When I was working as a registered child minder I was always trying to think up ways of helping the children to learn through play.

One of the most successful things that I thought of was to set up an early years hair dressing salon:

I started planning this by asking the children’s parents to bring in any hair grips, slides and Alice bands that they had ( as I am a mother to 4 boys, I had no suitable items).

I then transformed my playroom for a couple of days; I made a reception/waiting area at one end by placing a few chairs, a table with an old telephone ( a toy one would also work) a notebook for a booking diary and a pen.

The other side of the room was where the hairdressing was to take place.

Important thing to ensure is that THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO SCISSORS AROUND!!

I have written this in capitals as on a training day we were told of a setting who sent up a hairdressing salon and one of the children managed to find a pair of scissors, the practitioner wasn’t aware of this and it wasn’t until later in the evening when she received a telephone call from a distraught parent, who when she had untied her daughter’s long hair plait half of it and come off in her hands ( it seems that the child with the scissors had managed to cut through the hair, but the plait had held it in place until it was released).

I hope the child had fast growing hair!

I spoke to the children and asked about their experiences of visiting the hair dressers ;a few had had their own hair cut and another child had watched her mum have a cut and blow dry.

I encouraged the children to take turns in being the hairdresser and the client, they used a brush and comb to style their hair, chatting together as they did.

I observed some great language such as long, longer short, shorter, fringe, different hair colours and one child even mentioned a pop star when talking about how she would like her hair.

Putting hair grips and slides into each others hair was great for helping to develop fine motor skills here

After styling the children looked at their creations in a mirror and discussed the results further.

In the reception area the children took turns in pretending to answer the phone and book appointments: Again I heard some great vocabulary which I jotted down to use in my observation later.

Next steps: Depending on the ages and stages of development of the children- next stages could be to plait each others hair, put in pony tails and bunches and use a spray bottle to dampen and dry hair with a towel or hair dryer under supervision of an adult.

I would be interested to hear if other settings have set up this scenario for the children in their care.

As always questions and comments are welcome.

Until next time.

Karen

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