The home is a staple of an early years setting, where children can use their imagination, enjoy a home from home and re-enact events that they connect to their own experiences.
Exploring home life through imagination and play
Building understanding of the world through role play
Make-believe moments over a cup of tea
The Home Corner: A Home From Home
The home area is a familiar and comforting space where children can use their imagination to re-enact everyday experiences. Through role play, children explore relationships, emotions and routines that reflect their own lives, from caring for dolls to cooking meals and sharing play with friends.
This space supports both independent and cooperative play and allows children of all ages, from babies to pre-school, to communicate and express themselves, often without words. By observing this play, adults gain valuable insight into children’s thoughts, feelings and development.
We create a homely, welcoming environment using real-life, child-sized resources that children can access freely and independently. Having familiar objects helps children feel safe, secure and confident, supporting strong attachments and learning across all areas of development.
Inspired by Early Years Thinkers
Rudolf Steiner highlighted the importance of social and emotional development in early childhood, valuing calm, secure environments that encourage creativity and learning through doing. Similarly, Friedrich Froebel believed that imagination, creativity and joyful play flourish best in warm, trusting spaces where children feel free to explore.
Froebel also recognised the vital link between home and nursery. By creating a ‘home from home’ and working closely with families, we ensure children feel supported, understood and confident as they learn and grow.
How imaginative role play acts as a bridge between home and nursery
Our home corner gives children the freedom to express themselves and explore different roles through imaginative play. With a wide range of dressing-up clothes and open-ended resources, children can become chefs, doctors, family members, superheroes or characters from their own experiences. Simple items, like an apron or bag, spark creativity and help children make meaningful links to their home life and the world around them.
The home area is one of the most familiar and comforting spaces in the nursery. While every child’s home is unique, this shared experience helps children feel secure and settled. We create a warm, authentic environment using real-life resources such as pots, pans, tea sets, telephones, newspapers, and kitchen equipment. These familiar objects allow children to explore everyday routines in a safe and nurturing setting.
Through role play, children recreate everyday events such as cooking, shopping, caring for babies or following bedtime routines. This helps them process emotions, understand routines and manage important transitions, such as welcoming a new sibling or preparing for school. Playing together encourages communication, cooperation and emotional expression, supporting children’s social, language and emotional development.