I woke up this morning and could not believe it’s already the 1st of March, this year is flying by far too quickly. This month it will also be 5 months since I became a childminder, which is crazy as it does feel like much longer! Every day is always busy and full of adventure but I wouldn’t change a thing. My journey has been quite eventful with lots happening in such a short space of time. Lot of lovely new families signed to Bluebells Childminding in such a short space of time, spaces filled really quickly -much sooner than anticipated! Luckily the playroom was pretty much set up so was all ready to start as soon as I was inspected by Ofsted. However, I am forever changing things around in the playroom and want to reduce the amount of plastic and add more open ended resources. My top tip to other potential childminders would be not to rush buying things, wait and see the ages and interests of the children in your care first. I will try and get a blog post up on the playroom and why I have chosen to set it up the way I have, I am really proud of my setting and the space I have, I recieve such a lovely response from parents during visits that I feel really grateful for. My space is more educational, coming from an EYFS background it comes nartural to me to work the way I do. But, as childminders you are a home from home setting which is why parents may choose a childminder over nursery. You don’t need to have posters up or have a designated playroom, you have the luxury to work in whatever space you have as long as its safe and the required floor space (check the Early Years framework for exact measurements) and what Ofsted will want to know is how you deliver the EYFS framework not how many toys you have!

As I probably mentioned in my previous blogs, for my first year to ease my way into childminding, I am following seasons and celebrations as my themes. Both the children and I are absolutely loving all the different activites we’ve been doing and things we’ve been learning about. Also great for cultural capital! During February we have been learning about the people and things we love, we have been understanding why it is important to share and treat our toys kindly (I will warn you this blog will be full of wonderful picutres showing all the amazing things we have done this month!). Working in such a small setting you really get to know each child and learn about their charecteristics and the way they learn. You also get to see their friendships develop and help support them in play.

During the week I try to plan a couple of activites each day, this will be alongside going to groups or the park and so forth. As most the children in my care are quite young they are still learning to share and take turns so I plan acitivites where they can work on this, another advantage of group activites is the children learn from each other. We started the month off playing with ice, as it has been snowing on an off the children have been really interested in playing in snow. For some, like my daughter they may not have seen snow before or felt ice melt in their hands, so it is lovely to plan activties that gets them curious. They also liked moving the coloured ice on the table to see the marks they made -ice play was such a fun easy activity that require barely any prep. Like most of my activities. I don’t want to take my time away from the children to spend ages setting up. There are hundreds and thousands of activities like ice play that are easy to set up and that engage the child and covers some of the 7 areas of learning. Rerember, not each activity you do has to cover all the 7 areas of learning. That is not always possible.

We also regularly have circle time which normally happens before lunch or after, depends of the children’s hunger levels as they are fab at telling me they are hungry!! 🙂 I use circle time to read stories and talk about current topics, this month we’ve been really books such as ‘Guess how much I love you’ and books that talk about things we like. Circle time is great to promote communication skills, PSE and EAD development. Circle time from when I started in October to now has changed so much, I wish I had photographic evidence. The below pictures will show you how in sync the children are and how they are copying each other 🙂

Activity wise, we have also been painting love hearts on paper plates (one child even wanted to paint hearts on the snow we previously painted!). Another lovely activity was finger print dabbing on hearts that changed to using a dabber as the child did not want paint on her fingers -which shows the child is confident enough to share her own wishes and how the activity can be easily adapted. As I love baking as do the children we have done lots of baking! One of the things we made was pizza, another fab way to talk about our favourite vegetables and promotes healthy eating (another bonus). Baking elicits lots of conversations and allows you to find out more about the children’s likes and dislikes, they are also more than happy to tell you what they eat at home or out at restaurants.

My favourite activity has got to be colour sorting using the Love heart box which was a cereal box, I have done something similar for Christmas where I made a Christmas tree (see below picture). The children absolutely love sorting the lids and it keeps them busy for a long time! They also show empathy during tidy up time as I explain the importance of tidying up the lids as we don’t want a small baby to put the lid in their mouth. This gets them joining in and helping tidy up :).

During February we also had pancake day, of course we could not miss an opportunity to made pancakes! Again, we discussed favourite toppings. Aside from doing lots of baking this month we have done lots of painting, making love heart crafts, painting family members and attending a local playgroup where did lots of love activities. It has been a fun and enjoyable month, (I’ve added a few pictures below) but the fun doesn’t stop now we are in March! We have lots to look forward to in March! Firstly, we have exciting news, that I can’t wait to share within the next week or so, please keep an eye out on our Instagram and Facebook page. Secondly I am looking forward to celebrating World book day and Mother’s Day.

I really hope you have enjoyed this blog that I have written while my daughter sleeps on this sunny Sunday afternoon! I also have time to enjoy another peaceful hour (hopefully) before she gets up, secretly hoping I can add pictures and upload it before the day ends!

Love Sammi xxx