What role does the home corner play?
A carefully considered and resourced home corner will enable children to share and extend knowledge through re-enacting familiar scenarios, as well as develop imagination through creating new ideas. Yet, fundamentally, it also provides a safe haven for children to express themselves, develop their sense of self and understand similarities and differences between themselves and others. More often than not, I found the home corner to be one of the most popular areas of the environment – this may be because, particularly during transition when everything is so new and different, children seek security in familiar spaces they can connect with, which offer recognisable contexts for them to explore, share and make sense of their lived experiences. While ‘home’ will look different for every child, elements of home life are something that all children can relate to. This allows every child to become the ‘expert’ when engaged in domestic role-play, intrinsically motivating them to take ownership of their learning and transfer skills across all areas of development, in particular, their social skills, language and vocabulary, creativity and understanding of the world around them.
Changing rooms
A question I’m frequently asked by practitioners is whether the home corner should remain in place all year; a consideration sometimes conflicting with pressures to replicate adult-led aesthetically pleasing role-play spaces linked with particular topics, for example, a Travel Agents. The question I’d ask in this example is, how many of your children have actually stepped foot into a Travel Agents? (I know I certainly didn’t until the prime age of 18 when I booked my first holiday abroad!) How much of this could also be true for our children?
I too remember occasions of falling into this trap: completely renovating my home corner overnight to align with current topics of learning. I recall the hours spent designing a ‘beautiful’ space station, frantically sourcing manufactured ‘astronaut’ costumes, painstakingly attaching bottle lids to boxes to create mission control centres and consuming the world’s largest supply of kitchen foil. On proudly introducing my work of art to the children, while few did engage in the way I had envisioned, this was extremely short-lived and low-level play that lacked opportunities to expand their imagination. The vast majority completely ignored the unrealistic intentions I had imposed upon them and, instead, reverted to using the space to create scenarios linked to their own interests and experiences. The control centres became ovens to fry pakoras with Babaji, foil blankets became tents to re-enact camping trips and lids were peeled away to become coins used for shopping.
We must also consider the child who finds comfort in the familiarity of the home corner, who can’t wait to re-enact a recent family event, only to find their much-loved home corner, a place they feel safe and equipped to lead with their ideas, has been transformed into a ‘space station’ (or safari jeep or Travel Agents) that limits children’s creativity, learning potential and of which they have no desire, experience or understanding of how to engage with.
This isn’t to say that meaningful role-play spaces can’t co-exist alongside the home corner. I remember a cohort who, inspired by parents’ jobs, new family cars or trips to the carwash, were particularly interested in transport. I invited children to share their knowledge, also using non-fiction texts and video clips to enrich our collective understanding, which, in turn, ignited further interest from the children. A parent kindly came in to discuss their work as a mechanic, proudly sharing pictures, donating car parts and demonstrating uniform and tools. These valuable teaching points offered opportunities to expand children’s knowledge and vocabulary and provided an experience to base their play upon. Responding to their interest, I then involved the children in developing a ‘garage’ in our outdoor environment, equipped with open-ended resources that enabled them to explore their experiences, revisit learning and practice new vocabulary within a meaningful context. This was a successful enhancement in provision because it had stemmed from the children – it was relevant to their interests and experiences, valued and built upon their cultural capital, involved their own ideas and I had carefully considered how all children could secure a prior understanding to be able to engage with the space and interpret resources in their own way. However, the humble home corner remained a constant in their lives.
As with all aspects of provision, it is important to review the rationale behind any adjustments to our role-play zones, reflecting upon the breadth of rich learning opportunities available, children’s prior knowledge and interests to ensure all can fully benefit from what is on offer. Must we limit role-play opportunities to only one aspect of the learning environment? As a firm advocate for the home corner, I would suggest it has earned its place as a staple of our environment. Yet, it is crucial to consider how it can be developed over time to ensure challenge and engagement throughout the year in line with children’s needs, interests and experiences.
Home sweet home?
Every child brings the magic of their own individuality, and no unique cohort will be the same, therefore, it is important to contemplate how the home corner in your provision differs from that of another. To have its desired impact and offer a genuine ‘home from home’ that allows children to develop imagination, form connections and make sense of their lives, we first must establish what ‘home’ actually looks like for our children. Now, while I’m not suggesting we replicate a mirror image of every child’s home life, we should consider how the home corner promotes a sense of belonging for every child and reflects their everyday lives, so they are able to make connections with their own identity, family and community, as well as those of others.
So, what makes an effective home corner? Consider the following suggestions to strengthen the learning potential of your domestic role-play provision:
Location, location, location
Although labelled as a home ‘corner’, knowing its value in our children’s development, why should we confine it to a mere corner of the room? In my experience, simple changes to size and positioning to create more open, central spaces can transform the home corner into one of the most buzzing hubs of the classroom. They say, home is where the heart is, so why not make it the heart of your environment?
Positive representation matters!
How can children possibly feel they belong if they can’t see themselves represented? The home corner provides a wealth of opportunities to promote, celebrate and broaden understanding of diversity, including:
- Reflecting realities: Transition activities and discussions with parents/carers are great opportunities to find out more about what ‘home’ looks like for your children. Ask families to share images or items that reflect children’s cultural identity, such as mealtimes, artwork, music, family traditions or cultural celebrations. Be aware of tokenistic approaches, such as only providing certain artefacts when learning about particular festivals or celebrations. If these are familiar to a child as part of their everyday life, should these not be available within the home corner everyday rather than for one week of the year?
- Displaying family photos: Remember to ensure that every child’s family is displayed. Consider how to support parents/carers and remove potential barriers, perhaps by taking digital devices along to home visits or capturing photos at the end of the day, so all families are included and represented.
- Ask parents/carers to donate empty food packaging from home: A great (free) way to promote purposeful environmental print, while opening opportunities to value and explore similarities and differences between foods and languages used at home. Similarly, consider the packaging, imagery and resources we provide to encourage role-play linked to self-care, such as haircare. Do they reflect ethnically diverse products/items used for different hair/skin types in your cohort and wider community?
Keeping it real
If the home corner is to provide a sanctuary for children to make sense of their lives, then we need to make it as authentic as possible. Are families using tiny, plastic teacups at home? If not, why should we re-create real life experiences with pretend ones? Consider resourcing your home corner with real life objects, such as plants, lamps, kitchenware and appliances, and providing more authentic dressing up opportunities – all of which can be economically sourced through donations from families, colleagues and/or local companies. While of course this requires robust risk assessment and careful modelling to children, providing real life objects encourages curiosity, sparks imagination, extends vocabulary and promotes a sense of trust.
Thinking outside (and inside) of the box
One of the most powerful resources in my home corner was the modest cardboard box! Providing open-ended resources, such as boxes, tubes and crates, without adult-led expectations of how they should be used, gives children the freedom to be imaginative, solve problems and develop new ideas. I’ve seen these become baby baths, hospital beds, police cars or even gym equipment – the possibilities are endless! A ‘princess dress’ can only ever be such, however, a variety of fabric, old (clean) pillowcases or white shirts are open to children’s interpretation. Consider providing smaller loose parts in place of ‘play food’ - natural objects, curtain reels or blocks can be sourced without cost and become anything a child imagines them to be. I’ve observed many delightful occasions observing children utilising loose parts to recreate mealtimes with foods from home, such as pierogi, foo foo or jollof rice - providing only plastic eggs or bananas might have restricted this. The more open-ended and versatile the resources we provide, the more we encourage high levels of involvement through allowing children to interpret them in their own way, fully exercise their creativity and take ownership of their learning.
- Disclaimer: Now I’m not suggesting you return to your classrooms and immediately throw out any evidence of plastic food or commercially bought clothing - the addition of loose parts may be something you add to your home corner over time. As with all provision, use what you know about your children and their stages of development to inform the resources you provide and how these might be enriched over time to promote challenge and support skill development. Keep it simple in the beginning; less is more.
Environmental print
Should every resource in the home corner be labelled? A valid reflection, as we don’t often label every appliance or piece of furniture at home! While resources must be clearly organised, accessible and explicitly modelled so children know how to use and store them independently, perhaps consider more authentic approaches to environmental print that are meaningful to the children, linked to those we might typically find around the home. For example, pamphlets/leaflets from significant places or local events children have visited, recipe books promoting foods from different cultures, tea/coffee tins, food packaging and magazines.
Adapting over time
Being responsive to children’s ideas and interests to inform your home corner provision will support continued engagement over time. Observe how children interact with each other and available resources to consider how they might want to use the space. At a recent school visit, we noticed children transporting resources to create a ‘shop’ in the reading zone. While incredibly inventive of the children, it prompted staff to reflect on how to evolve the space and involve the children in extending the home corner with a ‘loose parts shop’, linked to their interests. The children thought of the ideas, planned it and set it up – the staff simply facilitated it. Be mindful of ways to enrich your home corner to reflect events or changes within children’s lives, such as birthday celebrations, a new baby or house move. Talk to children and families to find out about recent/upcoming events to ensure enhancements are relevant to your cohort. This can support children to make sense of big changes in their lives, as well as inspire new imaginative scenarios.
Role of the adult
Embracing times children invite you into their role-play is a perfect opportunity to stimulate new ideas and model key skills and vocabulary. You might also adopt the role of observer and facilitator, actively listening and responding to children’s play to inform future provision and extend learning further. It is important to remember the balance between child-initiated and adult-directed learning – overly setting up or dictating resources can restrict children from really taking the lead and fostering their creativity. You might provide invitations to play linked to children’s needs or interests, but make sure you allow them freedom to interpret resources in their own way. Remember, it’s not about how the space looks to the adult eye, but what it means to the children and the quality of the play, rich learning and levels of involvement it enables. Reflecting the needs, interests and experiences of your unique cohort within your home corner and involving them in developments will encourage them to really take ownership of the space and use it to its full potential as, in the words of Dorothy Gayle, ‘there’s no place like home’.
