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Honouring the quiet magic of early childhood
Fiona Alston
Jul 11, 2025
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A small hand reaches for yours. A wide-eyed child asks why the moon follows the car. A teary goodbye becomes a joyful reunion at day’s end. These are not fleeting details. These are the sacred, everyday moments where early childhood educators hold the whole world still, just long enough for trust, wonder, and learning to take root.
This is early childhood education and care (ECEC) and it is breathtaking.In centres, classrooms, and community spaces across the country, educators are guiding children as they find their voice, form friendships, explore fairness, and learn empathy.
They do this while calming babies, navigating complex behaviours, translating feelings into language, and noticing the spark of discovery in a child’s eyes before the child even knows what they’ve uncovered.
This is not passive work. It is emotionally intelligent, relationally complex, and deeply human. It’s the kind of work that demands presence, not just physical, but emotional and intellectual.
Educators are not merely caring for children; they are curating environments where identity forms, curiosity flourishes, and every child is reminded that they matter.
We must remember what is at stake.
The child who finally speaks after weeks of silence.
The child who begins to understand their right to say no.
The family who finds stability because an educator didn’t give up.
The neurodivergent child who is seen, truly seen, for the first time.
The educator who stays long after their shift to finish a portfolio, or just sit beside a child who needs to cry.
These moments don’t make headlines. But they are the bedrock of lifelong learning, resilience, and wellbeing. This is where the foundations of citizenship, compassion, and connection are laid.
ECEC is not just preparation for school, it’s preparation for life.
And at the centre of it all are educators, part mentor, part comforter, part scientist of human development. They read the room before the children enter, they plan with intention and adapt in real time, they bring songs to soothe, language to empower, and play that opens windows to the world.
Children come to early learning environments as they are full of potential, questions, and emotion. Educators meet them there, gently guiding them to discover who they are and how they fit into the world around them.
This is not babysitting, this is not business as usual, this is legacy work.
We are at a turning point, not one of panic, but of possibility and within this moment lies a choice to overlook the everyday magic of early childhood education, or to celebrate it for what it truly is, transformational, essential, and sacred.
Let us choose presence over pressure, let us value stillness, imagination, and deep listening, let us trust in the rhythms of childhood and the power of play.
Because children don’t wait, they are growing, becoming, unfolding right now and how we honour these years will shape everything that follows.
So let us hold the moment.
Let us honour the miracle that is early childhood, not just in words but in the reverence we show through action and attention.
Let us stand beside the educators who show up, day after day, heart wide open, to offer children the kind of start every human being deserves.
Our children are watching, let’s show them what it means to build a world that truly sees them, one that listens when they speak, stays when they cry, and protects them as they grow.
A world where they feel safe, heard, and valued.
A world where their voices matter, their rights are upheld, and the wild, beautiful work of becoming is honoured every step of the way.
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