The Bloom Room: An Early Childhood Podcast

Danica See
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Education
  • Updated Weekly

Where big feelings are welcome, tricky behaviour isn’t shamed, and early childhood educators finally feel seen.Are you an educator, teacher, or school leader navigating the messy, beautiful world of guiding children’s behaviour, emotions, and sense of belonging? You’ve just found your people.I’m Danica - early childhood mentor and consultant, and your go-to gal for honest, heart-led conversations about what actually works when supporting young children. Inside The Bloom Room, we go beyond sticker charts and surface-level strategies. Each week, I bring you fresh episodes packed with:
✨ Real, evidence-informed tools you can use tomorrow
.✨ Thoughtful chats with experts and educators doing the work.
✨ Practical guidance for supporting behaviour without shame.
✨ A whole lot of validation, nuance, and “OMG SAME” moments.Whether you're a seasoned leader or fresh out of uni, this is your space to grow, reflect, and reimagine what’s possible for the children in your care - and for yourself.New episodes drop every Tuesday.
Come on in and let’s bloom 🌼

  1. 1d ago

    EP 69 | Is Saying “Good Job” Really That Bad? When Praise Helps (and When It Doesn't)

    Come along to my online workshop on October 10: Leading Behaviour With Warm Authority. When did praising children become so dang controversial?! There’s a lot of noise around praise, from warnings about “good job” destroying intrinsic motivation to advice that we should avoid praise altogether. In this episode, I’m unpacking what the research actually tells us about praise, when it can be genuinely useful, and how we can use it as meaningful feedback without turning it into approval children need to chase. You’ll hear: ✨ Why the research doesn’t support a blanket “praise is bad” approach — and where some of the concerns around praise do have merit ✨ The difference between less effective praise like person, outcome and generic praise, and praise that draws attention to effort, process and progress ✨ Why sincerity, specificity and how praise is received by the child matter just as much as the words we choose ✨ How behaviour-specific praise can make behavioural learning visible, helping children notice the baby steps they’re making without turning praise into a tool for compliance **Very (very) mild coarse language in this episode. Praise doesn’t need to go in the bin, and neither does “good job.” When we use praise thoughtfully, it can give children useful information about their effort, choices and growing skills. Good job isn’t the problem; it just shouldn’t have to do all the heavy lifting. Let's Connect! Want to feel joy in your teaching again (and not like you're spending every moment putting out behaviour spot fires)? Join the waitlist for my course: The Behaviour Reset Want to know how to respond to baffling behaviours better? Download my free guide with 90 behaviour scripts Join me on Instagram: @littlebloom.consultancy

    EP 69 | Is Saying “Good Job” Really That Bad? When Praise Helps (and When It Doesn't)

  2. Sep 28

    EP 68 | What If We Scaffolded Behaviour Like We Scaffold Learning?

    Come along to my online workshop on October 10: Leading Behaviour With Warm Authority. What if we scaffolded children’s behaviour in the same way we already scaffold every other area of their learning? As educators, we understand that knowing how to do something and being able to do it independently aren’t necessarily the same thing but, when it comes to behaviour, we can forget this pretty quickly. In this episode, I’m taking Vygotsky’s ideas around scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development and applying them to behaviour, so we can think differently about the support children might need to meet our expectations. You’ll hear: ✨ How the Zone of Proximal Development can help us understand what children can do independently, with support, and what might currently sit outside their capacity ✨ Why scaffolding behaviour doesn’t automatically mean lowering our expectations ✨ How co-regulation, behavioural momentum, playfulness and boundaries can scaffold children towards the behaviour we’re asking for ✨ Why the same expectation can require completely different levels of support for different children (and even for the same child on different days) Behaviour deserves the same developmental lens we already bring to learning, and sometimes the most useful thing we can do is stop repeating the expectation and ask what support might help this child actually get there. Let's Connect! Want to feel joy in your teaching again (and not like you're spending every moment putting out behaviour spot fires)? Join the waitlist for my course: The Behaviour Reset Want to know how to respond to baffling behaviours better? Download my free guide with 90 behaviour scripts Join me on Instagram: @littlebloom.consultancy

    EP 68 | What If We Scaffolded Behaviour Like We Scaffold Learning?

  3. Sep 21

    EP 67 | What Are We Missing When Behaviour Strategies Don’t Work?

    Come along to my online workshop on October 10: Leading Behaviour With Warm Authority. Why can we have hundreds of behaviour strategies at our fingertips and still find ourselves wondering what the heck to actually do when behaviour gets hard? Strategies absolutely have a place when we’re working with behaviour, but having more of them doesn’t necessarily make us better equipped to support the child in front of us. In this episode, I’m unpacking why behaviour strategies keep letting us down and why the answer often lies in understanding the behaviour well enough to know which support makes sense (rather than searching for the perfect strategy). You’ll hear: ✨ Why having more behaviour strategies doesn’t necessarily leave us feeling better equipped ✨ How the expectations we hold and the labels we give behaviour shape the strategies we reach for ✨ Why a strategy doesn’t have to immediately stop a behaviour to be “working” ✨ Why behaviour being contextual means the same strategy can work beautifully one day and fall completely flat the next Strategies are useful tools, but they can’t do the thinking for us. The more we understand the child, the context and what might be contributing to behaviour, the better placed we are to choose support intentionally - without needing another strategy every time something new comes up. Let's Connect! Want to feel joy in your teaching again (and not like you're spending every moment putting out behaviour spot fires)? Join the waitlist for my course: The Behaviour Reset Want to know how to respond to baffling behaviours better? Download my free guide with 90 behaviour scripts Join me on Instagram: @littlebloom.consultancy

    EP 67 | What Are We Missing When Behaviour Strategies Don’t Work?

  4. Sep 14

    EP 66 | Firm AND Fair: Finding the Middle Ground in Behaviour Support

    Come along to my online workshop on October 10: Leading Behaviour With Warm Authority. How do we hold boundaries without becoming harsh - and stay responsive without feeling like we have to let everything go? There can be a real tension between being firm and being fair when we’re working with behaviour. In this episode, I’m unpacking warm authority and what it looks like to bring warmth and steadfastness together, so we can lead with confidence, protect children’s dignity, and respond to the child in front of us without losing the boundary altogether. You’ll hear: ✨ Why rights-affirming practice doesn’t mean children always get to choose ✨ How warmth and steadfastness work together when we’re holding boundaries ✨ Why fair doesn’t always mean every child getting exactly the same response ✨ How to work out what genuinely needs to hold (and where there might be room to flex) We can be in control of the situation without trying to be in control of children, and the more confident we become in knowing what needs to hold, where we can flex, and how to stay warm while we lead, the easier it becomes to find that middle ground when behaviour gets hard. Let's Connect! Want to feel joy in your teaching again (and not like you're spending every moment putting out behaviour spot fires)? Join the waitlist for my course: The Behaviour Reset Want to know how to respond to baffling behaviours better? Download my free guide with 90 behaviour scripts Join me on Instagram: @littlebloom.consultancy

    EP 66 | Firm AND Fair: Finding the Middle Ground in Behaviour Support

  5. Sep 7

    EP 65 | Is It Really the Child… or Is It the Environment?

    Why can a child cope beautifully in one environment yet really struggle in another? Behaviour is incredibly contextual, and the spaces children spend their time in can have a much bigger influence on behaviour and regulation than we sometimes realise. In this episode, I’m unpacking why the environment is plays a major role in our behaviour support ecosystem - and why the most useful thing we can change is often what’s happening around the child. You’ll hear: ✨ How visual and auditory input can contribute to dysregulation ✨ Why opportunities for movement matter - and what happens when children are constantly asked to contain their bodies ✨ How spatial flow and bottlenecks can accidentally create behaviour hotspots ✨ Why felt safety, relational safety and belonging shape the emotional climate of a space The more we pay attention to where and when behaviour is happening, the better placed we are to notice potential mismatches and to make small, intentional changes that can make things easier for children and educators. Please note - very (very) mild coarse language in this episode. I cover the environment in much greater detail in my guide ‘The Stories of the Space’ - check it out here Let's Connect! Want to feel joy in your teaching again (and not like you're spending every moment putting out behaviour spot fires)? Join the waitlist for my course: The Behaviour Reset Want to know how to respond to baffling behaviours better? Download my free guide with 90 behaviour scripts Join me on Instagram: @littlebloom.consultancy

    EP 65 | Is It Really the Child… or Is It the Environment?

  6. Aug 31

    EP 64 | The Behaviour Cheat Code: Understanding Childhood Temperament

    Why can two children experience exactly the same thing... and respond completely differently? Temperament gives us a really useful window into how children experience and respond to the world around them, and understanding it can change the way we make sense of behaviour. In this episode, I’m unpacking why I think temperament is one of the closest things we have to a behaviour cheat code. You’ll hear: ✨ The three broad temperament types: slow-to-warm, easygoing and spirited ✨ The assumptions we can make about each (and why we need to question them) ✨ Why understanding temperament gives us some pretty powerful predictive information ✨ What goodness of fit means and how we can adapt our support to the child in front of us The more we understand about the child showing us the behaviour, the better placed we are to anticipate what they might find tricky - and support them through it. I cover temperament in much greater detail in my guide 'Tuning In To Temperament' - check it out here Let's Connect! Want to feel joy in your teaching again (and not like you're spending every moment putting out behaviour spot fires)? Join the waitlist for my course: The Behaviour Reset Want to know how to respond to baffling behaviours better? Download my free guide with 90 behaviour scripts Join me on Instagram: @littlebloom.consultancy

    EP 64 | The Behaviour Cheat Code: Understanding Childhood Temperament

  7. Aug 24

    EP 63 | We Need to Talk About Consequences

    Consequences get a pretty bad rap in behaviour support. Sometimes, fairly so. They’re widely misused, often completely disconnected from learning, and becoming more and more punitive - but consequences and punishment are not the same thing. In this episode, I’m unpacking how consequences can have a place in rights-affirming behaviour support - and become powerful teaching tools - when we use them intentionally. You’ll hear: ✨ Three common misconceptions about consequences and accountability ✨ The difference between natural, logical and illogical consequences ✨ Why consequences are only one tool in a much bigger toolkit ✨ When logical consequences can actually support learning (and when they probably won’t) ✨ The Five Rs Framework (from Amy McReady) for creating teachable consequences If you've ever felt lost with implementing effective consequences, this one’s for you. Let's start to shift our focus from whether consequences are "good" or "bad" to whether they actually help children learn. I cover consequences in much greater detail in my guide 'Consequences Done Differently' - check it out here Let's Connect! Want to feel joy in your teaching again (and not like you're spending every moment putting out behaviour spot fires)? Join the waitlist for my course: The Behaviour Reset Want to know how to respond to baffling behaviours better? Download my free guide with 90 behaviour scripts Join me on Instagram: @littlebloom.consultancy

    EP 63 | We Need to Talk About Consequences

  8. Aug 17

    EP 62 | Who Are Your Marigolds? Finding Your People in Education

    This is the final episode of The Bigger Than Behaviour Series! There’s a lot about education that feels heavy right now, and this series has made space for that heaviness - but there’s something else I think we need to talk about: the people we move through the system with. In this episode, I’m exploring the idea of finding your Marigolds - the people who help us grow, remind us who we are when things get hard, and give us somewhere safe to put the messy parts of this work. You’ll hear: ✨ Why finding your people matters when you’re working within systems you can’t always change ✨ Who our Marigolds are - and why we need to look out for pesky walnut trees ✨ What my own experiences with both marigolds and walnut trees taught me about whose voices we allow to shape our own ✨ Why I believe I wouldn’t be the teacher I am today without my marigolds This isn’t a conversation about surrounding ourselves with positive people and pretending the hard stuff isn’t hard. Our people can’t fix the education system, and they can’t remove every barrier or answer the questions we’re carrying. BUT They can sit beside us in the messy middle without making us more hopeless. They can help us stay connected to our values, our voice, our hope, and the reasons we chose this work in the first place. Please note - very (very) mild coarse language in this episode. Read Find Your Marigold: The One Essential Rule for New Teachers from Jenn Gonzalez Let's Connect! Want to feel joy in your teaching again (and not like you're spending every moment putting out behaviour spot fires)? Join the waitlist for my course: The Behaviour Reset Want to know how to respond to baffling behaviours better? Download my free guide with 90 behaviour scripts Join me on Instagram: @littlebloom.consultancy

    EP 62 | Who Are Your Marigolds? Finding Your People in Education
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Where big feelings are welcome, tricky behaviour isn’t shamed, and early childhood educators finally feel seen.Are you an educator, teacher, or school leader navigating the messy, beautiful world of guiding children’s behaviour, emotions, and sense of belonging? You’ve just found your people.I’m Danica - early childhood mentor and consultant, and your go-to gal for honest, heart-led conversations about what actually works when supporting young children. Inside The Bloom Room, we go beyond sticker charts and surface-level strategies. Each week, I bring you fresh episodes packed with:
✨ Real, evidence-informed tools you can use tomorrow
.✨ Thoughtful chats with experts and educators doing the work.
✨ Practical guidance for supporting behaviour without shame.
✨ A whole lot of validation, nuance, and “OMG SAME” moments.Whether you're a seasoned leader or fresh out of uni, this is your space to grow, reflect, and reimagine what’s possible for the children in your care - and for yourself.New episodes drop every Tuesday.
Come on in and let’s bloom 🌼

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