Going Barefoot

Babies and children often like to pull their socks and shoes off and go barefoot. We adults,  for all kinds of reasons,  (like cold, safety, custom, or because those little shoes are just so darned cute), often put them back on. If we work in an early years setting it might just seem too hard to keep finding and re-finding the socks and shoes that have disappeared again. Simpler just to keep them on.

Familiar battleground? 

Let’s face it, we live in culture where wearing shoes most of the day is the norm so we have to think twice if we are going to do something different. On many surfaces, of course, children will need those shoes on. 

Shoes have been around a long time for good reason - about 5 millions years it would seem.  Originally they  were made from animal skins.But our children’s shoes are generally made from a lot firmer stuff; a lot less flexible. So perhaps when they pull them off they are trying to tell us something. Something useful?

Lots of specialists talk about the benefits of going barefoot in developing and maintaining foot strength, stability and agility. We’ll look at that another time. Here we’re going to f