Blanket love

 I love crochet and sometimes have time to make baby blankets for new siblings, even better when I’m looking after the baby and they bring their blanket with them to snuggle while they settle in!

Birthday Arts and Crafts

We always celebrate children’s birthdays with a little party! It’s so lovely to help make children feel special and learn about celebrating. It’s a great reason for doing some arts and crafts too. Today we made these gorgeous layer cake cards which provided an opportunity to practice cutting skills, counting and glueing and sticking. It’s also a chance for children to express their likes and dislikes and preferences as they choose their favourite colours and we talk about what happens at a party and make plans together!

Fantastic dens

My daughter was off school for an Insed day and decided to build a den with the little ones. They absolutely loved it and it has featured in all our games. She used canes ( sorry tomato plants!), pegs and a sheet. Dens provide endless fun; countless role play games and imaginative play, it provides a quiet space for down time and we even sheltered from the rain during story time.

Snail Love

We have had a lot of rain this summer and so the garden has been full of snails which the children have become fascinated with. I follow the children\"s interests in my planning and snails have provided lots of learning opportunities. We have gone on snail hunts, learning what they eat, following the silvery trails, looking at the patterns on their shells, collecting them, counting them and so on and on. And trying not to get cross that they\"ve eaten all our carrot seedlings we planted!! (we planted more higher up) Of course we read the Snail on the Whale too. We made these lovely paper plate snails. So many learning opportunities and all the prime areas of learning and development. Children\"s self esteem is enhanced through outdoor learning and I can literally see their confidence growing on a daily basis as they make choices and working together is great for social skill development. 

Perks of the job

The hugs I get and give on a day basis are more than a perk of the job! Of course it’s wonderful but it’s so much more. Helping children to feel secure attachment means that they will be ready to learn and grow. I love it when a child in my care starts to learn about their feelings and is confident about their needs and can tell me when they are tired or hungry or need a hug. It’s such a privilege to be able to show that professional love for my little gangs; teaching and nurturing them to care for each other, build resilience and supporting them on that journey of emotional discovery. 

Cress letters

Cress letters! This is always such a fun thing to do. There are fine motor skills to practice as we sprinkle the tiny seeds on, social skills too as we take turns, learning to care for something as we must remember to water each day, learning to recognise the shape of their own letter to help with early literacy skills. And of course the joy of watching something we’ve planted growing. We had egg and cress sandwiches and the children enjoyed tasting the slightly spicy peppery cress and deciding whether they liked it or not! 

Duck fun

Today has been all about ducks. The children were given little ducks in birthday party bags at the weekend so we read Daisy Duck books, sang the three little ducks and then decided to make a pond in the garden in this big tub. The children helped fill the bucket, then decided to look for lily pads and nasturtiums were perfect! This is such a lovely example of not knowing where the day will take us; on the spot planning allows the children’s interests to totally influence what we do. My role is to provide materials, ample provocation and stimulation and challenges to help further learning and promote interest. 

Colourful artwork

I gave the children some coloured paper and asked them to paint their favourite things. These are the results which they proudly showed me and took home to their parents. Can you spot a train, a garden, a monster and a rocket? The important thing when children express themselves through art and colour is always to reward their efforts and wait for them to describe what they have produced, never putting my expectations onto what they have done. The children became utterly absorbed in this activity and there was also lots of lovely chatter about the colours they were choosing and what they would tell their mummies and daddies.

Chalking fun!

I always keep some giant chalks around for the children to do some mark making. They go with us to the allotment too and even the bigger children love making patterns and once they decorated the whole garden by colouring in all the edging bricks in different colours over the course of 2 days!

Colour magic!

Colours colours and more colours! I was so impressed by this child's ability at the tender age of 4 to paint such recognisable things in his pictures now. I really think they are masterpieces and worthy of framing! Can you see a garden and a train?

First Harvest

Hooray its rhubarb time!! Its always so lovely when we can pick the first few stalks of the season. The children love helping to pull them, cut or tear the leaves off and compost them, wash the rhubarb and then help carry them home to make into something yummy! Firm favourites are rhubarb fool, rhubarb crumble, rhubarb cake and of course lots of it ends up as puree in the freezer for year round delicious healthy organic puddings.

Terrific Transport Network owned by kids

One of my children (now 8) who has been with me since he was a baby has quite the train, bus and basically any transport system obsession. He does NOT like or approve of cars however! He has designed a whole transport network for the house and has even made a ticket dispenser, maps and route planners. He and the other children can be heard giving the babies lifts around the house on their ride-on-trucks, saying things like 'if you want bathroom, you're on the wrong train, please change here'. I love the thought that went into this and the confidence he has to run with his ideas and the way he got everyone else on board (sorry!). He has put so much work into it and all the other children were really engaged with this project for several months! It provided lots of opportunities for interesting conversations about the environmental impact, sustainability, building and planning. I absolutely love this and feel so proud of him!

NOTE re the plug sockets: the little babies in my care can't reach these and the older ones who can have learned not to touch them.

Messy fun

Painting is always a firm favourite activity, even if it does mean that most of the paint is on our hands rather than the paper.  Today he spent most of the time asking to do finger painting and concentrated really well on applying the paint to hands and fingers. So pleased with himself! We made some lovely finger painting pictures to take home to show mummy and daddy and learned about colours while we did it. I always keep a big plastic sheet ready to protect the table and the cookie trays at hand as they are brilliant for putting lots of colours in and super easy to wash afterwards.

Thats Not my....

Babies just love the That's Not My....range of books and we have lots of them to keep little ones stimulated and develop their love of books and reading. There is so much learning in these little books and they are so portable and durable too for when we are out at the park, shops or on a school run even. The babies can touch and feel the lovely range of textures, try to find the little mouse who always appears on every page and learn to help turn the pages, taking turns, learning about body parts and animals and colours..... the list is endless. I also find that these books can be useful when children are learning to read as something familiar is comforting and they feel such a sense of achievement when they already know lots of the words.

Helping New Baby settle

We have a new baby and everyone is helping him to settle in by showing him the toys, helping him get things he wants and of course giving him lots of cuddles! Sand pit and cars are always a hit especially when the 2 things are combined! My big girls love helping with the little ones and make them feel like part of the gang very quickly.

Leaving Pressie and Certificates!

I got this! How wonderful to know I'm so appreciated!
We had a lovely party to celebrate the children achieving so much in their time with me and I made little certificates for them to take home. They were super excited and I was only a bit upset to say goodbye (ok a LOT!).

Our Neighbour’s dog!

Meet Rosie our cute new neighbour! Sometimes she pops over the fence, with everyone’s permission of course, and gets a little bit of tickling by the children which we all love. Such a treat getting to experience having a pet nearby. She is very gentle and the children are learning about how to wait and ask before rushing in. We regularly meet her when she’s out having a walk too which is lovely.

Cafe Treats!

One of our treats is to go to a cafe for snack time and sometimes we have baby chinos, even luckier if it's one of those cafes that don't charge for a little bit of warm milk, a ton of tickle froth and chocolate on top of course! Chocolate smiles all around.

Making wobbly fish

I saw these lovely fish on a Facebook post via my WI president, something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l0tT9PVadQ 

so simply had to give it a go. It was actually really simple. The children loved helping to stick the eyes on, watching me snip snip and then we sang fishy songs. It prompted me to get out lots of under the sea jigsaws to think about what other creatures you would find in the sea.

Making a stick house

More Forest school fun: We've been having fun going outside to find sticks. I have really been amazed by how many activities we've been able to do just with the simple stick!

There is so much learning, for example thinking about health and safety (keep your sticks pointed down), making up songs ('Tap your sticks', 'this is the way we drum our sticks'), laying them straight, jumping over them and encouraging role play and imagination such as in this picture where we made a stick house. The children loved this activity and kept on talking about it and were able to tell their parents at pick up time. I think this is a really good example of how Forest School promotes independence, imagination and confidence building.