Exploring the Quotidian in Young Children's Lives at Home

The challenges of conducting research in the home, especially with preschool children, mean that the role of the home as a site for research is often overlooked by educationalists. Our repeat visits to fourteen families that included a three- or four-year-old child over more than a year as part of our study “Young Children Learning with Toys and Technology at Home” enabled us to develop research relationships that resulted in a 100 percent retention rate. We summarize the ecocultural framework that informed the design of our study and describe two methods for collecting data (“toy tours” and “mobile phone diaries”) that highlight issues relating to the rules of engagement when conducting research that generates insights into children’s everyday lives at home.