose to be there, doing that thing, at that moment.
What this looks like in our nurseries
At Little Toes, our settings are designed to invite exploration. Resources are accessible. Outdoors and indoors flow freely. Practitioners join children in their play rather than directing it; asking questions, extending thinking, gently introducing new possibilities without taking over.
Our baby room has its own private garden with an outdoor sleep area, because we believe even the youngest children benefit from the sensory richness of the outside world. Our older children have space to dig, build, make mess and make choices because that’s where so much of the real learning happens.
“But what about school readiness?”
This is the question we hear most often from parents, and it’s a completely fair one. The answer is that child-led learning doesn’t conflict with school readiness, it builds the foundations for it.
Children who arrive at school with strong self-regulation, curiosity, resilience, and confidence in their own thinking are the children who thrive. Those qualities aren’t built by drilling phonics at three. They’re built through years of purposeful play, meaningful relationships with trusted adults, and an environment that says: your ideas matter here.
A home from home
We started Little Toes because we believed childcare could feel genuinely like home; warm, unhurried, responsive to the individual child. That belief hasn’t changed. Whether your child is six weeks old or heading toward their fifth birthday, we want them to feel that nursery is a place that belongs to them.
That starts with listening to them. And following where they lead. Come and see the magic for yourself at one of our 4 locations Manfield, Bottesford, Clifton Or North Muskham.