Many scholars are influenced by the theoretical contributions of Lev Vygotsky. Significant post-Vygotskian scholarly writing highlights sociocultural perspectives of understanding everyday, informal learning as an important phenomenon. Ideas of participatory learning, and knowledge building through participation and inquiry, are included in the work of Barbara Rogoff, Gordon Wells and Judith Lindfors. Synthesizing their work contributes to potential shifts in understanding the ways children learn that, in turn, might influence early childhood education policies, practices and outcomes. This paper, therefore, proposes contemporary principles reflecting current ways to understand and value young children's learning, illustrated through the concept of 'working theories'. A recent construct in scholarship on children's learning, working theories recognize the fluid and changing trajectories of learning that children engage in to understand, and participate more effectively in, their lives. In this way, shifts from traditional views of young children's learning to contemporary and nuanced understandings become possible.