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How can we better understand childhood learning in its historical development? How do institutions (including family) influence and shape what is possible in early childhood? As part of a wider study in an Australian community pre-school, this paper focuses on how cultural–historical methodology can be used to understand institutional influences over time. Returning to an original workplace pre-school site as a field researcher challenged thinking about apparently invisible influences of historical development. Framing this study are Hedegaard’s learning and development through participation in institutional practices model, and Vyqotsky’s cultural–historical theory. This paper uses case study data from one family for building a methodological dialectic in order to theorize practices and thereby illustrate the concept of historical childhood development.