Sarah's Blog

Characteristics of Learning

2012-01-24T17:59:00.004Z

This is going to be a key area of the revised Eyfs to be considered alongside the new 7 areas of learning and development.
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The characteristics of learning are -

• Active learning
• Creating and thinking critically
• Playing and exploring

I have looked at these 3 characteristics in mini e-book 70 which is for sale on my www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk website in the 'Professional Development' section.

I hope you find it useful :)

Mini e-books - update!

2012-01-22T12:25:00.003Z

I have spent the last few weeks reviewing and updating my mini e-books to work alongside the revised EYFS which is due for publication later this year.

It has been an exciting time because it has given me the opportunity to update everything, make sure wording is still current, change things around and spot where there are gaps in the titles I have written.

As a result I have updated the layout of the mini e-books page on my Knutsford Childminding website to reflect the changes I have made and I hope it will make buying easier for my lovely customers.

New mini e-books
I have also added some new mini e-books to my collection including…
•An updated series of continuous provision mini e-books starting with an overview of how to write CP planning (M66) – there will be more to follow!
•An updated series of themed planning mini e-books starting with an overview of how to write themed planning (M68) and some new themed planning mini e-books including circuses (M67) and wild animals (M69) – there will be more to follow!
•Children’s starting points – M59 – this one has been completely re-written!
•Settling in and initial observations – M60
•Types of planning – M61
•Retention of paperwork - M62
•Inclusion and the equality act – M63
•Policies, procedures and permissions – M64
•Observations and next steps planning – M65

If you have purchased mini e-books in the past, the numbers are still the same (though some names have changed). I am happy to send out free updates – just email me - knutsfordchildminding@hotmail.co.uk - and let me know which ones you want replacing.

I will be adding more mini e-books as soon as I have finished them. In the meantime if there are any titles you would like me to include in my collection or you spot any problems with the new layout on my website please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you! Chat soon, Sarah :-))

Group planning for childminders

2011-12-24T10:11:00.002Z

Every month through the year I write group planning for the children in my care.

Group planning is mostly aimed at children over the age of 3 who want to be involved in group activities… however I will always adapt activities to ensure all children can join in and have fun.

I write my group planning in 2 ways – continuous provision planning to cover the month and EYFS linked planning for each week.

This e-book contains my group planning for 2011 – I have also included some information about the EYFS review and how it will affect planning next year.

E-book 58 – Group planning 2011 is priced at £4.99 and listed on my www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk website.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my customers and friends a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Talk soon, Sarah xx

2012 Planning Calendar

2011-12-09T09:28:00.007Z

I have just finished updating my 2012 Multicultural Planning Calendar! Yay me!

It's a huge job and one I tend to put off but a few childminders have been asking me about it so I thought I had better get it finished.

It is a 70+ page resource - e-book number 22 on my Knutsford Childminding website and priced at £2.99.

It features quite a few new activity ideas for the multicultural and diverse year ahead.

It will hopefully provide inspiration for parents and all early years professionals including nurseries, pre-schools and, of course, childminders to plan a range of exciting and interesting activities for the children in their care through the coming year.

The calendar is used by childminders in England, Scotland and Wales as the information written for each month is relevant to all early years children, regardless of country of origin.

I am aware that the EYFS requirements are under review and will be changing. I intend to update my e-books in 2012 when the new wording is finalised. In the meantime I am still writing for the current Eyfs 2008.

If you have any questions please ask! Chat soon :-)

Finding your unique selling point

2011-11-08T18:39:00.001Z

What is your unique selling point?

A lot of childminders ask me how they can sell themselves and their provision in the currently challenging economic climate. One way is to promote your unique selling point – the key feature of your provision that makes you special.
You can use your unique selling point in your promotional literature and on your website to actively encourage parents to visit you so they can find out more.
To find your unique selling point you need to think about the things you do during the day with the children or the ways you conduct your business which make your special. We all have qualities which enable us to be the best but we sometimes struggle to blow our own trumpets – or even to recognise how special our provision really is!

Here are some ideas…

Personal development

Your passion and dedication to attend training and always try to better yourself by further reading, extra qualifications, welcoming visits from your local childminding coordinator to give you tips for improving your service etc… all of these will help you to be the best qualified and professional childminder you can be and to have up-to-date knowledge that will put you in a perfect position to respond to children’s changing needs.

Parent partnership

Parents have a wealth of knowledge about their child and business ideas from the different jobs they perform. By working with them and asking them questions and involving them in all aspects of your provision you can tap into their expertise and use it to improve your level of service. By focussing on the positives and explaining when things change parents can be moulded into valuable resources.

Outdoor opportunities

Think about your outside provision – do you have lots of resources? Does it complement the inside area? Do you have a covered area or all weather surface? Ask yourself – how does it enhance children’s play experiences?
Your outside provision should offer learning and development opportunities the children cannot access inside and should be available for use every day. If you feel your outside play provision is higher quality than others you have seen then promote it to potential customers.

Strong community links

Do you go on regular outside visits which are carefully planned and organised so children can experience a wide range of community involvement? Do you have a timetable of outings which you can share with parents to promote the experiences you offer to children? If so, talk about it in your literature and explain why it is so important that children experience close community links. This is one area of provision childminders can easily do so much better than nurseries and group provision… so promote it to parents!

Quality resources and experiences

Do you have a wide range of resources linked to children’s interests? Do you focus on one specific type of resource such as natural, Montessori, Forest School etc? If so, use it as your selling point and make sure parents are aware of the experiences you provide for their children.

Is your food provision the very best in the area? Is all your food home grown and organic? Is it cooked by a qualified chef? Do you offer a range of menu choices for special diets? You could link a sample menu to the parents page of your website or offer to send one by email on request to potential customers to help you sell your special service.

Disability friendly

Have you completed an accessibility audit and concluded that your provision is disability friendly and accessible for all children including those in wheelchairs, walking frames, hearing aid users, severe allergy sufferers etc? Do you have specialised knowledge of disability and inclusion linked to a previous job? If so, you should speak to local health visitors and any special schools or units in your local area, explain what you have to offer and ask for referrals.

Everyone has something special to offer – their time, patience, understanding, experience of working with children, knowledge of child development, play room etc. Think about your unique selling point and advertise it…

Troubled times... marketing your childminding business

2011-10-02T13:36:00.004+01:00

Many childminders are noticing that it is getting harder to hang on to clients and even harder to find new families.

This is something that is affecting all of us and with rising day-to-day running costs, less available free training, shortfalls in income if you offer the free entitlement and children’s families complaining that they cannot pay the bill it does not paint a particularly good picture for childminder sustainability nationally.

However there are some steps you can take, whether you are noticing that you need to tighten your belt now or you think you might suffer financially in the future...

• Check your prices carefully against those charged by other childminders in your local area. Try not to pitch too high or parents who are looking for a childminder based mostly on cost will go elsewhere. However do not undercut local childminders – they will not be happy with you!

. Plan ahead - if you know a family are going to leave you in a few months' time or children are due to start school in September start advertising 2 or 3 months in advance to give yourself the best possible chance of filling your space

• Consider whether you can offer a service which appeals to specific types of workers – overnight care for parents who work at night, shift work for parents who work strange hours etc. This is especially helpful if you live near a hospital, fire station etc

• Save on the heating bills - check the temperature in your house through the day and, instead of turning up the heating, ask parents to supply warm socks and layers of clothes for the children to wear. Consider how you keep the house warm when you offer free flow play to the outside area as the weather cools down

• Think carefully before raising your charges – I have heard from many childminders who say they put up their prices only to have parents take children out of their provision for a day a week to compensate

• Prioritise spending – look at the resources you already offer the children, both inside and out and what they can access on outings. Before you buy anything new ask yourself why you want it and how the purchase will improve outcomes for the children. Plan a spending budget rather than buying a few things every month – you might be surprised at how much you can reuse and recycle before reaching for your credit card

• Initial meetings - when organising meetings with potential new parents think carefully about your own children’s needs and those of minded children. Sometimes you can spend the whole meeting feeling hassled by the other children and not giving new parents the attention they need. As we know, children pick their times to play up… so think about whether you should meet when they are not present

• Reward parents who send you new customers – maybe with a little gift or a voucher. This has worked for a friend of mine and she is now full. Bribery clearly focuses the mind!

• Work with the local community – think about whether you and some childminders could team up together to advertise at local community fairs and other events. It does not take much organisation and you will raise the profile of childminding

• Save on food costs – carry out a month long audit of exactly what you buy for the childminded children, how much is getting eaten / wasted, what they really like to eat, whether they are eating for the sake of it etc. Put together a menu, with the children’s input, which reflects your findings.

You might also find it helpful to experiment with cheaper shopping – cheaper cuts of meat are lovely if they have been in a slow cooker all day; fruit and veg bought seasonally tends to be cheaper; it can be cost effective to use cheaper brands of kitchen roll to wipe hands (or cloths that are washed with the normal family washing), tissues for noses etc – although I will not compromise on my nice loo roll!

• Tart up the house – clean your front door, check your bell works, clear your hall of clutter, think about buggy storage to make things tidier, make sure your front garden has kerb appeal etc. It is important that potential new parents get a good feeling about you and your house and, according to research, first impressions really do count and are made in the initial minutes of meeting someone

• Remind parents in your newsletter that they might be able to get help with their childcare costs… they might find the website http://www.payingforchildcare.org.uk/ useful

• Late payments – the time has come to get strict! Yes, I know, we put the children first… but parents wouldn’t be able to get away with it at Tesco and you should not let them away with it either. Remind parents about your late payment policy (make sure it is written into your fees policy) and follow it rather than letting things slide

• Offer something different – shopping sessions around Christmas time or in the lead up to the child’s birthday, a regular cooking afternoon when other children who do not normally come that day can attend, yoga sessions, regular music and movement groups with other childminders and their children, craft activities with other childminders where the children can work on a much larger scale, collections from local school clubs, outings to well resourced activity sessions etc. Advertise these sessions so your advert stands out from the rest in your local area

• Some childminders offer extra services for parents – at a cost of, say, £1 per errand. If you think you can pick up or deliver dry cleaning, visit the post office to post letters, collect prescriptions, pay in cheques etc for busy working parents as part of your daily routine, while involving the children and making it into a learning experience for them, then why not consider adding it to your list of services?

• Work together with other childminders rather than against each other. You all need each other more than ever at the moment… so get together and swap numbers and talk about how you can support each other

• If you have assistants or work with other childminders remember that they are an investment in your business. Diary in short weekly training sessions to make sure everyone keeps up-to-date with the latest good practice advice and support

• Plan your marketing – whether you are busy or empty, plan to do at least 1 marketing exercise every month to keep everything fresh and updated. For example…

- January – update website, adding a new page and ensuring the information reads well. Make sure the first paragraph mentions your business and town as that part is most likely to be picked up by Google and other bots

- February – ring Family Information Service and update your advert. Read through some others first and refresh your wording

- March – put up new adverts in local shops and businesses. Decide on an advertising slogan or link in with the most popular reason why current parents use you (ask them and find out)

- April – write an advert for your local Parish or other free listing magazine

- May – send a letter to local paper about your new garden or healthy eating award or something that you have done as a childminding group or individual (make sure have you written parents permission before submitting photos)

- June – update your group photo album ready for showing new parents when they come to visit

- July – order new sun hats or brightly coloured t-shirts for the children with logos. The children can wear them and advertise you when they are out and about through the summer

- August – order new business cards ready for the start of term. Make sure the spelling, punctuation etc is absolutely spot on so they look professional

- September – take business cards round local children’s groups and pin then to notice boards or give out to parents

- October – put together Halloween goodie bags for the local trick or treaters when they come round and add a business card to each

- November – work with children to make a banner for the front wall or window which advertises your childminding service

- December – put an announcement in your monthly newsletter advertising your spaces and asking current parents to mention you to their friends or relatives

I hope you find some of the tips useful! I have written a mini e-book 35 about marketing your business which contains these and lots of other ideas for promoting yourself and the service you offer :)

New mini e-books!

2011-09-23T10:18:00.003+01:00

I have been busy writing a few new mini e-books… some in response to customer requests and others that have been on my ‘to do’ list for a while.

All mini e-books cost £1.99 and are usually between 15 and 30 pages long (sometimes a little longer). Mini e-books are for sale on my website.

The new mini e-books include –

Mini 52 – Child record book - this mini e-book contains many of the records you need for EYFS aged children and should be completed before the child starts in your care. Please email if you would like a list of contents. I can change the font on request.

Mini 53 – Child’s daily diary – for those childminders who prefer to use a loose leaf file rather than a book format when sharing daily information about children with their families. Please email if you would like a list of contents. I can change the font on request.

Mini 54 – Emergency plan review – I reviewed my emergency planning recently and put it into mini e-book format. It covers risk assessments, fire safety information, emergency procedures and much more.

Mini 55 – Infection control - childminders have a duty of care to provide a safe and healthy environment for children to play and learn. This mini e-book looks at how the requirements can be met.

Mini 56 – Organising resources – I started this before my recent outstanding inspection and my inspector was very impressed to see that I am always focussing on the future, auditing and reviewing the ways I work and improving outcomes for the children through the resources I provide.

Mini 57 – Story sets – I recently audited the contents of my story sets / sacks. This mini e-book gives ideas for contents to hopefully inspire you to make new sets or enhance current provision.

Mini 58 – Suitable person questions – I wrote this for a nursery manager who was about to undertake her suitable person interview. She said it was excellent so I thought others might find it useful.

If you have any ideas for mini e-books you would like me to write, please let me know.

Toddler checks for 2 year olds… what do childminders think?

2011-09-04T08:23:00.003+01:00

The Government is proposing, in the EYFS review, that every child in England who attends an early years setting undergoes a check at between the ages of 2 and 3 years to link in with Health Visitor checks which take place at around the same time.

The review will be carried out to check children’s development in what the EYFS (2012) recognises as the 3 prime areas…

- Personal, social and emotional development;

- Physical development;

- Communication and language.

When the checks have been carried out, parents will be provided with a written summary of their child’s development.

There are arguments for the checks… the government suggests it will enable practitioners and parents to note areas of children’s progress which need support, to provide next steps in their future learning and development.

However, there are powerful arguments against… individual children’s development is never as simple as the Government would like us to believe; appropriate training might not be accessible to those writing the checks; parents might not accept the results, saying their child does or says different things at home; the tests might become an area where parents compete against each other to ‘hot house’ their children so that better results are gained.

The consultation paper for the EYFS review is online and open until the end of September – please make your views known!

You can find it here - www.education.gov.uk/consultations.

Children and Physical Activity

2011-07-28T07:33:00.003+01:00

The Government has released new advice (June 2011) for increasing young children’s physical activity levels.

Babies and non-walking children

Encourage physical activity from birth, ensuring babies are not restricted by clothing or with straps.

Use resources and activities such as...

• Going swimming;
• Play arches to kick and hit;
• Play mats;
• Tummy time every day;
• Copying actions such as clapping hands;
• Space to roll and learn to crawl;
• Opportunities to pull up on furniture;
• Toys just out of reach to stretch out towards... etc.

When not asleep, eating or for short periods in the buggy or car seat babies should be unrestrained and encouraged to move around.

Young children (EYFS age)

Once children are capable of walking they should be encouraged to walk and move around for a minimum of 3 hours a day, spread out through the day. Time spent sitting (watching television, in a buggy or car seat etc) should be minimised.

Resources and activities should encourage active movement (not just gentle walking) and can be both adult planned and child initiated such as...

• Swimming with family or taking lessons;
• Dancing to music and joining in movement activities with songs and rhymes;
• Learning to skip, jump, gallop, hop etc in a large open space;
• Balls and bean bags for kicking, throwing and catching;
• Using hopscotch mats;
• Independently washing themselves, drying after a bath, getting dressed etc;
• Visiting the park to climb, swing, chase and run around;
• Biking or taking a scooter around the local area to post a letter or visit the shop;
• Active playing in the garden, running, climbing, jumping building dens... etc.

The most important thing for this age group is that they are moving around... as long as their environments are safe, healthy, fun, challenging, stimulating etc then they need to be have the freedom to be active.

Young children should move around more and time spent watching television, sitting in a buggy or car seat and using a computer should be limited.

Children from age 5

All children should have the opportunity to move around from 50 minutes to several hours a day.

Activity should be vigorous and physical to strengthen muscles and support strong bone development. This does not include normal walking around the house or school runs which is classed as light activity – it means something more active.

Resources and activities include all of the above plus...

• Adult led games to promote movement;
• Ball control activities;
• Running around the garden or park;
• Dance or gymnastics;
• Weekend walking activities;
• Tennis, badminton and similar games;
• Using large apparatus at school or clubs... etc.

Time spent sitting should be minimised.

Physically disabled children

I cannot find information in the report relating to activity levels and physical disability. However from experience I know that physically disabled children are more likely to gain weight than their non disabled peers so I would say best advice is to work with the child’s parents to find ways of exercising the child’s gross and fine motor muscles to promote good health.

I have a number of e-books which promote healthy living including...

E-book 6 - Outside Play £4.99

E-book 21 - Healthy Eating £3.99

E-book 31 - Outside all year round £3.99

All my e-books are available on my website - www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

More information about the Government report is available from - http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_127931

Mini e-books from Knutsford Childminding

2011-07-03T09:46:00.002+01:00

Here is a brief reminder of some of the new mini e-books I have recently written and put on my Knutsford Childminding website.

All mini e-books are priced at £1.99 and contain between 15 and 30 pages of information.

Active learning (mini 40), Creativity and critical thinking (mini 41) and The Key Person approach (Mini 50) have been written specifically following requests from childminders who are currently doing their level 3 course.

I also have an earlier mini e-book on Writing a Business Plan which was also written as a result of requests from childminders doing the course.

Recently launched information mini e-books include…

• Mini 42 – which discusses the differences between the EYFS and Childcare Registers in detail for newly registering childminders;

• Mini 43 – which features an emergency contact book, making it easy for you to record all the emergency details needed to stay legal and keep children safe;

• Mini 46 – if you employ a cleaner this mini e-book will give you all the necessary information and paperwork to do so legally;

• Mini 51 – this is the hardest thing I have ever written about because of the emotions involved. It aims to help you support children who are seriously ill or dying and children coping with death.

To help you do your job…

• 45 – which looks in detail at writing summary reports for the children;

• Mini 47 – covers everything I can think of to do with choking. This is a very topical subject just now following the sad death of a child from choking recently.

Recently launched activity mini e-books include…

• 44 – The Community which looks at community outings including ideas for writing risk assessments, continuous provision planning and making the most of outings with children;

• 48 – Gardening, children and the EYFS. This fun mini e-book is packed full of gardening activities for the children to take you through the year;

• Mini 49 – Messy Play is a great fun mini e-book containing hundreds of messy play activity ideas at a minimum cost. Roll up your sleeves and join them getting messy in the garden this summer!

Thank you to all my customers for their continued support!

June 2011 update - new e-books

2011-06-12T09:15:00.002+01:00

I have just launched 4 new e-books…

52 Inclusion and the EYFS £4.99

Inclusion is a very important part of everything we do as childminders. This e-book is in 2 chapters... the 1st talks about barriers to inclusion and discusses ways childminders can comply with current legislation and be inclusive.

The 2nd chapter features a comprehensive inclusion audit with questions and suggestions to help you examine and improve your current practice.

At the end of the e-book you will have built an inclusion evidence file which will support you to share your commitment to being an inclusive provision with children’s families and Ofsted.

53 Working with boys £3.99

Do boys need the same challenges as girls? Or are they really from a different planet? This e-book explores the differences and similarities and helps you to plan for their individual needs.

54 My childminding portfolio £4.99

I have recently completed a full review of my childminding portfolio (operational plan) so that it is set out in alphabetical order… and I am very pleased with it. My Ofsted inspector liked it when she was here recently too!

Chapter 2 contains a range of information sheets for parents which cover all areas of provision and help to evidence working in partnership.

55 Safety planning through the year £3.99

A look at various safety themes from January to December – lots of advice for planning activities for children and writing risk assessments.

I hope you find them useful :-)

2011-05-19T09:30:00.005+01:00

Hello everyone, we hope you are having a good May.

What a month we are having so far!

After a long wait, we have had our Ofsted inspection and (subject to the usual checks) are proud to say that we have retained our grades – I am still outstanding and Nige is still good… but this time with an outstanding element to reflect the huge contribution he makes to our healthy living ethos!

We are absolutely delighted with the outcome and would like to thank the inspector who was lovely and made the whole experience very relaxed and almost easy! The children were totally brilliant on the day and we couldn’t have done it without any them.

I also have a new article in Child Care magazine … ‘Preparing for your Ofsted inspection’. It was so funny when the editor approached me to write the article and there I was, getting things ready for my own inspection. It is the first in a series of articles, featuring comments from other outstanding providers through the country as well as my own words of wisdom. I hope the articles will help all childminders to approach their inspections with confidence.

I have been working with Pauline, the owner of the Childminding Forum to set up a new competition to give away a copy of my latest e-book, ‘Inclusion and the EYFS’. It is my 50th e-book… which would never have been written but for the support of my family and customers, all of whom are wonderful. For more details of the competition and entry conditions, please see the Competitions section of the forum (members only). Closing date for entries is 5th June 2011.

We hope the rest of the month is uneventful… otherwise we will peak too early and be totally giddy by half term!

Chat soon, Sarah x

Happy May!

2011-05-08T18:36:00.004+01:00

Hello everyone! I feel a little bad... I have neglected my blog recently.

My only excuse is that I have been busy preparing for my long overdue Ofsted inspection which I am sure can't be far away - unless they have forgotten about me!

I have also been writing a new series of articles for a major magazine and I am very excited that my name is going to be in print soon!!

I haven't forgotten my lovely e-book customers and there are some exciting new e-books coming soon. In the meantime I have finished some mini e-books which I have just uploaded onto my website.

Mini e-books are short and sweet (typically 15 - 30 pages of text). They answer questions and talk about specific subjects. Customers tell me they are useful for doing course work as well.

The mini e-books I have just finished include...

M43… Emergency contact book - all the emergency paperwork you need to stay legal and keep the children safe;

M44… The community - all about community outings including ideas for risk assessments, continuous provision plans etc;

M45… Summary reports - a lot of childminders write summary reports for children… here are lots of ideas for what to write.

Enjoy! I hope to have more time to dedicate to finishing off my e-books soon. In the meantime thank you to everyone for their support.

xx

New illustrated e-books!

2011-03-21T10:43:00.004Z

I have been working hard to finish a new batch of illustrated e-books.

There are 10 illustrated e-books in the library now.

All e-books are for sale on my Knutsford Childminding website.

The new ones I have just finished are...

IEB 6 Shapes planning
This is a huge (9 chapter) resource full of pictures and activity ideas to teach interested children all about shapes. Sarah our illustrator has drawn some cute shape people which will bring a shape project alive for the children.

IEB 7 Number planning
I find the EYFS learning and development area of PSR&N the hardest to include in my planning because I am not a natural number person… so it’s the area I have focussed on most and spent the longest time researching. This e-book will help you to offer high quality number activities to children and to put up displays which will ensure they play in a number rich environment.

IEB 8 Alphabet planning
The children will love Sarah’s illustrated alphabet… and the fun dot to dots which use her pictures… and you will love the activity ideas for each letter of the alphabet which will make your planning much easier…

IEB 9 Nursery rhymes
This is a favourite subject of mine… and Sarah has drawn some lovely pictures to complement 11 chapters of nursery rhyme planning. Each rhyme has an illustration which the children can use to build up a book of rhymes, absolutely unique to your provision.

IEB 10 Nature projects
Over the last few years I have done a number of nature projects with children of all ages including butterflies, ant farm, wormery, planting and growing sunflowers. I have used photos in my own project display books… but Sarah has kindly illustrated them for me so that I can share them with you! You will find lots of ideas for putting together a nature project of your own and lots of inspiration for involving the children.

If you want any more information about the illustrated e-books please email me knutsfordchildminding@hotmail.com and I will be happy to help.

Chat soon! Sarah :-)

Worries about changes to the EYFS

2011-03-18T09:05:00.002Z

I have had quite a few messages from worried childminders asking me what will happen if the EYFS changes as a result of the current review.

There are all sorts of rumours flying around about what might be in the review when it is published.

From what I understand there will be a period of consultation before anything happens which will give us plenty of time to digest the changes and put new practices into place.

I would like to reassure my lovely customers that we will work together to make sure everything goes smoothly.

As soon as any changes to the EYFS are confirmed I will check them out and update my e-books so that customers have access to the latest information as quickly as possible.

There are always wonderful forum members on the Childminding Forum who share their knowledge as well so nobody needs to worry.

I will advertise when I have updated e-books on the forum and here on my blog so that people can email me and ask for a new version of their e-books - just keep an eye out and your e-books will never be out of date.

If anyone is concerned they only need to ask!

Childminding for deaf and hearing impaired children

2011-03-12T15:41:00.002Z

I have written the following article as a guest post on the Baby Sign Language blog.

It is written from the point of view of a parent searching for an inclusive childminder. However, I thought it might be of interest to childminders who are considering how they might offer an inclusive provision for children with hearing disabilities.

Choosing a childminder

Hello! My name is Sarah Neville. I have been working as a registered childminder for the last 17 years (currently graded outstanding by Ofsted)... and in a past life I qualified as an Educational Audiologist. I am delighted to be asked to write a guest post for Baby Sign Language blog.

How do you choose a childminder for your child? It is a hard enough question when your child has normal hearing, but when s/he is born with a hearing impairment or is deaf it can be a much harder question to answer. All parents feel torn when they make the choice to go back to work – they know that financially or to further their career it is the right decision but they also worry.

Parental guilt is normal! Only parents know their child well enough to understand every nuance of their body language and to recognise all their attempts at communication. However, parents can find a childminder who is ideally placed to care for their child... they might just need to visit a few different ones first and see who is out there with vacancies.

Your future childminder must be interested in you and your child. At the initial interview and throughout your time with the childminder s/he should ask you lots of questions about your child’s needs, including how communication with your child is best achieved. S/he should also be happy to access alternative communication methods so that s/he can understand what your child is asking for... including attending courses and learning your child’s sign language.

Some years ago I put together an illustrated book called ‘My favourite things’ for a child who suffered from regular bouts of glue ear. It helped her to ask me for drinks, toys etc and allowed me to ensure her essential care needs were met when she was feeling under the weather with sore ears or not confident enough to speak to me.

Other things to check for in your future childminder’s house include hard surfaces so sound bounces, a calm quiet atmosphere (we know that most children have tantrums, but watch how the childminder deals with them), good lighting so your child can see clearly to develop lip reading skills and lots of outings through the week so your child is socialised with others.

You must feel confident and comfortable with your future childminder and this will be built up through a series of meetings including settling-in sessions for your child. Always ask about settling-in at the interview stage – you should be offered at least one session of a couple of hours so the childminder and your child can get to know each other while you hopefully spend some special time doing something just for you. If you need more sessions – ask for them!

Parents can help childminders to have the best possible relationship with their child... they can share information about their child’s home life... they can pay on time and be prompt... they can let their childminder know when their child has said or done something new... they can keep their childminder updated about medical and other appointments... they can involve their childminder in their child’s life.

If you have any concerns about choosing a childminder which I have not covered, please feel free to contact me via my website.

Happy February!

2011-02-23T18:45:00.003Z

Well the weather has been better I suppose... at least we are not slipping and sliding and worrying about getting out on the school run and into the garden. It was surprisingly warm today and the children had great fun playing in the bog that used to be my lawn.

I have been busy writing mini e-books recently to support childminders who tell me they are struggling with their level 3 courses. I have written a comprehensive business plan mini e-book already and added two more to the range...

Mini 40 – Active Learning (4.2)

Mini 41 – Creativity and Critical Thinking (4.3)

I thought about other subjects that I have been asked to write things on recently and have added 2 more e-books which are new for February...

Mini 39 - Zoning the outside area
A lot of childminders tell me that they find it difficult to manage the needs of different ages of children outside. If you have problems with the footballers knocking over towers and the painters decorating the tent, zoning might be the way to go!

E-book 51 – Money matters £3.99
Everything you ever wanted to know about income and expenses! This e-book includes paperwork samples, explanations of how to keep accurate records, ideas for recording income and expenses and lots of other financial information. All information has been checked as accurate with HMRC. However information is changed /updated regularly so I have also given references of where you can go to find new details as they change.

I hope you are inspired!

I am working on my big 50th e-book at the moment - it is nearly ready. I will be launching it via my favourite forum - www.childmindingforum.co.uk.

Watch the competitions section for more details.

Talk soon :)

Childminding Assistants

2010-11-01T14:47:00.002Z

More and more childminders are taking on assistants to work with them.

The assistant might help out with deliveries and collections of children so the childminder can cover 2 settings or the assistant might be around at a busy time of the week and contribute to the general running of the provision while playing games and supporting the children’s learning and development.

Assistants can be a real boost to a childminding provision, offering a second pair of eyes on outings and giving their input into planning, observation, risk assessments etc.

However, employing an assistant is not as simple a process as it might first appear and there are many areas which must be considered before an assistant starts working with you.

I have written this e-book from the point of view of the childminder who wants to employ an assistant and who wants to simplify the process as much as possible while ensuring s/he meets all the statutory and legal requirements.

I would like to thank Denise for her input and support in the initial stages of writing this e-book and for sharing paperwork with me.

The e-book is priced at £3.99 and is available from my www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk website.

Thank you!

Children and thinking

2010-10-21T20:39:00.004+01:00

Do you give children time to think?

‘What an odd question’, I hear you say.

’Of course children think... I spend all day chatting to them, asking them questions, showing them new things, playing with them, taking an interest in their toys and games...’

Yes, I know all that, but do they have time to really think?

Go back over today...

Did you give each child choices ... and wait for them to answer... and then follow what they said...?

What about the child who takes forever to make up her mind? Did you ask for her choice or decide on her behalf because it was quicker and you were in a rush?

Did you ask children to tell you about their favourite part of the day? Did they have an opinion or a story to tell you?

Did you ask them the question at a time in the day when you had nothing else to do but sit and listen to their answer?

Did you leave children to play their own games for a length of time, without asking questions or getting involved?

If you can answer yes to the above then you are respecting each child as an individual with a valid opinion and giving them time in the day to think.

----------------------------

Here are some more questions to help you examine your practice...

If a child was playing with the doctor’s kit and making all the animals better what would you be more likely to do..?

1. Leave him to play because he is having fun;

2. Go over and chat to him because you feel you really should explain the differences between doctors and vets;

3. Interrupt his game to show him where the pad and pencil are located in case he wants to write a prescription.

If a child comes to you with a conker what would you be more likely to do...?

1. Ask him to tell you the colour of the conker;

2. Comment on how shiny and smooth the conker is and encourage him to feel it with his fingers;

3. Ask him where he found the conker and listen to his story about a weekend spent in the woods with his daddy.

At story time one child tells you he wants to carry on playing with the Lego. Would you jolly him along with promises of Lego later so that he comes and joins you ... or would you respect his wishes and leave him to play?

----------------------------

Giving children time to think is not just about asking questions.

In truth I think that sometimes we all ask far too many questions and interrupt children’s play too often to follow our own agendas!

Giving children time to think is about our own listening skills... how have you used your listening skills today?

Why not try using them a little more every day? :-)

The Equality Act 2010 and childminders

2010-10-11T11:47:00.002+01:00

The Equality Act 2010 affects...

• All childminders;

• All early years providers including Nurseries, Playgroups, pre-schools etc;

• Childminders (and early years providers) who employ others, including assistants;

• Childminders who work together with other childminders.

The Equality Act 2010 is law in England, Scotland and Wales and draws together the contents of a number of previous documents including the Disability Discrimination Act.

The Equality Act 2010 says that everyone has a legal duty to be inclusive, which means that, as childminders, we must offer an inclusive service to children, their families and any visitors to our homes.

The Equality Act 2010 also says that everyone must be anticipatory... we must not wait for something to happen or someone to knock on our door looking for care before thinking about how the Equality Act might affect us.

This new e-book is written in the format of an inclusion audit - an audit is a type of reflective practice. The audit in this e-book gives you an easy way of checking your current commitment to equality and considering how you might be more inclusive in the future.

I have spent time examining the Equality Act in detail and I have included lots of background information and support to help all childminders and early years providers get to grips with the Act.

E-book 47 – The Equality Act 2010 - £4.99

Happy reading :-)

Eyfs - 2 years on

2010-09-30T19:00:00.001+01:00

We are discussing the EYFS – 2 years on at the moment on the childminding forum - www.childmindingforum.co.uk. A group of new and established childminders are thinking about life before and after EYFS and considering its effect on our working practices and our lives in general.

The consensus seems to be that we are happy to have a clearly defined document to follow, which gives us a clear way of working and a set of standards we can embrace. Most childminders say that they enjoy using the EYFS and feel that is has raised outcomes for all children.

Some childminders comment that the EYFS has allowed them to work in much better partnership with other settings (the parent partnership requirements were already securely in place in most instances). However, working with other settings is made harder when the other settings are disinterested in hearing what the childminder has to say or when they treat the childminder as a babysitter.

Indeed, many childminders comment that many other early years professionals still see them as ‘babysitters’ rather than professionals on the same level. This makes childminders very frustrated as many have re-trained, taken courses and updated their knowledge with internet research (and buying my e-books!) so they can fulfil the EYFS requirements.

However, many childminders clearly have some grave concerns about the EYFS. These are mostly related around the amount of time it takes many childminders to fulfil the statutory and guidance requirements of the EYFS. Paperwork is usually only do-able in the evenings and at weekends due to caring for various ages of children during the day who need our constant attention. This means that family lives are suffering as a result.

Many childminders comment that they wish Ofsted were consistent about their expectations during the inspection process. There are outstanding childminders who do very little paperwork... while other childminders graded good have been told to improve their practice by doing more paperwork! Similarly the requirements of the EYFS say that the Self Evaluation Form (SEF) is not a statutory requirement, yet childminders are being told to improve by completing their SEF ready for their next inspection!

Many childminders have stories to tell about inconsistencies from Ofsted and I feel, having read all the comments, that this is the biggest worry for most... are they doing enough? Are they doing too much? What is enough and will 2 Ofsted inspectors ever agree on the subject?

It will be interesting to see what the Tickhill review of the EYFS throws up and whether the Government tells Ofsted to be more consistent about their expectations so that childminders can be trusted to carry on doing what we do best – play with children :-)

Information Commissioners Office

2010-08-29T20:35:00.003+01:00

Childminders have been told that we are now classed as 'data handlers' if we use a computer or digital camera to hold information about childminded children or their families.

Since most childminders take photos of childminded children to help meet the statutory requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (Eyfs) it affects us all.

So, I duly paid my £35 annual fee to the Information Commissioners Office and I can now use my camera, computer and any other digital devices to hold information about the children.

Now this is something I do not quite understand... before I paid this fee, I used to take photos, immediately print them and then delete...

Now I can take photos, store them on memory sticks, put them on my computer, upload them (with parents permission), send them online for printing etc.

Similarly, before I paid this fee, I never used my computer to process information about children, it was all done by hand.

Now I am busily typing up reports, summary assessments etc and preparing my invoices and other forms on the computer before printing.

While this has undoubtedly made my life easier and speeded up the monthly paper production process, I am doing far more on my computer and camera than ever before... and I am at a complete loss to see how paying £35 has made things safer for children!

If anyone can answer that one, please let me know!

Talk soon xx

Information for new childminders

2010-07-29T08:30:00.005+01:00

Since writing my e-book 42 'Registration advice for new childminders' I have received a number of emails from new and potential childminders asking me for follow-up e-books explaining other areas of the registration process.

For this reason, I have put together a series of 3 mini e-books, which are priced at £1.45 each and which cover...

Mini 34 - Writing a business plan;

Mini 35 - Marketing your business;

Mini 36 - Meeting with parents.

The 3 mini e-books follow on from each other and give essential advice on everything from business planning to getting your marketing right to welcoming parents and children into your home.

The 3 mini e-books are available from my websites...

Knutsford Childminding and Knutsford Childminding.

I hope you find them useful :)

A year of my Learning Journey!

2010-07-14T14:47:00.005+01:00

I have been having great fun putting lots of my observation, assessment, planning and other forms into a format which can be used to print off a child's Learning Journey through the year.

Everything is illustrated with lovely pictures from Sarah our Knutsford Illustrator.

The Learning Journey is a full year of forms, with monthly illustrated header sheets and lots of little extras. If you do not like one format of form, you can choose another... there are lots of options!

This is a totally flexible way of working... not something pre-bound that you struggle to fill in or complicated documents that someone gave you and you're not sure how to use. You can tailor this e-book to meet the needs of the child, whether they come 1, 2 or 5 days a week.

It is post only as the files with illustrations are huge. I have priced it at £7.99 including p & p.

If you would like more information about the contents and sample pictures to help you make up your mind, please email me - knutsfordchildminding@hotmail.com - for more information.

Illustrated e-book 5... A year of my Learning Journey... is available from my Knutsford Childminding website.

I have made it with the intention of using it myself... and I have to say I am really pleased with how it has turned out! :-)

Inclusion, childminders and the EYFS

2010-07-04T12:09:00.003+01:00

Inclusion forms a big part of the EYFS.

Most childminders have been approached at some point in their working life to care for children with conditions ranging from eczema to ADHD, from asthma to threadworm.

This e-book aims to support you in effectively caring for these children ... I have done the research for you so when you talk to the parents you will already have some background knowledge of the child’s condition.

I have also included information about how to write a care plan and how to effectively manage a child's condition while meeting the requirements of the EYFS.

Please remember that every child is different and parents know their child best.

There are over 100 pages of information laid out over 3 chapters... and I will research any conditions for you if you need more information, just email me - knutsfordchildminding@hotmail.com.

I know that nobody will need all the information included in this e-book every day, so I hope I have priced it for buying as a useful reference book to keep in your files and dip into when needed.

This new e-book is priced at - £3.99

It is available from my website... my e-books are now set out over 4 pages!!

Thank you! :)

Hello again!

2010-06-30T19:30:00.001+01:00

It’s been an eventful few weeks here at Knutsford Childminding!

We came back from a wonderful holiday rested and refreshed and full of new ideas for activities for the children and things to do in the garden to enhance provision during the warmer months.

My partner, while sharpening a knife, managed to cut the tendon in his thumb... so that’s him off work now for 10 weeks! My daughter has finished her exams and is now home until September... the house is more cluttered than usual with bodies but at least the mindees are getting lots of play experiences and attention from a range of adults!

I have been working on a new e-book on the popular theme of transport, which is now finished and on my website. I have also tackled the subject of listening to children... and found it absolutely fascinating.

I had never properly realised before the huge difference between asking children a question and nodding to their answer and really listening to what they are saying. Really listening takes a lot more concentration and time than simply nodding along... it also means feeding back when they have given their opinions and asking again to ensure they feel fully involved in the things that are going on around them.

I hope I have shown in the e-book how my involving the children in their own learning and development by using my new listening skills has reaped big rewards for everyone.

We lose 2 children at the end of term... we will miss them!

We are hoping to find some new mindees to join us soon. In the meantime I will concentrate on a new e-book about boys and how best to support their learning and development.

Speak soon! :)

Learning and play for children age 3 +

2010-05-21T09:46:00.001+01:00

Little ones need care, play and learning... slightly older children need learning, play and care.

Do you see where I am coming from?

As children get older and mature into their secure routines, they start to look to us for more challenge, further mental and physical stimulation and increased opportunities to use their imaginations.

They are less reliant on adult support but they still need us to make sure the environment and resources meet their needs.

What we need to be doing is to offer them secure, safe, healthy learning opportunities, through play... and this is what I have tackled in e-book 43.

It is on my Knutsford Childminding website, priced at £3.99.

Thank you! :)

New mini e-books for sale!

2010-05-03T10:30:00.004+01:00

I have added some new mini e-books to my range.

Mini e-books cost £1.45 each and are available for sale here...

Knutsford Childminding or here...

Knutsford Childminding

Mini 30 – Childminders and risky play

It is hard as a childminder to balance the needs of a child getting hurt against the warnings we are receiving that if we do not allow children to engage in risk we are damaging their chances of being able to cope in the outside world.
I have examined the pros and cons of risky play in this mini e-book.

Mini 31 – Den building

I have given lots of hints and tips for how to resource, plan and enjoy den building activities with children, including how to write den building risk assessments.
I hope I have inspired!

Mini 32 – Planning a theme

I am asked by a lot of childminders how to plan themed activities for the over 3s in their care. This is a step-by-step explanation which aims to make themed planning more straight forward. It includes sample completed and blank paperwork. I have used the theme Planting and if it is popular I will do more through the year.

I hope you find them useful! :)

Manchester Early Years exhibition 2010

2010-04-16T11:34:00.004+01:00

I am very much looking forward to attending the Early Years exhibition again this year!

Last year was great fun, meeting up with childminders from all over the country and walking round the stalls, chatting to different people who were all very enthusiastic about their products.

The exhibition is free of charge and open from 10am on the Saturday (it's open Friday as well).

There is more information about the stalls, location, seminars etc here.

If you are going to be there, I will be wearing my Knutsford Childminding sweatshirt.

Please do come over and say hello!

:-)

Weather planning for childminders, nurseries, pre-schools etc

2010-03-21T16:54:00.004Z

Look what we made today!

All the children were involved in printing, decorating and laminating the little tigers and they will take it in turns to change the weather display cards, depending on what is happening outside.

The weather chart is just one of the activity ideas in this e-book that has been written by me and illustrated by Sarah Batty, a Knutsford Childminder.

All the activity ideas are fully illustrated and follow the 6 areas of learning and development of the EYFS. Activity ideas include...

- A range of planned activities for different types of weather conditions;

- Communication, language and literacy games to engage the children and to help you meet CLL requirements;

- Weather banners to display in your setting;

- Problem solving games to engage the children and to help you meet PSR&N requirements;

- A lovely selection of weather colouring pictures;

- Ideas and pictures which can be used for outside weather displays;

- A range of unique games and activity suggestions designed by the author Sarah Neville and illustrator Sarah Batty, which you can use with the children;
- A weather chart to make with the children;

- Weather songs and rhymes sheets and extension activity ideas for many of the songs;
- A set of 4 seasons banners to display with your weather chart;

- A set of multicultural weather banners... and much more!

This e-book is dispatched on a CD within 48 hours of purchase... it is currently advertised on EBay (Knutsford Childminding) and will be appearing shortly on my Knutsford Childminding website.

Illustrated learning journey for the EYFS

2010-03-12T16:08:00.003Z

IEB 1 Illustrated Learning Journeys for the EYFS is written by Sarah Neville (Knutsford Childminding) and illustrated by Sarah Batty (a Knutsford Childminder).

This learning journey covers 10 fully illustrated chapters, taking the child from first to last day with you.

It is a professional way of presenting information about a child’s learning and development and will make a lovely keepsake for parents to treasure.

This illustrated learning journey is suitable for childminders, nurseries, pre-schools, playgroups and playworkers who work with children within the EYFS.

The learning journey will be available in different fonts, to suit your way of working.

You will be able to order either Comic Sans or Century Gothic or ‘other’. If you want ‘other’ you will be able to state which font most suits your needs at the time of ordering and I will re-design the forms for you.

The contents of the Learning Journey are as follows...

1 A range of illustrated header sheets for your learning journey folders;

2 All about me documents;

3 More all about me documents;

4.1 Children’s starting points within the EYFS information;

5.1 & 5.2 EYFS information for each child’s file by age and stage of learning and development;

5.3 EYFS ages and stages in a tracker layout;

6 Sheets for your observations;

7 Assessment and planning sheets;

8 Summary report sheets;

9 Sheets you can use to record special moments and the voices of the child, other settings and the child’s family;

10 A transitions document to share with the child’s family and next setting.

This illustrated e-book will be posted as the file sizes are too big for email.

It costs just £9.99 including FREE post and packing.

Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy PSRN

2010-03-12T16:02:00.000Z

New e-book!

This is one of the areas of learning and development I get asked most questions about... mostly from practitioners concerned that they do not know enough about ‘maths’ to effectively support children’s learning and development.

Over 4 chunky chapters, my aim in this e-book is to help dispel the myth that you need to have a maths qualification to support children’s learning and development in PSR&N. All activities follow the ages and stages of development information in the EYFS guidance and are based on children’s play.

Listed on my website £7.99

Enjoy!

Making a den

2010-02-23T20:35:00.001Z

There is a bit of unused space in between 2 computer desks and I have often wondered what to do with it...

I have not previously encouraged children to use it because it has printers to the side and some cables to the back of one of the desks which, while not risk assessed as dangerous, didn’t make it a particularly inviting space.

After some thought, Nige made me 2 wooden sides for the computer desks which removed the issues of the cables and printer and left a small rectangle of usable space.

At Early Excellence in Huddersfield, I received a voucher to purchase resources and decided to buy some pretend grass and a large woven circular (quite shallow) basket. I also bought a large ethnically inspired cushion from a local shop.

I then found a length of green net material which can be draped across the space and held in place by the computer monitors so it is easily removed when not in use.

My thought was to set up the space and see if the children were interested in exploring it with any resources. The first child to go in there is aged nearly 3. He took a train, block and teddy with him and curled up for a short while playing with his toys. This sparked interest from the other children who wanted to see what he was doing.

Over the next few days a few other children explored the space, taking various resources with them. A 5 year old sat and read her school book in there and another 5 year old introduced the caring, cosy side of the space by bringing a tired dolly who needed some peace to go to sleep.

Inspired by the children’s enjoyment of the newly created space, I decided to see what might happen if I introduced some resources for them.

I popped a soft bodied doll, small baby blanket, sensory doll book (from the ‘That’s not my...’ series) and comb into the basket I bought from Early Excellence to see what would happen.

Very quickly, the doll had a friendly dinosaur to play with and she was untucked from her blanket because she wanted to read the book. Since then she has been asleep and awake as various children have played with her – yet when she was in a box with a group of other dolls, she was largely ignored.

Next week I intend to put some other resources into the basket and see what happens!

Happy days! :-)

Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy and the EYFS

2010-01-13T19:54:00.004Z

Happy New Year 2010!

Well we're 2 weeks into 2010 already... my resolution to do less work and re-find some me-time has gone down the pan and I think I have my first cold coming on!

On the writing front, I am having fun putting together an e-book about Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy. In the process, I am learning lots of new things about myself and my own relationship with numbers.

I think a lot of us feel that we cannot 'do maths', often because of poor teaching at school and this rubs off on our attitudes to how we involve the children with counting and numbers...

Many childminders have told me they simply do not feel confident enough themselves with numbers, weights, time, measures etc to do activities with the children.

Yet most of the activity ideas I am suggesting in my PSR&N e-book happen during normal, daily play and involve the most basic skills... counting out fruit for snack, role playing supermarkets and adding a cash register, experimenting with egg timers etc.

It should be finished soon! When it is I will pop it on my website...

How will I ever have more time to myself when my head is buzzing with so many ideas? *shakes head in dismay and puts new Diana Gabaldon book back on shelf* LOL!

All the best to you and yours... I hope 2010 brings you health and happiness.

Sarah xx

Knutsford Childminding 2010 planning calendar

2009-12-18T09:23:00.002Z

Hello! I just wanted to let you know that I have updated my planning calendar for 2010.

If you have a 2009 version of the Knutsford Childminding planning calendar there should be an email update on its way to you. However, some of the email addresses in my address book don’t work any more, so please send me a message if you haven’t received it and I will send the update out to you again.

All Knutsford Childminding updates are sent out free of charge. I have recently found a number of my updates for sale on EBay. Please can I respectfully remind customers of my copyright statement –

Please note – by ordering and accepting receipt of these e-books you are deemed to have read and understood the information about copyright violation detailed on my website. If you have any intention of sharing my work with any other person, whether for profit or not, please contact me first or you will be breaking the law. Any breach of copyright may be followed up with legal proceedings.

More detailed information about Knutsford Childminding copyright can be found on my website – www.eyfsforchildminders.webnode.com.

Thank you to all my customers for their support during 2009. I look forward to hearing from you all in 2010!

I would like this opportunity to wish you all a peaceful festive season and a happy and healthy new year!

All the best, Sarah x

www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

HACCP - food health and safety for childminders

2009-12-01T19:28:00.003Z

A HACCP document shows that childminders are complying with all the relevant food hygiene and safety requirements. It is not a legal requirement to have a HACCP document, but it is a legal requirement to show that you are feeding children safely... and this document will help you do that!

The e-book contains paperwork samples which will help you to meet current legislation requirements, kitchen and cooking risk assessments, ideas for monitoring your own practice, COSHH information, menu samples, ideas for complying with EYFS meal and drink requirements, sample policy writing tips and lots, lots more.

It is a great way of showing both Ofsted and your local Environmental Health Officer that you are up to speed on all the latest information and legal requirements. This e-book works alongside the new Government document - ‘Safer Food Better Business for Childminders’.

E-book 37 – HACCP is priced at £4.99 on my website www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

Thank you! :))

Website problem

2009-11-11T12:07:00.005Z

Hello!

Freewebs is not working at the moment and I am getting emails from customers who cannot buy my e-books!

I am busy re-listing everything (I'm working on it, please bear with me) here -

http://knutsfordchildminding.web.officelive.com/

Complete with PayPal links.

Customers can use this site until Freewebs decides to get its act together... actually I might keep it as a back up as well.

Thank you! Sarah...

... who really does not need this right now but would like to thank baby for being extra tired and having a nice long sleep this morning..!

:)

Scotland, childminders and the Care Commission

2009-11-05T08:16:00.005Z

After the success of my Welsh childminders e-book, I have been talked into writing one specifically for Scottish childminders!

It is a 4 chapter, full of information e-book which looks at every aspect of childminding in Scotland, including how to fill in the Self Assessment form, cope with inspections, use Birth to 3 and 3 - 5 literature.

It also takes a peek at the new Curriculum for Excellence... and much, much more.

The 4 chapters are...

Chapter 1 - Care Standards 1 - 3 and other information;

Chapter 2 - Care Standards – 4 - 14;

Chapter 3 - All about the CC inspection and SAF;

Chapter 4 - Early Scottish Education.

It is a huge resource, written in detail like my English e-books...

This e-book has also been carefully proofed by a Scottish childminder who was graded 6 at her last inspection.

It costs £7.99 and is available from my Knutsford Childminding website.

Enjoy! :)

Childminders, Portfolios and Every Child Matters

2009-11-01T12:28:00.003Z

How do you set out your portfolio?

I thought about changing things when the EYFS came out... and changed my mind!

My portfolio works really well following the 5 outcomes of the Every Child Matters agenda and since the first 5 questions of the EYFS Self Evaluation Form follow these as well, I don't see any point in changing things!

I have asked Ofsted and they don't care how it's all set out so long as it contains evidence of compliance with the Statutory Requirements of the EYFS.

With that in mind, I have recently updated and completely re-written my entire portfolio as a series of questions and answers and linked it in with the SEF.

I have used the 5 outcomes of the Every Child Matters agenda to check my compliance with the requirements of the EYFS and to audit what I do and how I can do better.

My portfolio is now well organised and I know exactly what I need to do next!

I have decided to sell my Portfolio layout as part of my e-book library and hope the e-book will do the same for you!

It is e-book number 35 on my Knutsford Childminding website and priced at 4.99. I hope you find it useful.

Thank you to my customers for their continued support :)

Photographs and childminders

2009-10-24T15:30:00.001+01:00

Information for parents about taking and using photographs

In view of recent allegations of abuse surrounding the taking and illegal use of photographs of children, childminders are advised to clarify how they use and store photographs of children with parents.

We use photographs of children in the following ways –
• To display around the house, which gives the child a sense of belonging;
• To share with the child’s parents so you can see what they are up to here;
• To go in the child’s Learning Journey or scrap book folder which parents will take home when the child leaves Knutsford Childminding;
• As presents for parents eg photo albums, photos in frames etc;
• To go in albums to show parents and Ofsted the range of activities we do at Knutsford Childminding.

Our safeguarding commitments to parents regarding photographs –
• All photographs remain the property of the child’s parents;
• Photographs will not be used on the internet or taken on a mobile phone;
• If required in the future, we will register with the Information Commissioners Office. You can find more information here – www.ico.gov.uk;
• Any photographs not returned to parents when their child leaves (that may be in albums, photo frames or part of laminated displays) will be destroyed on request;
• We will not use photographs of your child for any reason other than above without your prior written permission.

Group photographs

Sometimes, there might be more than one child in a photograph or children from different families. This might happen when, for example, children request we take group scenes or when photographs are taken during group activities.

Sometimes group photographs might be placed in different children’s folders and / or used in the ways stated above.

If you are concerned about your child appearing in group photographs, your child’s face or any identifying features will be blurred on the photos in which s/he accidentally appears. You need to let us know if you want this to happen.

If you have any questions or concerns about the taking of photographs, please have a chat with one of us.

EYFS conference

2009-10-04T18:49:00.005+01:00

It was a great opportunity for me, as the only childminder there, to fly the flag for childminders through the country! I was welcomed and made to feel like a worthy delegate and speaker. I believe I did childminders proud!

I talked about how hard we are all working to meet the requirements of the Eyfs and how much we value the support of our local areas... but how much more could be done as well! There is no room for complacency at local level if we are to find out about changes to the requirements promptly and feel updated and valued as professionals.

I talked about how we wish Ofsted were more consistent with their inspections and how much it would help us if we could truly believe that the Eyfs was the only document we needed to read... but how we hear so many stories from colleagues about inconsistencies and variations in expectations that it leads to demoralised childminders not knowing how much they need to do to get it right!

I talked about how childminders do not get breaks during the day and when juggling a 50 plus hour week and our families it is increasingly difficult to manage all the other elements of the job besides play... I used the word 'mountains' to describe the paperwork and got wry smiles from around the room!

It was a lovely day. I have put feedback so other childminders can share my experience here

To top off an already exciting week, I saw Michael Ball in concert in Manchester last night... wow!

Talk soon :-)

EYFS one year on!

2009-09-19T07:45:00.002+01:00

Well the Nursery World conference date is fast approaching and I am going through various ideas for speeches in my head.

http://www.haymarketevents.com/conferenceDetail/369

I intend to talk about the similarities between childminders and other early years professionals now we all use the Eyfs.

However there is one big difference - TIME!

There are lots of issues surrounding childminders and time... we have the time to look after children but we work on our own and also need to find time to do the paperwork, time to manage partnerships, time to look after our own families... I believe this more than anything is why so many childminders are struggling with the Eyfs.

I have been invited to the conference as the voice of the childminder and I want to make sure I say the right things... so if anyone who reads this blog has ideas or suggestions on the subject, please let me know!

Wish me luck!

:)

Self Evaluation Form (SEF) updated

2009-09-16T20:56:00.002+01:00

The Ofsted Self Evaluation Form (SEF) has been updated!

There are lots of new questions and much of the focus has changed.

If you are a customer who has bought my SEF e-book, I am working on the changes at the moment.

I will hopefully be ready to send out your free update next week.

If it has not come through by the weekend, especially if you are on Aol or Talktalk, please let me know.

Thank you for your patience!

:)

EYFS observations - made simple

2009-08-31T18:46:00.000+01:00

Mini e-book 24

I talk to a lot of childminders... some find me via the Childminding Forum, others through my websites.

Most of them have 3 main worries...

• How to do group planning;
• How to do individual planning;
• How to observe effectively.

This is the last in a series of 3 mini e-books to tackle each of these concerns (see mini 22 and 23 for planning ideas). I suppose I should have written it first since you must observe before you plan but for logistical reasons that didn’t happen!
As it is a mini e-book it is not a detailed look at observations - you will find that in e-book 14.

I hope you will agree, however, that it gives enough information to support even the most nervous note-taker to get watching and listening and planning appropriate next steps for every child.

All my mini e-books are priced at £1.45 and are available on my website –www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk.

Thank you!

Wales, Childminding and the CSSIW

2009-08-21T09:06:00.001+01:00

A Welsh Childminder friend of mine was complaining recently that there are no advice books available for Welsh Childminders.

I have been writing about England and the Early Years Foundation Stage for many years and I knew that with a little background information I would be able to knowledgably chat on about Wales. Thanks to my friends ’in the know’, I have put together what I hope is a comprehensive look at how Welsh Childminders can meet and exceed the requirements of the CSSIW’s 21 Standards.

My aim throughout has been to use plain English and to give suggestions for improving your childminding practice that are easy to both implement and evidence for CSSIW at your inspection.

That kept me busy for 120 pages... then I decided that I must also consider the impact of the Foundation Phase on Childminders in Wales.

It is easy to dismiss the Foundation Phase as something only a few childminders who are accredited use, but the more I looked into it, the more I realised it would be good practice for everyone to learn more about the way it works. For this reason I have, in a further 2 chapters, examined the 7 Foundation Phase outcomes in detail.

Even if you are not accredited, the contents of the Foundation Phase literature are good practice for everyone and are certainly worth finding out more about!
I hope you find my information helpful and supportive. I welcome your feedback, so I can improve my e-books in the future.

You can buy my new e-book 33 'Wales, Childminding and the CSSIW' from my website www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk. It is priced at £8.99.

Thank you!

Themed activities and the Eyfs

2009-07-31T11:29:00.002+01:00

There has been a lot of discussion recently on the Childminding Forum about whether it is a good thing to do themed activities with children... and whether these are at odds with the ethos of the Eyfs.

At Knutsford Childminding, we have just finished a month of themed activities based around the children's interest in minibeasts.

I want to show you that there is a big difference between making children take part in a theme they do not enjoy and engaging them with activities that interest and excite them.

I have 9 children through the week - these activities have been followed with 7 of them - the youngest is 2 years 4 months and the oldest is 9. The 2 babies have had fun times of their own.

When planning the activities I have made sure that each child has been stretched while also consolidating what they can already do.

So, for example, the 9 year old helped little ones counting legs on spiders... and then made the spider's web with help from my dd.

Meanwhile the 5 year old had fun making the spider, helped (or hindered maybe!!) by the 2 year old

During our mini beasts activities we have...

• Counted bees – PSR&N;
• Learned about black and yellow patterns – PSR&N;
• All made a ladybird on a stick as a puppet and used it to sing songs – PSED;
• Sung songs about spiders, bees, worms and caterpillars - CD;
• Read books about all kinds of minibeasts – CD;
• Visited the library for more books – KUW;
• Counted legs on lots of minibeasts – PSR&N;
• Used magnifying glasses in the garden – KUW;
• Found out how caterpillars turn into butterflies – KUW;
• Made worms from playdough – PD;
• Made insects using quick drying clay and painted them – CD;
• Pretended to be slugs and snails – PSED;
• Explored snail shells – KUW;
• Found out why worms make casts in the grass – KUW;
• Counted and drawn leaves – PSR&N / CD;
• Used glitter and glue to make a huge sunflower – CD;
• Looked for spiders webs on the fence – KUW;
• Found snails at the park – KUW;
• Danced around the garden like butterflies, bees and wasps – PD;
• Learned about the sounds minibeasts make during a listening walk – PD / KUW;
• Made a spiders web from string and lots of sellotape – PD / CD;
• Used ladybird sewing cards – PD;
• Added feelers to fingerprint flies – PD;
• Found pictures of butterflies on Google images – KUW;
• Explored small world minibeasts in the sand tray – KUW;
• Used the story box with small world spiders – PSED;
• Fed worms in our wormery – PD;
• Discussed shapes and sizes of minibeasts – PSR&N;
• Joined dots to make snail shells – PD;
• Made and painted bugs using a rectangle of card, 2 eyes and 6 legs (8 for spiders) – CD / PSR&N);
• Chalked spiders on the fence – PD;
• Bent pipe cleaners to make legs for spiders – PD;
• Grown flowers and looked at how the snails and slugs eat them – KUW;
• Found snail trails on the patio and copied them with chalk – KUW / PD;
• Learned about being safe round stinging insects – PD;
• Looked at ant hills and nests – KUW - to follow a specific interest;
• Found pictures on Google images about ants and ant hills and compared their sizes and shapes – PSR&N.

We have had great fun, followed children's interests, learned a lot, covered all 6 areas of learning and development of the Eyfs and engaged all the children for extended periods of time doing things they enjoy.

How can this be wrong?

I hope it inspires you to plan interesting and exciting adventures with the children.

You can find lots and lots of planning ideas in my wide range of planning e-books on my website www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk.

Talk soon! :-)

Cameras, childminders and the EYFS

2009-07-09T21:39:00.002+01:00

With the shocking headlines that a Nursery worker has been abusing children and using photographs in improper ways, the camera debate has inevitably started up again.

Leading early years practitioners are calling for calm and common sense. They suggest that instead of panicking and losing so much of the good practice we have built up around taking photographs of children we must instead ensure our safeguarding practices are robust.

First of all, think about why you use photographs of children. You will...

• Display them around the setting to promote children’s self esteem (PSED);

• Give them to parents to feed back their achievements (2.2 Parents as partners);

• Use them to build up an interesting and informative learning journey (3.1 Observation, assessment and planning);

• Put them on birthday charts to teach children about a sense of time (KUW);

• Make albums with the children to show outings they have been involved in to promote a sense of place (KUW);

• Organise visits to promote activities such as people who help us and take photographs to remind children about their learning (3.4 The wider context);

• Send cameras home so children can take photos of their home lives to share within the setting, thereby promoting home and setting links (2.2 Parents as partners) and giving children a sense of belonging (PSED);

• Put on a CD to give to parents at Christmas or on birthdays (if celebrated) to promote partnership working (2.2);

• Use pictures of the children as story prompts (CLL);

• Add them to collages that promote equality of opportunity and diversity (1.2 Inclusive practice);

• Personalise resources such as adding baby’s photo to a jam jar lid for him to find in his treasure basket (4.2 Active learning);

• Make alphabet charts featuring all the children in the setting (3.2 supporting every child);

• Take pictures of children washing their hands or involved in other healthy living routines to support other children’s learning (1.4 health and well being);

• Photograph a child’s achievements (4.2 supporting learning) and document his learning to promote his continued interest (PSED)... and much more!

So, photos are useful and educational as tools to support us when we are working with children, working with parents and providing evidence of our activities etc for Ofsted.

However, we must make sure children are safe and protected from abuse so we need policies and safeguards in place...

• Parents must sign to say they are happy for their child’s photo to be taken and used in a variety of situations such as to display on your wall, put in their learning journey, go in general albums etc;

• You need to promote photos to parents and be clear with them about why you take them and how they are used. You could do this through your initial parent literature or by including information in your welcome booklet or on your website for parents to access (2.2 Parents as partners);

• Consider having an open door policy, so parents can stay and watch you with their child until they are confident you are the right person to work with them. This might take some parents longer than others and you may be concerned about the disruption to your setting but it is good practice and an excellent way to reassure parents that they are making the right decision;

• Ensure you have clear paperwork in place, which is shared with parents before their child starts with you, including information about how cameras are used in the setting;

• Prioritise regularly updated (at least every 3 years) safeguarding training for yourself and anyone who works with you;

• If you put photos from which children can be recognised on your computer, you must find out if you need to register with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO);

• If you work with a co-childminder or assistant, they must have a valid CRB check which is shared with parents to reassure them that you take steps to ensure their child’s safety. If you act transparently in all dealings with parents they will have more reason to trust you;

• Have clear information, to be shared with parents, for co-childminders and assistants about how to whistle blow if they have concerns about bad practice related to anyone connected with your setting;

• Risk assessments need to be updated to say what you would do if you see adults taking photographs of your minded children in the park or on outings. It would probably not be wise to challenge them as you could get hurt (although that might be our first thought) but you would be within your rights to call the Police;

• A Confidentiality Policy that clearly safeguards a child and their family’s right to privacy and states what information may and may not be shared, including mention of photographs;

• Reassure parents that you do not store photos and explain how you taken them... promptly print them... then discard from all media to protect against theft of memory cards full of children’s pictures. You might also show parents where you lock cameras and memory sticks overnight so if there is a theft, they are safe;

• Share Visitor Policies and a visitor log book with parents, so parents can see (at any mutually convenient time) who has been in the setting when their child was there;

• Be absolutely clear when speaking with parents that you would never take inappropriate photos of their children for example, in the bath or without clothes. If parents would feel more comfortable seeing photos of their child before you print, organise this in a sensitive way that ensure confidentiality for other children’s images;

• Do not use mobile phones for photos – maybe adding this to your safeguarding policy – I feel a re-write of mine coming on;

• A clear Complaints Procedure and details provided to parents about how to contact Ofsted if they have a concern;

• If you work with students, they will never be asked to evidence their work by taking photos of children... but they might take photos of the setting and displays they have helped make etc. This information would need to be shared with parents as part of the information pack and permissions you give them if you agree to mentor a student;

• Childminders are their child’s key person – if you work with another childminder, you might share the key person responsibility. Parents must be told who their child’s key person is and that person should do the bulk of the child’s care routines to follow parents wishes;

• A Safeguarding Policy that is treated as a working document and updated at least annually, in partnership with the parents;

• A clear policy throughout the setting and shared with all assistants and co-childminders that the children come first – not parents, not colleagues and not visiting friends. If the children’s safety is compromised in any way, then steps must be immediately taken to protect them.

I hope you find this useful to add to your Portfolio of evidence of how you protect children from inappropriate use of cameras and photographs in your setting.

If you have any comments I would enjoy hearing them.

Please email me – knutsfordchildminding@hotmail.com

The Eyfs and group planning

2009-07-04T09:53:00.002+01:00

Mini e-book 22 - Group planning made easy!

I look after 9 part time children every week and I do not have time to spend writing up planning that is not used. I also have no intention of getting bogged down with lots of duplication and piles of unwanted paperwork.

This mini e-book will hopefully inspire you to ditch any complicated systems you use and explore ways of recording your group planning so that any spare time you have can be spent playing, not writing.

It is priced at £1.45 and is available from my website –

www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk.

I hope you find it useful! :)

Eyfs and accidents - new mini e-book

2009-07-04T09:51:00.003+01:00

Eyfs and accidents, first aid and emergencies

Would you know what to do if a child had a serious accident? Are you clear about the legal requirements if you administer First Aid? Is your emergency paperwork fully completed and in a format that is easy to take on outings?

This mini e-book has the answers to all these questions and many more, in an easy to access format including sample forms to help you record all the required information.

It is available from my website - www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk - for £1.45.

Reminder! Mini e-books are between 10 and 20 pages of text and just talk about the subject in the title.

Working with parents and the EYFS

2009-07-01T18:08:00.001+01:00

I have been thinking about this today after I read in child care magazine the other day that Nurseries and Playgroups are getting parents involved with the children’s activities – a Nursery invited parents to lunch so they could sample their new summer menu; a Playgroup decided to work more closely with fathers and set up a woodworking day.

These stories leave me with a small worry in the back of my mind that I am not doing enough to meet Principle 2.2 of the EYFS, which is headed ‘Parents as Partners’.

I made a list of the things I do to try and make myself feel more positive and to reassure myself that I am doing my best. I already –

• Ask parents for a huge amount of initial information about their child and requesting they keep me updated when things change;

• Speak to parents regularly – every day if possible but if they do not collect their child I contact them in the evenings;

• Have regular update meetings with parents to discuss their child’s progress;

• Prepare a 6 monthly summative assessment of their child’s learning and development to discuss;

• Write a newsletter to keep parents updated about what we do, where we go, holiday dates and general setting news which I give out with bills at the end of the month;

• Ask parents for comments about and inform them about changes to my menus, adaptations to policies and procedures etc;

• Write an annual questionnaire which parents are asked to complete and return and which asks them about all areas of the service I provide for them;

• Have a big file of childhood conditions and other information for parents to read at any mutually convenient time;

• Keep parents informed about any changes to my home or building work that is being done so they are up-to-date and can ask me questions if they are concerned;

• Store my Ofsted required complaints information (including my Complaints procedure, information from Ofsted about complaints and forms parents can use if they want to make a complaint where parents can access it ... and display the most up-to-date complaints poster;

• Provide parents with snippets of information that I think will interest them eg a parent is teaching her children French at home so when I come across any useful websites, worksheets etc in my research, I pass them on;

• Write a daily diary for each EYFS child, which chats about their likes and dislikes, favourite toys and games, meals and snacks eaten etc... and encourage parents to give me information in return;

• Share children’s favourite recipes and ask parents to keep me updated with what the children are eating at home;

• Ask parents to sign all the necessary paperwork so they know if their child has had an accident and can confirm medication provision;

• Add information regularly to the parents page on my website – including a copy of my newsletter - for parents to access at their convenience.

Is that enough? I will not know until Ofsted come calling. Do I need to start up woodworking sessions or suggest family cooking experiences to maintain my outstanding...? I hope not!

Schemas and the Eyfs

2009-06-27T19:50:00.000+01:00

Schemas are repeated patterns of play... they are obvious in some children; some children have more than one schema at a time; other children do not seem to be playing using schemas then will suddenly change and start wrapping everything up into parcels.

In the past I have watched as children walk backwards and forwards with toys or drop sand all over my garden or seem to need to make a muddle of my toy boxes... my son used to line everything up neatly and get very cross with other children if they knocked into his lines.

Having researched for this e-book, now I know why children feel the need to play in this way.

I went on a fascinating course about schemas run by www.n4k.co.uk which inspired me to write this e-book. I hope you enjoy reading through and find some new play ideas. All the planning in this e-book is linked to the EYFS.

Price - £3.99 available from www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

Thank you!

Child Care Magazine and Knutsford Childminding

2009-06-20T20:07:00.005+01:00

This months’ Child Care magazine - http://www.professionalchildcare.co.uk/ features quotes from 3 members of the Childminding Forum - www.childmindingforum.co.uk – Lyn, Alison and me!!

The article is called 'You are what you eat'.

We were contacted by writer Siobhan O’Neill - http://siobhan-oneill.moonfruit.com/ who asked us for our thoughts on food, nutrition and EYFS age children.

We were asked to comment on whether we thought it was a good idea for the Government to get involved in giving out pre-school dietary advice (like they do with school age children’s nutrition) and how childminders feel generally about food for the under 5s.

A while ago, when I was writing e-book 21 ‘Healthy Eating’ (which is available from my website - www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk), I researched the information available for pre-school diets and found it patchy to say the least. While school children’s diets are planned carefully with only a certain amount of fat and sugar and no salt allowed, pre-school providers are not given any guidance at all, even though we are closely involved (along with parents of course) in shaping children’s eating patterns at a crucial growth period in their little lives.

There was even a recent study which showed that some pre-school settings are feeding children too healthily and forgetting that they need a certain amount of carbohydrates and fats to give them enough energy to get through their busy days!

It did occur to me as I was reading the article that we are only a part of the jigsaw – it is all well and good the Government starting to postulate on what we are feeding children but what about the parents?? I know a parent who used to give her 9 month old child crisps (because he liked them); over the years I have watched children skipping down the path with sweets (because they have been good) and arriving with lollies for breakfast (because otherwise they would not leave the house in time)...

It does make me wonder if perhaps it is some parents (not all of course) rather than childminders who need to be the focus of at least the first wave of advice if the Government chooses to take on the pre-school dietary challenge.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts :)

Nursery World Conference... September 2009

2009-06-14T09:22:00.003+01:00

I have been asked to be a speaker at the Nursery World Conference ‘Implementing the EYFS one year on’!

The conference is taking place in Birmingham in September.

I am very pleased to have been asked and just a little nervous...

I think it is great that Nursery World (and Haymarket Publishing) recognise the huge contribution childminders make to the early years and have asked me to attend.

I hope I will be able to express the role childminders play in the learning and development of pre-school children eloquently to a room full of professionals from many different settings.

I hope to be able to talk about...

•How we aim to work in partnership with other settings;

•How we really want and aim for the best outcomes for all the children;

•How we have embraced the EYFS and the problems we have encountered along the way;

•The ways in which we use the EYFS to observe, assess and plan for the individual child;

•What parts of the EYFS childminders would like to see changed;

•How Ofsted are supporting childminders to improve;

Thank you to all my friends on the Childminding Forum for giving me your support.

If there is anything you think I should talk about, feel free to email me with your comments ~

knutsfordchildminding@hotmail.com.

Now, where did I put my street map of Birmingham? LOL!

The EYFS and outside play

2009-06-14T09:05:00.001+01:00

30 ~ Outside Play – all year long

My inspiration for writing this e-book came from a childminding friend who was groaning that she never knew what to do with the children outside in the cold weather. She said she wished there was a book she could buy to give her ideas for getting the children motivated to be outside when all they wanted to do was hug a radiator.

There are 4 sections to this e-book depending on the type of planning you use...

1. Multicultural outside planning for each month of the year to follow global events;

2. Group outside planning for each month of the year to follow the seasons;

3. Outside planning to meet each of the 6 areas of learning and development;

4. Individual planning to follow children’s interests.

‘Outside play – all year long’ is priced at £3.99 and is on my website. I hope you find it useful!

Thank you for reading!

EYFS information website

2009-06-03T09:44:00.003+01:00

My information website is called - www.eyfsforchildminders.webnode.com . I have recently been adding new information. I have included a section called –

Advice for new childminders

I aim, through the information in this section, to offer new childminders support and help. Most of the information is applicable to Scotland (Care Commission) and Wales (CSSIW) as well as England (Ofsted).

Advice for new childminders contains the following pages –

Page 1 – fees advice
Page 2 – all about deposits
Page 3 – advertising advice
Page 4 – initial paperwork
Page 5 – attendance registers
Page 6 – supporting parents
Page 7 – registration process in England
Page 8 – registration process in Wales
Page 9 – my files and folders

If you would like me to add any more information pages, please let me know and I will be happy to work on them for you!

Risk Taking and Childminders

2009-06-01T21:16:00.001+01:00

Taking risks with other people’s children

We all want our children to be safe... parents want to leave their child with a childminder or other setting and feel that they will be carefully monitored and that risks will be assessed so they do not come to any harm.

I know as a parent myself I would be distressed if anything happened to my child while he was in the care of another person. Would I sue a nursery if my child broke their leg while in their care? Possibly, because I would suffer from loss of earnings. Would the Nursery take it personally? Probably not, because nurseries are usually large concerns and their insurance company would deal with everything for them.

Now put yourself in the position of a childminder – the childminder takes 2 children to a park which she has previously risk assessed as safe. She is carefully watching one child who is on the slide when the other dashes off like a giddy thing straight into the path of a swing. The childminder calls the ambulance, deals with the children, writes up the incident when she gets home, informs Ofsted and RIDDOR... then the parent announces he is going to sue her.

There is a big difference between negligence and an accident, but nowadays the lines seem to be blurred. We are told, as childminders, by the media and other eminent professionals to allow children to take calculated risks and yet we run the risk at every turn of being sued by parents because their child has had an accident. For goodness sake, we have to hold on to our paperwork for 21 years and 6 months in case a young adult we used to look after decides to sue us for something that happened when she was a baby!

Does this mean we must wrap children in cotton wool, just in case..? no, good practice tells us that we should –

• Ask children questions which make them think about situations;

• Give children time to think and reply;

• Use books, road safety campaigns, websites etc to support their learning;

• Help children to explore risk, assessed depending on their age and stage of development;

• Write any behaviour goals with the children’s input;

• Remind children why you have asked them to do something eg can you remember why you should pick up the cars when you have finished playing with them?

• Show children how to use the mop and cloths if they have spilled water... etc

This is an interesting article if you want to learn more - http://www.playlink.org/services/risk_and_play/.

I have also discussed many different ways to enable children to consider their own safety in my e-book 24 ‘Safety Checklists’ which is available from my website.

Here’s to an accident free summer! 

Policies and Procedures for the EYFS

2009-05-09T20:49:00.004+01:00

I have said a number of times that I will not sell my Policies and Procedures. I believe they are very personal documents which must be written for yourself and your own setting. If you copy someone else's Policies and Procedures and something goes wrong, the things you have copied might not be the things you would want to do...

For this reason, I have thought carefully about how to put an e-book together about Policies and Procedures for the EYFS without going against my principles. What I decided on was an information e -book.

The e-book contains carefully researched information about the various Policies and Procedures you might find you need to write to comply with the Statutory and Guidance requirements of the EYFS and the Childcare Register. Each Policy and Procedure is linked to the Every Child Matters agenda and the Statutory Requirements of the EYFS.

This e-book does not write your Policies and Procedures for you... instead it gives you ideas of what you might want to include in each, plus legal wording from the Eyfs and Childcare Register where appropriate.

The e-book is £4.99 and is on my website www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk now.

I hope you find it useful!

Happy Birthday to the Childminding Forum!

2009-05-07T12:38:00.004+01:00

The Childminding Forum is celebrating its 3rd birthday tomorrow!

Throughout the day, there will be prizes for forum members and there is an online party planned in the evening.

Among the prizes offered through the day... Morton Michel have made a very generous donation of a Childminder Organiser; my friend Chell from Chelltune is getting involved by offering some lovely signing resources and The Equal Opportunities Shop have donated a multicultural music pack and CD!

Hmmm, now which one would I like to win!?!

I have decided to launch my new e-book at the party!

It is slightly different this one... it is an information e-book about the Policies and Procedures you might find you need to write to comply with the Statutory and Guidance requirements of the Eyfs and the Childcare Register.

E-book 29 'Policies and Procedures for the Eyfs' will be offered as a prize to one lucky winner tomorrow and I will put it on my website for sale over the weekend, priced at £4.99.

So all that remains is to wish a very happy birthday to The Childminding Forum and send congratulations to Pauline, the owner of the Forum, for all her hard work and dedication to the world of Childminding.

Love from Sarah xx

The Eyfs ... paperwork ... and Ofsted leaflets

2009-05-02T17:18:00.006+01:00

I was reading a report from Ofsted about paperwork the other day. It seemed to suggest that Childminders would be ok doing less paperwork.

To say I was shocked was an understatement! I know a lot of childminders who have been pulled up at inspections because they don't have enough / sufficiently detailed risk assessments; their observations and planning are not in enough detail; their policies and procedures are not considered sufficient (despite them not being statutory under Eyfs); their SEF wasn't done (despite, again, it not being a requirement) etc.

What worries me is that childminders will read this new Ofsted leaflet and become complacent. They will think they don't have to do things ... and when their inspections come round, they will be unprepared. You only have to read through reports on the Ofsted website to see the detail inspectors are expecting...

So what will happen next? My feeling is that a lot of childminders will receive lower grades at their inspections if they do not do what is required... and advised by the guidance of the Eyfs.

I hope I am wrong.

Childminders, the unique child and the EYFS

2009-04-14T21:29:00.003+01:00

I have been asked about this subject recently... a lot. So I thought I would put something here to support people who are maybe struggling to see how it all fits together.

I hope it helps! :)

1. Think about how you have the Statutory Requirements, Guidance advice and 16 Principles of the EYFS in place to support each child’s experiences with you;

2. Find out all you can about the unique child... from the child, his parents and other settings or professionals involved in the child’s care. These are your starting points;

3. Make your observations... watch, listen and learn as the child plays. Observations should be –

a. To the point – don’t waffle on;
b. Relevant to something the child has said or done;
c. Interesting to the reader;
d. Informative about what has happened;

4. Assess your observations... link them to the 6 areas of learning and development of the EYFS;

5. Plan... for the child’s next steps using the EYFS, information from parents and others to decide what you want to do. Next steps planning should be –

a. To the point – again waffle is boring;
b. Realistic for the child’s abilities, age and stage of development – check this out with the EYFS ages and stages information;
c. Following the child’s interests and learning styles / schemas;
d. Shared with parents;

6. Support the child’s next steps... think about how you might help the child’s learning and development. Maybe you will –

a. Buy some new resources or...
b. Make changes to your environment or...
c. Work with the child more closely to achieve something he finds tricky or...
d. Make suggestions to parents or...
e. Work with another setting to support the child or...
f. Take advice from someone better qualified than you or...
g. Write a message on the Childminding Forum so other childminders can help you (remembering confidentiality of course);
h. Read a book or look something up on the internet or...
i. Buy one of my e-books from www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk to find out more about a particular subject that interests you;

7. Constantly evaluate yourself by thinking about how you are doing and how you could make things work better so the child’s time with you is even more special next session.

Learning Journeys and the EYFS

2009-03-25T11:49:00.001Z

It is a statutory requirement of the EYFS that all children’s learning must be tracked through ‘systematic observational assessment ‘. The easiest way to do this is by making a learning journey. It does not have to be a complicated document – it can be as simple as a scrap book or a loose leaf folder.

This e-book is in 2 chapters – the first talks you through all the different pages you might like to include in a child’s learning journey, from involving parents to writing individual planning; from getting information from other settings to preparing a transitions document for when the child is preparing to move on to another setting.

The second chapter is full of sample paperwork that you might like to use. The forms are ones I use every day so I know they work in practice.

You do not have to use all of my ideas or put everything I have written into a child’s learning journey, but you do need to do something to show his progression while with you ... so take what you want from this e-book and come back for more if you find it useful.

This new e-book is number 28 is on my website priced at £3.99.

Thank you for reading :)

Mini 20 - Improving outcomes

2009-03-09T19:04:00.002Z

There are 16 Principles of the EYFS and each is equally important.

Perhaps the one that childminders focus on most often is 4.4 and relates to the 6 areas of learning and development. However, it is vital that the other 15 Principles are securely in place before minding starts – without considering the uniqueness of every child and getting relationships and environments right, we cannot effectively do our jobs.

I have worked through each of the 16 Principles in this mini e-book and given ideas for self reflection... first blow your own trumpet (because nobody else will do it for you) by noting all the things you are already doing; then go on to think about an area of improvement for each.

I hope you find this mini e-book useful! It costs £1.45 and is available from my website.

Working with others

2009-02-23T08:08:00.003Z

The EYFS says that we must work with other settings, other professionals and people in the local area to enhance children’s learning experiences and help them progress towards the 5 outcomes of the Every Child Matters agenda...

1. Be healthy;

2. Be safe;

3. Enjoy and achieve;

4. Make a positive contribution;

5. Achieve economic wellbeing.

Working with others forms part of our commitment towards Principle 3.4 of the EYFS which covers ‘The Wider Context’. Principle 3.4 talks in detail about enhancing children’s learning and development experiences by partnership working and gives ideas for good practice.

My new mini e-book 18, Working with others, will support you with ideas for making this work. It contains good practice advice from other childminders and suggestions for things to try when the going gets tough and other settings / professionals just don’t want to play the game.

Working with others is available on my website priced at £1.45.

Inclusion - a new series of Mini e-books

2009-02-13T12:35:00.002Z

Using dolls to promote equality and diversity

I have a wide range of dolls for the children to play with – some lovely little ones from TK Beanies in costumes from around the world including Chinese, American and British. I also have white and black dolls. A favourite doll of the moment has purple hair and green glasses.

I am careful when buying new dolls to make sure the faces have been changed so they actually look like the social grouping they have been purchased to represent. If dolls are meant to show a certain social, disabled or religious grouping and they are not authentic, they send out the wrong messages to children.

One issue I have noted watching children playing is that many places leave dolls which are supposed to show disability lying around without teaching children how to use the dolls appropriately. Yes, I know the theory says that we must not treat these dolls as ‘special’ or different, but I feel this works in the same way as when children start by holding dolls by the hair or leg and we show them how to cuddle and make cooing noises so they are gentle.

Let me give you an example... many children have no real understanding, for example, of a wheelchair and if they see it in the toy box, they might think it is something to scoot around the floor unless it is explained to them. On one occasion, I watched a boy carefully and deliberately pull a doll out of a wheelchair. Once the doll was cast aside on the floor, he used the chair to carry his Lego bricks. He was not being naughty and did not know the chair had cost a lot of money – he was being creative and wanted to solve the problem of how to transport his bricks from one side of the room to another.

Another issue, of course, is that young children might not see themselves or their playmates as different – just because one child uses a stick (which would make a useful toy gun if taken off the arm of a doll) or another has a hearing aid (which could be seen as an IPod if not properly explained to the children). We have to be careful that we are not imprinting stereotypes by the kinds of dolls we give children to use.

Experts are now telling us that dolls made up to look like they have a disability are of very limited value unless we are trained properly to use them. We need to know how to introduce them to the children appropriately and how to talk about their names, where they come from, what games they like to play etc.

If you are interested in exploring this subject and similar inclusion scenarios further, I have written a series of 3 Mini e-books on inclusion ~ disability, equal opportunities and multiculturalism. They are for sale in the mini e-books section of my website (numbers 15 – 17). All my mini e-books are priced at £1.45 each.

The EYFS - 6 areas of learning and development

2009-01-29T08:25:00.001Z

Why focus on the 6 areas of learning and development of the EYFS?

The EYFS tells us that there are 4 Principles we must have in place to care for children appropriately – a unique child; positive relationships; enabling environments; learning and development.

These 4 Principles have 4 sections each... and the final section is 4.4 ‘Areas of Learning and development’, which is split into 6 areas...

Personal, social and emotional development (PSED);

Communication, language & literacy (CLL);

Problem solving, reasoning & numeracy (PSR&N);

Knowledge & understanding of the world (KUW);

Physical development (PD);

Creative development (CD).

All the Principles are equally important ... so why do childminders ask me about this section of the Principles more than any other?

I think a lot of it comes from inspection reports on the Ofsted website, which appear to focus on how childminders meet the 6 areas... and possibly it is because we use the 6 areas of learning and development every day, when we are observing, assessing and planning for children’s progress.

The way I think about it is that I have all 4 Principles of the EYFS securely in place – I have written in other e-books showing how I meet each of them - so, now I can focus on children’s learning and development.

This e-book will hopefully answer everyone’s questions on how to use the 6 areas of learning and development of the EYFS confidently to observe and assess children’s progress and plan for their next steps.

It is available from www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

Thank you!

Organising your EYFS paperwork

2009-01-28T18:51:00.002Z

I have been asked this question a lot since I wrote my e-book 25, Paperwork and the EYFS.

The best way for a childminder to present their paperwork so everyone can read the important information about the service offered is to put together a portfolio of evidence.

There are a number of different ways to do this... some childminders have chosen to design their portfolio to reflect the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

They use this format...

Safeguarding – Safeguarding; Information & complaints; Premises & security; Outings; Equal Opportunities & disability;

Health and wellbeing – Medication; Illnesses and injuries; Food and drink; Smoking;

Managing children’s behaviour – Behaviour;

Suitable people - CRB checks; Safe recruitment; Alcohol; Qualifications & training; Staffing;

Suitable premises, environment and equipment – Risk assessment; Premises – fire safety; Safety;

Organisation – Learning and development;

Documentation – Data; Records; Other legal requirements.

Other childminders have a folder of evidence which follows the 5 outcomes of the Every Child Matters Agenda. This promotes the Government's aim for every child, whatever their background or their circumstances, to have the support they need to:

· Be healthy
· Stay safe
· Enjoy and achieve
· Make a positive contribution
· Achieve economic well-being

This is how mine is presented because I find it the most coherent way to file my information.

Neither way is right or wrong. The order of your portfolio is not important... what is important is what the portfolio contains. Too much paper and it is neither inclusive for parents who have English as a second language nor those who perhaps are not confident at reading... nor interesting for parents and Ofsted inspectors to wade through... too little information and you risk doing your business a disservice, by not promoting yourself effectively.

My new e-book aims to help you get the paperwork under control, how you file it is up to you... what I want to achieve is sorted paper so I can go back to enjoying my time with the children.

:)

Paperwork and the EYFS

2009-01-21T13:51:00.004Z

Paperwork! It's the cry of childminders up and down the country since September 2008 and the introduction of the EYFS.

Many childminders have asked me how much paperwork they need to be doing, what paperwork they need for parents, what paperwork is statutory and what is good practice...

What they are really asking is ... what will Ofsted want to see?

I'm afraid nobody has a definitive answer to that one, but I have just finished writing an e-book which will hopefully help!

I have tried to think of every piece of paper I have (or would like to have if only I could find enough time) in my files.

I hope you find that once it is in place, it can be largely ignored, apart from regular updates of course. Then you can get on with the more important business of playing with the children.

Paperwork and the EYFS - £3.99 - on my website now.

Thank you to all my lovely loyal customers for their continued support! I am working on something about inclusion next... watch this space!

:)

Wearing coats outside in winter...

2008-12-30T22:16:00.001Z

My son is 13 now and has coped with chronic eczema all his life. He has never willingly worn a coat, even in the depths of winter – coats make him hot and heat makes him uncomfortable and itchy. We do not heat his bedroom and he uses a summer weight quilt in the winter, which he takes out of the cover as soon as the weather gets a little warmer.

My son is not alone... lots of children, for medical or choice reasons, refuse to wear coats or take them off as soon as they think we are not looking in their direction.

Yet we are all aware that we have a duty of care to ensure children’s well being... not just because we follow the EYFS, but also because we are adults in charge of other people’s children.

Strategies to support children

· Maybe we should look at what children are being asked to wear... is that why they are refusing? Big thick coats might look nice in the shop, but if they restrict the child’s movements it may make him uncomfortable when playing. Similarly, coats with tricky fastenings might make children reluctant to keep putting them on and taking them off, especially if they restrict the flow of their play.

The solution here might be to have a stock of spare thick fleeces and raincoats. You could build them up over the years. Teach children how to be independent with their zips and don’t worry if coats get put on inside out, so long as they are being worn.

· Parents sometimes tell me that their child doesn’t get cold... well I ought to understand that one, having a hot bod in the family. Sometimes however it’s not that they don’t get cold ... more that they do not notice when they are cold because they are busy playing. Remember that hypothermia is a creeping condition which takes time to affect the body.

I think we have to talk to parents and remind them that young children are vulnerable and must be protected by adults. Also we take care of children who are different ages and come from different homes who parent in different ways. It would not be right for us to allow one child to remove his coat and insist with the rest (unless of course it’s for medical reasons)... that would lead to upset and resentment.

· We are told that we must teach children to be independent and to carry out their own risk assessments. The EYFS also suggests that we are supposed to let children come and go, between inside and out, which would leave them in charge of putting on coats, hats, wellingtons etc. What do we do with the 2 boys who are constantly running in and out, totally engaged in their game, not thinking about being cold?

This one depends on your own feelings on the subject. As a friend of mine said the other day ... surely sometimes we have to assert our authority and tell children that we know best. Children are not always able to make the best decisions for their health and wellbeing. After all, we wouldn’t let them outside in the hot sun if they threw a tantrum and refused to apply sun cream or wear a hat, would we?

So if you have a coat policy for outside, then you need to apply it, firmly and calmly, every time they go out. It will hopefully only take a few days until they get used to the idea.

· I live in hope of all children arriving in clothing they can comfortably wear through the day in all play situations – inside, outside, when out on walks, in the car etc. However, even working closely with parents and asking for their support, it does not always happen. Children arrive by car in just a jumper, mum telling them it’s not cold enough to wear coats today... they do not take kindly to me insisting they put on one of my spares later. Another child might arrive wearing a dress and sandals in the depths of winter... because dad says that’s what she wanted to put on that morning etc.

A compromise here might be to use an outdoor thermometer – when the temperature goes below a certain agreed level, warm clothing including coats must be worn, no argument. This does not, of course, take into account the wind chill factor but it is a start.

· Certain medical conditions such as asthma require children to be warmly wrapped up outside. In these situations children might feel resentful. I have known children with medical conditions who are told to wear coats refuse to the point where we have tantrums every time we go out – which is tricky when we have 3 school runs a day.

Here, we need to have clear behaviour expectations and go with medically caring for the child. No compromise.

Just don’t get me on the subject of hats!!

Talk soon

Sarah xx

:)

Happy Christmas!

2008-12-22T09:51:00.001Z

I would like to say Happy Christmas and send best wishes for a peaceful New Year to each one of my customers.

Thank you to each of you for your support throughout 2008.

xx

Eyfs - mini e-books

2008-12-22T09:45:00.004Z

My mini e-books have proven to be very popular with customers who want specific information on a wide range of subjects. So... I have added some new ones to my range.

Mini 10 – Working with parents

There are many subjects covered in this e-book, which includes the 3 key areas involved in working with parents – communication, respect and sharing information. I have looked at working with parents in detail, including how to write your Welcome Booklet, ideas for what to put in Newsletters, how to share information about the child... etc.

Mini 11 – Nappy changing, hand washing and toileting

Our responsibilities to parents and children are huge. We must support parents, protect children and work within the requirements of the EYFS. I have talked about routines, health and safety and much more.

Mini 12 – Teaching safety

Supporting children to be safe is a huge area and I have looked at some of the ways you can teach safety to children. This includes rail track, road, internet, animal and fire safety; teaching about personal safety such as stranger danger and people who help us and a section thinking about how to support children to risk assess their own play.

Mini 13 – Allergies

Hopefully this mini e-book covers nearly everything you ever wanted to know about allergies, anaphylaxis, Epipens etc. It also includes information on how to support the child and work with parents. There are sample forms etc...

Mini e-books are £1.45 each and for sale on my website. A customer called them my 'credit crunch e-books'... yes, I suppose they are.

I hope you find them useful.

:)

Continuous Provision e-book

2008-12-09T08:22:00.001Z

What is continuous provision?

Continuous provision is a fairly new term, invented to describe the activities you have out every day... the resources that make your setting great... the things children look forward to playing with when they come to you... the essential equipment which helps children learn and develop and achieve...

It is different from your planned activities because, to set up a planned activity you will make a plan based around a specific set of resources which you have chosen for the theme / topic / role play / area of learning etc you are following with the children... whereas the continuous provision will always be there.

You might use continuous provision as part of your planned activities. For example, you could add some fish to the water if you are following a child’s interests in the book ‘Rainbow Fish’ by Martin Pfister; you could put some cinnamon in the playdough if a child enjoys the sensory experience of Christmas smells and you want to enhance his learning; you could add some glittery shoes to the dressing up if a child wants to be a ballet dancer...

Your continuous provision will always be changing, as you adapt it to suit each child’s individual needs. For example, John enjoys playing with the paints but you have also noticed he is spending more time in the sand recently – you could suggest he puts some sand in the paint and makes a sensory picture; Jane has shown an interest in your range of ‘feelings’ books, so you add your emotions hand puppets to the book box to see if Jane wants to use them to express herself in a different way; Kate has started to take an interest in using the mark making equipment, so you put together a shoe box of paper, pencils, crayons, note pads and other stationery for her to explore with her friends.

I have included 17 fully written continuous provision plans in this e-book and a chapter explaining exactly what continuous provision is all about.

Hope you find it useful!

:)

Seasons Planning ~ EYFS e-book

2008-11-21T12:31:00.002Z

I have given this e-book a re-write!

For the customer who complained it was too long to print all in one go, it is now split by the seasons, so you only have to print a section at a time, which will last you 3 months.

I have also added more planning examples and updated some of the planning to work better with the EYFS.

All 2008 customers will be receiving a new, snazzy updated 2009 calendar over the next few weeks ... free of charge!

More Mini e-books!

2008-11-09T10:13:00.002Z

I initially wrote 4 of my 'credit crunch e-books', to see how they went...

Mini 1 - Outings Risk Assessments;

Mini 2 - Healthy Packed Lunches;

Mini 3 - Medication for Eyfs;

Mini 4 - Complaints.

... and they have been very well received!

So, I have written some more, mostly on subjects requested by Childminder friends.

Mini 5 – Personalised learning

The EYFS says every child is unique and we must value and respect the diversity of individuals. If we are to help each child to learn and develop to their fullest potential, we must consider tailoring the learning environment to suit their individual needs. This mini e-book helps you to do just that.

Mini 6 – Treasure Baskets and Heuristic Play

A detailed explanation of each of these ways of supporting babies and small children to play and explore the world around them; this e-book contains ideas for putting baskets together and when and how to use them.

Mini 7 – Children’s starting points

The EYFS says we must gather as much information from parents as possible, so that we can care for their child as effectively as possible from their first day with us. I have put together paperwork to make this information gathering exercise as simple as possible. I hope you find it useful.

Mini 8 – Transitions

This e-book considers how best to prepare children for moving on... to school or other settings, including ideas for sharing information about the child’s learning journey which the new setting will find useful. It also looks at how to effectively welcome new children to your setting.

Mini 9 – School aged children

This often forgotten age group are discussed in detail. I have also included a complete run-down of the similarities and differences between the Statutory Framework of the EYFS and the Childcare Register.

I hope you find them useful!

:)

Eyfs and Creativity

2008-10-27T08:17:00.003Z

Whenever new Government initiatives launch on the unsuspecting childcare professional, there is always a backlash. It’s new, it’s a little scary, it needs working on, there are parts that don’t seem easy to implement, there are parts that seem plain daft.

Sometimes, in the middle of all this, we can forget the good bits. One of the underlying themes of the EYFS is about encouraging children to be creative in all areas of their lives, not just when they are sitting at a table making and doing.

So, for example, children might enjoy playing with cars to make tyre tracks in the paint; they might like to cut up a magazine they have chosen in the shop to make a collage; they might want to put eyes on the teddy’s bottom when creating a picture; they might not want to do the sticking activity, but instead explore the glue.

As a childminder, we need to consider our attitudes to their creativity – are we happy to get the cars covered in paint and possibly ruined? Do we say it’s ok to cut up magazines we have bought? Can we allow children to put eyes in what we might consider is the ‘wrong’ place? Is it ok to give parents a photo of little Lucy exploring glue when mum was expecting a Mothers Day card?

Of course, a big part of how we feel is asking ourselves how the parents will feel about receiving works of art that they might not understand... so a certain amount of our role must be to work with and educate parents so they understand the thinking behind our creative practices.

Ways to enhance creativity
· Leave a model out overnight... and see if children come back to it and make changes the next day;

· Show children posters, pictures on the internet or postcards featuring work by other artists and let them experiment with new ideas, shapes, colours, emotions etc;

· Let children play... it doesn’t matter if lunch is a bit late or snack delayed if they are happy. Obviously, you have things you must fit in like school collections, so plan to fit in longer play sessions accordingly;

· Include art from different cultures in children’s lives eg Mandala patterns, Australian Aborigine designs or put ‘hand painting’ into Google images and prepare to be amazed;

· Involve children in different types of creativity eg using their fingers, feet, brushes in their hands, painting with a silky scarf over their eyes... so they can explore disability at the same time. Share pictures of mouth and foot artists with the children;

· Encourage the children to talk about their work to others;

· Praise children’s works of art, take photographs of creations that go home, display artwork on your notice board, show parents how proud you are of their child’s ‘work’;

· Do not stifle creativity by using the adult view of, ‘It won’t work so there’s no point bothering’. Instead, see how the child can be supported to make it work.

Enjoy being creative with the children... :))

New! Mini e-books

2008-10-20T22:01:00.004+01:00

I have written these e-books after being asked the same questions over and over again on www.childmindingforum.co.uk where I am a moderator. If childmindingforum members are asking the questions, then there must be a demand for the information... so here it is!

Each mini e-book will be between 10 and 20 pages long and will do just what it says in the title... it will give information on the subject... nothing more and nothing less!

I will add more to my mini e-book library as time allows.

I hope you find them useful!

Mini 1 – Outings Risk Assessments
All about outings, including how to meet the EYFS statutory and guidance requirements, an outing risk assessment form and ideas for completing the form.

Mini 2 – Healthy packed lunches
All about packed lunches, including ideas for healthy nutritious contents and lunches for multicultural celebrations through the year.

Mini 3 – Medication for EYFS
All about meeting the requirements of the EYFS while ensuring children in your care stay healthy and safe by receiving the medication they require.

Mini 4 – Complaints
All about how to show you are meeting the requirements of the EYFS and the Childcare Register when you receive a complaint about your childminding provision which falls within the remit of the EYFS Statutory Framework or Guidance.

If you have any ideas for subjects for my mini-e-books, please email me...

www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

Thank you! :)

Information about copyright protection of my e-books

2008-10-13T11:40:00.006+01:00

If you are tempted to pass any of my e-books on to a friend or sell them for profit, please be aware that, unless you ask for my implicit written permission or inform me of the transfer and pay for the material to be transferred to another source, you are in breach of UK copyright law.

Each page of my work is clearly copyrighted, either to Sarah Neville or to Knutsford Childminding. This means that what you have purchased from me, via my website (which is also copyrighted), is clearly my work and it is for me and me alone to sell or pass to others.

It is very easy for any customers who are unsure about the law to contact me to ask about or clarify any points about copyright violation before committing the act. I am available by email or through a personal message on www.childmindingforum.co.uk.

If, for example, you are intending to share the purchase price of my e-books with another person, then in order for you to stay within the law (detailed later) you would be expected to contact me and check that I was happy with this, before purchasing.

Similarly, if you had purchased my work with the intention of passing it on to another person because they might not have access to a credit card or Paypal account to make a payment to me, then again you would be expected, if you were to stay within the law (detailed later) to contact me first. I would then make arrangements directly with the buyer to take a cheque or other method of payment so that you did not fall foul of copyright law by default.

Copyright infringement is generally defined as using or passing on someone else’s work, without authorisation or compensation and it is against the law. In this case the law involved is the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act of 1988 (last updated May 2007 – details to follow).

Copyright is an automatic right for the writer, whether the copyright sign is in place or not (although as you can clearly see, on my material it is displayed on every page as already discussed) and copyright arises whenever an individual or company creates a work, whether that work is sold, passed on freely, shared on paper or via the internet by the author.

This means that when you buy a copy of something, in whatever form, you do not buy the copyright or intellectual ownership of that property. The written work remains the property of the writer during his or her lifetime and for the following 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author of the work dies.
It is, therefore, my work and mine alone and up to me who it is passed to and whether I pass it on for sale or freely.

To clarify, it is an offence under the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act of 1988 to perform any of the following acts without the implicit and written consent of the owner –

· Copy someone else’s work;
· Rent, lend or issue copies of someone else’s work to another person;
· Show someone else’s work in public;
· Adapt someone else’s work.

Violating copyright law by sending material you have come by on the internet or in books or purchased from a copyrighted source is a civil copyright infringement offence. If pursued, it might result in the violator being taken to a public law court, where the case would be tried using evidence gathered by the Police. Whether you charge for the information you have violated can affect the damages awarded in court, but under the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act of 1988 it is still a violation of copyright if you give it away.

If you wish to read any further information about copyright law, I suggest this document (last updated May 2007) will be useful – http://www.ipo.gov.uk/cdpact1988.pdf .

Thank you!

EYFS - how is everyone getting on?

2008-09-20T21:43:00.003+01:00

Well, we're 3 weeks into the Eyfs now... and questions about best practice are still coming in thick and fast on the Childminding Forum - www.childmindingforum.co.uk.

One of the main worries seems to be just how much Ofsted are going to expect Childminders to do to prove they are working within the requirements of the Eyfs. Training sessions around the country have given different advice, Development Officers are saying different things... it's all very complicated for Childminders who are just trying to get it right.

My advice is to do whatever you feel comfortable with doing... there is no point setting up lots of complicated systems if you are likely to burn out by half term.

Your planning should be manageable - get your clues from the child's interests, listen to what parents and other settings are telling you, follow your multicultural activity plans, look at online calendars and spot special days and celebrations which the children might enjoy... and if the children are grumpy or tired, sack it all and have a cinematic experience afternoon under the duvet. Popcorn should, of course, be plain to follow healthy eating advice ;)

As for observations... I was speaking to a Childminder the other day who was trying to link every single activity, for every child, for every day... with the Eyfs! I advised her to slow down, that really wasn't necessary. Another Childminder asked whether she was still allowed to go and visit friends as the day wouldn't be planned!

The amount of misinformation out there is truly staggering and I hope it settles down or we really will see a lot more very good, experienced Childminders thinking they cannot cope and leaving the profession, which will be a great pity.

Talk soon x

Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

2008-09-01T10:17:00.000+01:00

Today is the day thousands of Childminders through the country have been working towards... the first day of the EYFS!

Personally, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the care I offer parents and children who use my Childminding service and reading the Statutory Framework of the EYFS to make sure I comply with all the legal requirements and advisory statements. While doing this, I have written myself guidance notes which I turned into e-books. I sell these on my website www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk and they are hopefully helping other Childminders to cope with the new regulations.

It is an exciting time for Childminders because, for the first time, we have been brought in line with Nurseries and other early years providers, rather than left on the sidelines... it is also quite a scary time though, because the EYFS means more daily, weekly and monthly paperwork and a commitment towards following learning and development requirements with which we and the parents whose children we care for might not fully agree.

My advice to childminders who are worried about EYFS is to let it bed in... Yes there are some changes we have to come to terms with and I agree, it isn’t perfect... but it’s the best we’ve had for a long while and hopefully with time and fine tuning, we will make it work for the children...

:)

Top 10 Themes planning e-book

2008-08-14T11:38:00.004+01:00

My new e-book ~ 'Top 10 Themes ~ Planning'!

The top 10 themes covered are ~

1 Healthy Eating

2 Shopping

3 All about me

4 Gardening

5 Pets

6 On the pond

7 Minibeasts

8 Buildings

9 Dinosaurs

10 Clothes

Plus... ideas for planning themes using the EYFS as a guide, in the introduction to the e-book.

On the website now - www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

:))

EYFS Self Evaluation form - SEF

2008-08-04T17:04:00.004+01:00

I promised an e-book about the SEF and it's done..!

I have been reading this wonderfully long and complicated document and trying to work out what to put for each question... some of the SEF questions are definitely easier to answer than others!

I have not written a SEF for every Childminder in England - that would be very unhelpful and ultimately wrong. Your SEF has to be your own self-reflective document which complements your way of working, because you have to come back to it, time and again, making updates and adding things you have improved.

What I have done, however, is to give examples of how questions might be answered and asked relevant questions to get you thinking and remembering just how well you already do things and what you might want to think about to improve and strengthen your already good practice.

I have bundled 'Guide to the SEF' with another e-book 'Guide to Ofsted inspections'. Together you will find over 100 pages of advice, information, ideas, suggestions for good practice...

It's on my website ~ http://www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk/

:)

People who help us ~ themed activities for EYFS

2008-07-21T21:12:00.002+01:00

‘People who Help us’ is a popular theme which children enjoy. It is often child-initiated, as children come into the setting talking about the refuse collector they have seen or the ambulance which went past when they were on their way that morning. 'People who Help us' is used in all early years settings to teach children about personal safety and to encourage them to take notice of the world around them.

For this reason, I have written a planning e-book which contains ideas for activities to follow the children’s interests within this theme, all following the learning and development guidance of the EYFS.

You can buy my ‘People who Help Us’ e-book on my website –

www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

To complement your story telling and my e-book, Chell from www.chelltune.co.uk has added a wonderful set of flat glove puppets to her range, which cover many of the characters you will be thinking about when you plan this theme eg nurse, policewoman, farmer and doctor.

With the farmer flat glove puppet, simply add some small world animals, a Lego or home-made farmyard scene, a few animal jigsaws and a selection of farm related books (Farmyard Tales from Usborne books are perfect) and you have a wonderful story sack to inspire children.

Children should be encouraged to use these resources both inside the setting and outdoors. They can use the glove while pretending to milk the cow, find eggs from the hen and do all the other things, just like Spot the Dog in ‘Spot goes to the Farm’ by Eric Hill.

Enjoy!

EYFS ~ dressing up thoughts

2008-07-04T09:42:00.003+01:00

I have two friends who are childminders.

Sue has a big bag of dressing up clothes, bags, hats and jewellery from all over the world, always on the floor in her playroom and she loves nothing more than watching children delightedly rummaging through the items to find something they want to wear.

Jane has carefully laid out clothes sets, with a dress, shoes, jewellery, bag etc for that particular culture or style of dress. She sits with the children when they are choosing and gets the items out, one by one, so they can appreciate the cut and beauty of the fabric, learn about the country from which the clothes originate and talk about how the clothes might be worn. She will then read them a book which complements the clothes set they have chosen or model a role play scenario they might want to follow, giving them ideas for their play.

I have been thinking about both approaches in relation to the EYFS. Is one right and the other wrong? Both are encouraging play, which is key to the ethos of the EYFS. Both are allowing children’s free choice. Both are providing a range of clothes from different religions and cultures, to extend children’s knowledge of the world in which they live.

Perhaps the biggest difference is that Sue’s clothes are out all the time for children to choose from, while Jane’s are on a high shelf, immediately accessible when she has the time to sit with the children and support their learning. Some might also say that Jane is promoting respect for the clothes, while Sue’s free-for-all is encouraging imagination and free-flowing play.

I think, having read the EYFS, that both approaches have their merits. That is the beauty of the EYFS – it is not prescriptive and it does not set barriers to learning. It encourages each practitioner to work in their own way... so long as each can show they are supporting children in working towards meeting the learning and development goals for each child’s age and stage of development.

See my website ~ www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

:))

EYFS - Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy

2008-06-23T20:16:00.003+01:00

The EYFS is a cause of concern to many providers – wondering how they will fulfil the various learning and development criterion in their already busy days.

I have been looking at the resources provided by my friend Chell at http://www.chelltune.co.uk. She has counting teaching mitts which make it fun for children to learn all about ‘Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy’ - numbers for labels and counting and calculating - as they count forwards and backwards during the related songs and rhymes.

She also sells a range of puppets which can be used for ‘Creative Development’ during role play and story times.

I love her hand puppets and gloves which represent different characters from children’s favourite stories such as ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘Three Little Pigs’

The emphasis of the EYFS is learning through play and interactive activities linked to songs and rhymes are a fun way for children to do this... Chell’s range of puppets also includes ones which can be used with favourite songs, such as ‘Incy Wincy Spider’ (he’s cute) and the 'Child's Play' range of books which include 'Wind the Bobbin up' and 'Miss Polly had a Dolly'.

These products link well with my range of EYFS e-books ...

EYFS – Observations;

EYFS – Planning;

EYFS – Meeting the Standards;

Play and activities for under 3s using EYFS.

All are available on my website – www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk.

:))

EYFS ~ bears activities

2008-06-18T20:30:00.006+01:00

We are half way through our bears theme, which we are following to celebrate Paddington's birthday and I thought I would share. I am really proud of the way the children have embraced the activities.

On Monday, I gave them each a bear to care for - I told them they needed to make sure their bear had plenty to eat and drink and a place to sleep. The children made beds for their bears using the Lego and borrowed doll's blankets and bottles to keep them warm and well fed.

We then went on the internet to choose some bears for downloading and printing. We coloured our bears and put some little ones on sticks to use as puppets, so we could use them while singing bear songs - 'Bear went over the mountain' and 'Teddy bear turn around' are 2 of our favourites.

We took all our bear books off the book shelf and we are working our way through them - I don't think we will need to go to the library to top up our stock as we have plenty. We are also finding out all about real bears and we now know that brown bears are very big and polar bears live in a world of ice and snow, which is why they are white.

Tomorrow, we are going to do some baking to make honey cakes as these are what bears like best. We will also try marmalade sandwiches, like Paddington. I also found some bear cutters which we can use with the playdough we made the other day ... it should be a fun afternoon!

Before everyone goes home we will have a teddy bear's picnic and give our special bears some of the honey cakes we made - I hope they enjoy them!

I also hope we have inspired you!

See my website ~ www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

National Childminding Week, 14 - 21 June 2008

2008-06-08T19:27:00.003+01:00

I have just finished my planning ... the theme this year is 'children's literacy'.

I intend to choose 2 planned activities per day, through the week and let the children take them wherever their interests go.

- download ‘A day with my childminder’ booklet from NCMA and use as an introduction to the theme of literacy;

- watch ‘Story Makers’ one afternoon on CBeebies and visit the website for lots of things to see and do -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/storymakers/stories/index.shtml;

- go on a ‘looking walk’ and spot signs outside eg signs in windows, words on shop fronts, posters in hairdressers, adverts in the local Spar, numbers on doors, phone numbers outside shops, car registration plates, adverts on passing cars and vans etc;

- get out a game to play together which the children already know and show them how the instructions are on or in the box and how they work;

- visit some child oriented websites eg www.cbeebies.co.uk and www.citv.co.uk and explore the instructions for playing games / navigating the sites;

- make a book with the children on their favourite subject. I will encourage them to cut pictures out of magazines and use these along with their special writing. I will also add their comments to the pages. Once finished, I will help children to bind the books using ribbon and we will keep them in the book box;

- make up a story about one of the dolls losing her blanket. Encourage the children to think up scenarios and carry the story forward. Use a voice recorder to make a record of the story and take photographs which can be transferred to a book later. Set up a role play doll’s bedroom so children can carry on the play;

- read one of the Tweenies online stories -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/tweenies/storytime/stories/;

- choose a book to make a new story sack. Think about putting in a toy, a book, items of clothing related to the story, a puzzle or game, some characters on sticks, pictures for colouring, something to make, repeated phrases on laminated card and any other role play items the children feel would be relevant. Ask parents for their ideas and input once you have chosen a book the children would like to tackle;

- involve parents by asking them what their favourite childhood stories were when they were young and finding copies via the Library, so children can experience them. Take the books out of the library and let parents borrow them overnight;

- visit the local Library either for story time or anytime. Find out if they are running any special activities for the week;

- ask childminder friends to visit and organise a story time. Choose 2 or 3 well-loved books and one newbie to share with the children. Provide opportunities to dress up and resources for role play afterwards so children can re-enact the stories;

- add one new resource to the outside area for mark making – I am going to add some new extra thick chalks for using on the patio as our other ones keep breaking. You could think of rainbow rice and a stirrer, leaf rubbing, finger painting the leaves on a tree etc;

- organise a treasure hunt in the garden with written and illustrated clues so the children can work them out by themselves. Buy some rubbers as prizes for each child;

- with the children, make a display of old CDs in the garden featuring the initial letter of each child’s name (and of significant people in their lives) in glitter glue;

- have a teddy bear’s picnic – write the invitations and shopping lists together, go shopping for the ingredients, make menus for the teddies, decorate the table and dress up for the activity. After the food, sing bear songs – Bear went over the mountain; Teddy bear’s picnic; Teddy bear, teddy bear turn around... more rhymes and finger plays here -

http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems19.html;

- have a poetry reading session. Either make up a poem (it does not have to rhyme) or use one we already know (a popular nursery rhyme). See if children will recite it to the group, but if not, say or sing it together and make a story board together. For example, for Incy Wincy Spider, draw a black drainpipe, some raindrops (together in a block, not individually) and a spider. Cut everything out and glue each to a lolly stick. Now act out the rhyme using the puppets – make sure everyone has a turn;

- introduce ‘Travelling Ted’ to the children, complete with a copy of a bear book and a blank exercise book for writing his adventures. Explain about sharing and taking care of Ted and draw straws to see who gets him first;

- read a foreign language book together. Choose one with dual language text or else make the story up together by ‘reading’ the pictures if you are not sure on the translation. Ask parents if they have any foreign language experience and borrow books if they have any;

- make some letter sewing cards. Draw some significant letters (initial letters for their names, m for mummy etc) in double writing (nice and thick), cut them out, laminate, hole punch round the sides and provide child-safe needles and some wool. Show children how to tie a knot in the end of the wool and encourage them to thread their wool in and out of the holes;

- there are plenty of mark making opportunities for Fathers Day;

- the NCMA book of the week is ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson (Macmillan children’s books). Use planned activities from ‘Children’s Favourite Books’ to follow a Gruffalo theme for a day (or maybe more);

- make a bookmark with each child featuring their favourite characters or things. Laminate for a longer life, put a hole in the top and thread a short piece of ribbon which can be tied in a bow. There are some nice bookmarks to download and colour for younger children here -

www.ichild.co.uk.

I know we will have fun!

See my website ~ www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

EYFS Play and activities for under 3s ~ new e-book!

2008-06-03T14:16:00.002+01:00

017 – EYFS - Play and activities for under 3s

This is a little planning e-book, 50+ pages, packed full of ideas for keeping under 3s entertained and educated while following the guidelines of the EYFS.

The e-book starts with a look at how the EYFS links to Birth to 3 Matters, then examines each of the 6 areas of the EYFS in detail, with suggestions for how to resource and plan activities, following each child’s individual interests.

I have priced it at £2.99 and it is available from the 'books for sale' page of my website - http://www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk/.

I hope you find it useful! :))

Nigel's Ofsted inspection!

2008-06-02T22:35:00.003+01:00

Nigel had his Ofsted inspection last week, just before our holidays.

It was an after-school inspection and we had 7 children here aged from a 1 year old baby to a 15 year old! The inspector was lovely and really put him at his ease.

She had a good look around the house and watched what he was doing with the children for a long time... then she sat in the garden and read his portfolio. She followed up by asking him lots of questions relating to safeguarding, following parents wishes, diversity, fire practices etc.

He finished up by getting 5 good gradings which is absolutely brilliant for someone who has not been registered long and works part-time hours! The inspector was full of compliments about our teamwork, which she said was excellent.

We are really pleased and went on holiday with smiles on our faces! :))

Adios amigos!

2008-05-21T19:10:00.003+01:00

We are off to Majorca on Sunday 25th May for a week!

We have booked a car, so we can go off and explore the island and I have been practicing my Spanish for when we get lost LOL!!

We are very excited about the holiday, not least because it is ‘all inclusive’ and we will not have to do any cooking for a week...

Outside art and the EYFS

2008-05-21T19:03:00.002+01:00

Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist who lives in Scotland and produces sculptures using nature and natural elements.

We have been exploring his work on the internet and looking at some of the pictures he makes. Inspired by this, we set off on a nature hunt to find some resources to make an outside collage, which we could leave outside to be reclaimed by the elements later.

The children found leaves, twigs, interesting stones, a small branch, some pieces of slate and a couple of chunks of coal. We also carefully picked a very few flowers - we are always aware of our impact on the environment when picking flowers and we take scissors so we do not pull up the roots by accident.

When we came back, we made our sculptures in the garden on one of the tree trunks, tucked away in the corner of the garden, so it wouldn’t be knocked when playing later. All the children worked together on the sculpture and took great pride in showing it to their parents when it was finished.

This activity can be linked to the EYFS in many ways - children are...
- using their bodies to reach, stretch, bend, lift etc which links with physical development;
- looking up images on the computer, linking to knowledge and understanding of the world;
- finding out about a famous artist;
- creating something using crafts, which links with creative development.

Depending on the individual child's learning and development, you might observe them...
- counting their leaves (problem solving, reasoning and numeracy);
- cooperating and sharing with others (personal, social and emotional development;
- attempting to find initial letters for the natural resources (communication, language and literacy);
- wanting to find out more about trees or other natural resources (knowledge and understanding of the world).

EYFS - Meeting the Standards ~ new e-book!

2008-05-06T19:36:00.004+01:00

Part 1 - Introduction (47 pages)

This section takes a close look at the whole of the EYFS pack and shows how it all fits together and links with the Every Child Matters agenda. It examines each of the learning and development requirements in detail and gives ideas for introducing EYFS to parents. It also aims to answer some frequently asked questions about using and implementing the EYFS and how to provide evidence for Ofsted.

Part 2 – The Welfare Standards (62 pages)

A close look at each of the Welfare Standards, giving ideas for the kind of evidence you might already have in place (or things you can introduce) to show Ofsted you are meeting (and exceeding) each Standard. I have not included examples of policies and procedures – there are plenty of those available for free elsewhere. I have, however, pulled phrases out of various Standards that must be included in certain policies.

Part 3 – Principles 1 & 2 (60 pages) and Part 4 – Principles 3 & 4 (55 pages)

These sections give a detailed walk-through for each of the EYFS Principles. There are lots of ideas for how you can support each child’s learning and development using the Principles and ways to prove to Ofsted that you are meeting (and exceeding) them.

When the updated version of the EYFS and the final format for the Self Evaluation Form (SEF) are released, I will email a free update clarifying the parts which have changed and giving ideas for completing the SEF.

This is a big book and it has taken me a long time to write. I have looked at every aspect of the EYFS and put together a document which I hope will make EYFS sound do-able.

It is now available from my website and costs £9.99 - if you want to order it on a CD, please contact me by email...

knutsfordchildminding@hotmail.co.uk or knutsfordchildminding@yahoo.co.uk

... and I will send you an invoice... I will charge £1 extra for p&p.

Our listening walk

2008-04-26T21:21:00.004+01:00

We were thinking about loud and quiet noises today, so we went out for a listening walk.

We took the tape recorder with us so we could listen to the sounds when we came back and the children suggested what to record.

We heard so many noises - obvious ones like cars, a motorbike, a dog barking, birds singing and ones we don't listen to or notice very often like a long goods train going over the bridge (lucky that one!), a van beeping as it reversed, ducks quacking, children laughing, our footsteps through some puddles of water etc...

When we came back, we listened to the noises on the recorder again, tried to remember what they were and thought about whether they were loud or quiet. We read 'Quiet, Loud' by Leslie Patricelli and got the instruments out to experiment with different sounds.

It was a great activity and one which all the children enjoyed ... hopefully they did a lot of learning while having fun and experimenting with technology!

Manchester Early Years Exhibition

2008-04-25T12:57:00.002+01:00

We went there last Saturday... Nigel took me as a birthday treat and it was great fun! I got lots of freebies from the various stands and made some new friends - as well as meeting up with some Childminders I haven't seen for a while.

Thanks to Ajs and Miffy, I now have a beautiful new necklace to wear for my next night out...

Thanks to Celine, I have a lot more freebies than I thought possible... the chat of the Irish!

It was wonderful to meet other people from the forum - LittleMissSparkles sparkled, Buildingblocks and Mr Buildingblocks are lovely, kind and generous people, Alex (Ajs daughter) is a credit to her parents, Nix came up all the way from Surrey and is lovely...

A very exciting and interesting day finished off with a Chinese take-away and a DVD.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making my birthday celebrations so special!

Our nature walk

2008-04-10T18:54:00.005+01:00

We have been thinking about spring this week... unfortunately the weather has been against us and the snow made us feel a bit chilly and not at all spring-like, but we have managed some forays into the garden.

We have seen the buds growing on trees and little plants pushing though the soil... we drew some of the plants and talked about the different shades of green in the garden. This was followed by a very messy paint mixing session!

To try and include all areas of learning and development in our activities, I planned for us to go on a nature walk.

- We thought carefully about what clothes we needed to wear to be dressed for the weather (PSED);

- We talked about what we might see on our walk and spent time looking together at some flower and nature books so we could make a list of things to try and spot (CLL);

- We counted all the items on our list and planned to make a counting line when we came back (PSR&N);

- We talked about which way we would go on our walk and the children made suggestions, using their knowledge of the local area (KUW);

- Of course, the walk itself would ensure we got plenty of good exercise in the fresh air (PD);

- We decided that we would make some daffodil pictures on our return (CD).

A great time was had by all!

See my website ~ www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

Knutsford Childminding Website

2008-03-29T17:14:00.004Z

I have a website to promote my Childminding service.

It contains information about Childminding, including my up-to-date vacancy details.

There are photographs of my setting and I have written some blurb about my latest Ofsted inspection.

I have put all the Childminding information on my website into sections to follow the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda - I hope this is a useful resource for Childminders who may be unsure about how to set out their Portfolios.

It also lists all my e-books and has PayPal links for buyers...

Alongside some of my e-books, there are links to free downloads added with the kind permission of Sparklebox.

Don't forget to leave a message in my guest book!

Songs and Rhymes planning ~ e-book

2008-03-27T20:46:00.003Z

My e-book ‘Songs and Rhymes’, available from my website, has a section devoted to following the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum, while planning exciting and fun activities related to popular children’s songs.

I have been working closely with Chell, who owns a website which is devoted to supporting children with their communication skills – Chelltune.

Chell has a selection of colourful teaching mitts for using to complement popular children’s songs such as ‘5 Little Ducks’ and finger puppets for songs and nursery rhymes such as ‘Baa, baa black sheep’ and ‘Dingle, dangle scarecrow’, ‘Humpty dumpty’, ‘Twinkle, Twinkle little Star’ and ‘Incy Wincy spider’.

All of these encourage song, dance and movement and I have found children love interacting with them. I put them in a bag from which the children can self-select. They choose a puppet and we sing the song. During the song they take ownership of that puppet, showing the other children in the group how to move or jump or dance. It encourages children’s self-confidence, raises their self-esteem and helps them make relationships with others in the group, thereby fulfilling many of the EYFS ‘Personal, Social and Emotional Development’ learning and development criteria, in one fun activity.

As Chell says...

'All children love singing – partially hearing and deaf children particularly benefit from hearing or feeling the rhythms of music and it is excellent for children in wheelchairs, or those who use walking aids, to practice their directional and steering techniques by moving rhythmically to songs and rhymes’.

See my website ~ www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

Childminding forum ~ my favourite forum!

2008-03-27T20:13:00.001Z

Working from home as an Ofsted registered Childminder can be a lonely life.

I love children, but I also enjoy the company of like-minded (sometimes totally bonkers) adults!

If you are a Childminder, can I suggest you have a look at the Childminding Forum here –

http://www.childmindingforum.co.uk/

It's full of friendly, chatty, helpful childminders who are always happy to pass the time of day, have a gossip and help others...

Belonging to a special group like this makes my life just that little bit easier! :)

Knutsford Childminding ~ my e-books

2008-03-27T20:00:00.002Z

Outstanding Ofsted Registered Childminder

Knutsford, Cheshire

Est. 1994

knutsfordchildminding@hotmail.co.uk

Here's a list of all my books!

001 - Multicultural Activities for pre-school Children – at least 2 fully planned activities for each month, following the EYFS areas of learning and development; plus lots of general multicultural and global activity ideas - this really is a massive resource!
Price - £8.99 plus £1 p&p – this e-book will be posted out on a CD as it is too big to email.

002 - Childminders Daily Diary - daily, weekly and monthly forms to complete, to make sure you meet all statutory and good practice requirements for the EYFS. Includes planning and observation sheets, self-evaluations and lots and lots of other forms - I love making forms!
ONLY - £4.99

003 - Religions of the World - perhaps for slightly older children, all your religion questions answered, with stories from each major religion and pictures to print for colouring.
ONLY - £4.99

004 - Children's Behaviour - hints and tips on how to manage various behaviours, positive behaviour management techniques, ideas for how to word your behaviour management policy and ideas on how to tackle bullying.
ONLY - £4.99

005 - Risk Assessments - the EYFS will make risk assessments obligatory - get ready early! This e-book contains a full risk assessment for every area of your home, with sample forms and ideas for good practice. There is also a section on risk assessing outings.
ONLY - £6.99

006 - Outside Play - the EYFS will make every day an outside play day! This e-book contains ideas for how to plan, develop, resource and make the most your outside area (large or small), including ideas for games to play and lots of fun things to do. It includes safety and risk assessment advice.
ONLY - £4.99

007 - Music and Rhymes - Songs, rhymes and words, making instruments, lots of planned song activities and much more musical ideas. This is one of my favourite e-books as I use ideas from it every week to plan new activities and give me fresh ideas for making songs fun!
ONLY - £3.99

008 - December Celebrations Planning - there are 13 multicultural festivals in December and I have included planning for each, linked to the EYFS.
Note - if you want this and you already have ‘Multicultural Activities for pre-school Children’, 2 of the celebrations are duplicated, although I have tried to put a bit more in for each.
ONLY - £4.99

009 - Seasons Planning - covers spring, summer, autumn and winter and linked to the EYFS, this e-book includes my multicultural planning calendar. There are lots of ideas for activities to support many of the global festivals and celebrations through the year - except December as that’s covered in ‘December Celebrations Planning’.
ONLY - £5.99

010 – People Who Help Us Planning - a popular theme for young children. This e-book contains planning, games and activities for lots of different occupations. It is multicultural and has been written with an awareness of anti-discriminatory practice. There is an attachment of flash cards I made for a mindee who is a visual learner.
Note - the pictures used in this e-book are freely available for public use from various websites on the internet. I have referenced each back to source where possible or left the © intact as relevant. I am not selling the illustrations – they are provided for colour only. There is plenty of written material in this e-book to more than warrant the selling price.
ONLY - £3.99

011 – Meeting the Standards – this e-book is designed to prepare the reader for an Ofsted inspection by taking a close look at each of the 14 National Standards and showing how you can best meet and exceed them… with activities for the children and links to more information.
Note - this is not relevant to the EYFS, it has been written for the National Standards.
ONLY - £3.99

012 – Children’s Favourite Books – planning – to help celebrate the National Year of Reading, 12 favourite books, from popular contemporary authors, planned and ready for your next reading session with the children. The e-book includes sample planning sheets and suggestions for activities to cover all aspects of the EYFS curriculum.
ONLY - £3.99

014 – EYFS Observations - all the information you need to begin observing and assessing children in line with the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) requirements. Sample observations, ideas for how to set out your observations so parents and children can benefit from the information... there is also a big section on how to celebrate each child’s learning journey with them and their parents… and lots more!
ONLY - £4.99

015 – EYFS Planning – there is a lot written about how to plan for EYFS – this is my interpretation! I have used the EYFS as a base for showing how we can best plan for each child’s learning journey. This includes looking closely at each of the Foundation Stage Principles and seeing how these are linked to good practice – which we do every day.
ONLY - £4.99

NOTE – I am going to do one about the EYFS next... I’m just waiting until they tell us what changes are being made to the Welfare Standards… I believe a revision is due out soon.

The other stuff –

- All pages can be printed again and again – just save them to your hard drive;

- Childminders Daily Diary comes in Microsoft Word format so you can personalise the forms, the rest are supplied in Adobe Reader format due to repeated plagiarising by other buyers;

- I haven’t used much colour because I know people don’t always have a colour cartridge in their printer;

- All links on my website to Sparklebox are included with the site owner's permission;

- All my material contains references / ideas for good practice from relevant books, magazines and websites. Every time I use an outside reference, I inform the reader, both within the text and in a references chapter at the end;

- Free P&P - apart from ‘Multicultural Activities’, all the e-books will be emailed to you once I have received your payment – I aim for this to be same or next day, but I work with children so please bear with me!

- Please make immediate payment by PAYPAL – you can use your credit card;
Please note – PayPal e-cheques take 7-10 days to clear!

- Please be certain about what you are ordering as it is impractical to offer returns or refunds on an e-book;

- If you have any questions or have problems, please contact me and I will do my best to help;

- I offer customers ongoing support – please email me if there are any issues you need to discuss.

Please do not consider re-selling my books. I am selling them to you for your own use only.

They have taken me many years to produce and I will pursue anyone who copies any of the material from them to sell as their own.

Thank you!

March 2008

2008-03-27T19:29:00.002Z

It's been a lovely month with 2 birthdays and lots of role play parties and musical bumps!

We have also celebrated National Pig Day, Dr Seuss's birthday, St Patrick's Day and Easter... we've been very busy bees!

We have managed to get out in the sunshine and use the garden, although the grass has been a little boggy - I must try and get patio quotes to the top of next month's list of things to do.

I have had an exciting month with my e-books as well - my website now features links to some lovely freebies from Sparklebox!

I'll add to this soon!

Bye for now Sarah xx

See my website ~ www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk