Little Bongos Childcare

The children loved our nature walk today on the last day of meteorological winter ❄. They used their senses to listen to their environment and spot lots of different things including birds 🐦, a construction site 🏗 and a helicopter 🚁.

The children were also delighted to experiment with some of the objects we came across to see what noises they made - the steel structures, echoing tunnel and giant tyre were particular favourites. What a great way to spend a Monday! 😊

This week the children really enjoyed this mark making invitation. The simplicity really seemed to capture their imaginations.

We spent time beforehand studying the flower and using lots of adjectives and mathematical language to describe what we could see: long thin stem; 1, 2, 3 green pointy leaves; curved red petals; wider at the top, thinner at the bottom...

The children then painted their own interpretations of what they could see in front of them. They were all so proud of what they created. 🎨🌹

All schools across Buckinghamshire have now been advised to close today because of the change to a Red Warning for strong winds across parts of Buckinghamshire by the Met Office.
Please stay safe - only travel if absolutely necessary. #StormEunice

Today we explored our love for Elmer; sharing the stories, discussing the beautiful illustrations and then having a go at creating our very own 'Elmers' using sticky glue and lots of fabulous coloured tissue paper. 🎨🐘

We had lots of fun on our nature walk today and ended up in an exciting new park! We're lucky to have so many parks near us and definitely make the most of them. The highlight of our trip according to the children was seeing (and hearing) the very noisy helicopter. 🚁

We had a lovely day exploring locally. The children enjoyed using their listening skills to identify trains, diggers, an ambulance and birds amongst other things before having lots of fun at the park. The highlight was apparently the huge slug we found though!

Today we enjoyed a beautiful autumnal walk.🍂🍁🍃 The children had fun finding and collecting different leaves and flowers (and a lot of sticks!) When we got back they had lots of fun using their collected treasures and lots of sticky glue to make fabulous autumn collages. 🌼☘🌸

Celebrating the fabulous Eric Carle with colourful tissue paper collages inspired by his beautiful books. 🎨🖼

Eric Carle's picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, first published in 1969, has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies and is a firm favourite here! 🐛 🦋 💛

We had a lovely day and lots of fun spotting wildlife whilst trying out the Active Communities Walk at Haydon Hill after it's official opening earlier this week.

On our walk today, the children were very excited to see a train and a digger. We also watched a crane lifting the new bridge into place that will extend the Waddesdon Greenway through Roman Park to Haydon Hill and can't wait to use it once it is completed.

Lovely morning at the allotment. Fingers crossed for lots of lovely fruit soon! 🍓

The children enjoyed printing using natural resources this morning (and then exploring what the flowers looked like inside). Beautiful pictures created independently by one and two year olds. 🤩

Timeline photos

This is my most widely shared post. And rightly so, it’s an important one. These are “prewriting patterns”, with the average (not prescribed) age at which children are developmentally ready to achieve these patterns listed below them in years and months. Being able to process visual information and produce a movement in response (e.g. copying these prewriting patterns or letter formations), is known as “visual motor integration”. ⠀
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Note that an X is not typically achieved until 4 years 11 months, and a triangle at 5 years 3 months. If a child can’t form these basic shapes...then they probably won’t be able to form letters. ⠀
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It is quite concerning then that there are 3 year 7 month olds starting formal schooling, where they’re expected to write. Not only are their visual motor integration skills not developed enough, their hands are also physically under-developed. In addition, recognising letters, understanding phonics and beginning to read are all needed in order for a child to write meaningfully, skills which children starting kindy typically don’t have. We also know that when a child learns something that doesn’t hold meaning, it‘s unlikely to stick. ⠀
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So if you have a 3-4 year old who spontaneously asks or attempts to write letters, that’s great; otherwise, there is no need to initiate or worry about this. Unfortunately there is a misconception, particularly with the way that the current curriculum stands, that earlier is better. Earlier is not always better.⠀

Source: Beery Buktenica Test of Visual Motor Integration, 6th Edition
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#visualmotorintegration #vmi #letterformations #prewriting #writing #kindy #schoolreadiness #earlierisnotbetter #toomuchtoosoon #letthembelittle #letthemplay #prewritingskills #foundationskills #phonics #phonologicalawareness #earlyliteracyskills #literacy #earlyreaders #reading #occupationaltherapy #paediatrics #paediatricot #kidsofperth #perthkids #schoolbasedtherapy #teacher #teachersofinstagram #australiancurriculum #schoolholidays #knowledgeispower

PARENTS!

Are you looking for high quality childcare with an early years professional, experienced in childcare development and who can provide a fantastic environment for your child? Well how about considering a childminder!

Find support - www.pacey.org.uk/NAB #notababysitter #childcarechampions

Some fabulous poppy interpretations created by our little artists today.

Some of the toys we played with today. 🧸🧩🚓📚

It doesn't stay looking like this for long but that's all part of the fun! 🤩

One of our lucky children found a book and kindly brought it in for us to share. 📖 We all had lots of fun reading the book and especially liked looking at all the different knickers the Queen wears! 👸👑 We then had lots of fun re-hiding it (several times!) when we went to the park. 🌳 Who will find it next?! 🧐

We had a fabulous day exploring the beautiful green areas we have locally (we found yummy blackberries!) followed by some vegetable picking at our allotment. Check out how big our pumpkin is getting! It will start turning orange as we get closer to Halloween. 🎃

Game - My First Day at School

For all the fabulous children leaving us for school next month.

Game - My First Day at School Help your child build their avatar and then explore what his/her first day of school might be like by having a go at classroom activities, playing in the playground and more!

The children love visiting our allotment. Today we were very excited to find some baby pumpkins hidden under the prickly leaves! 🎃

The runner beans and French beans provided lots of fun, as ever, for spotting and picking pods - I'm not sure we'll ever run out! 🌱

We had a fantastic day visiting the lovely staff and animals at Thrift Farm. Impeccably well behaved children and even the weather was on our side. 🤩

☀️🐖🐑🐐🦙🐇🦃🐓🦆🦜

We are so lucky to have so many beautiful walks so close by. Today we went spotting wild flowers, birds and - perhaps most excitingly - a man cutting the grass on the way back who the children loved waving to. :)

I think I have almost as much fun setting these toys up as the children have playing with them! 🥰

Today we had lots of fun visiting Rushmere Country Park to explore their 'Woollen Walk' exhibition. Lots of fabulous knitted and crocheted creatures to spot hidden in the trees as well as the compulsory den building! 🌳

Childminders must be regulated to ensure children are safe in their homes

Childminders must be regulated to ensure children are safe in their homes Last month, when we published the Ofsted Annual Report, we had good news to report about childminders. Ninety-four per cent of childminders were judged good or outstanding at their last inspection. And since 2012, the proportion of childminders judged to be at least good has improved at a faster rat...

A huge thank you to our fabulous families for the generous gifts we have received this week and especially to the wonderful children we've had the pleasure of sharing 2018 with.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas break 🎅🤶🎄🎁🎉

What are the benefits of using a childminder?

What are the benefits of using a childminder? By Penny Tassoni, early years trainer, author and president of childminders' organisation PACEY (Professional Association for Childcare & Early Years).

During one of our activities today the children had lots of fun making bird treats to hang outside. The children invested a lot of their time threading Cheerios onto pipe cleaners (and quite a lot of checking they tasted okay for the birds too! 😋 🐥)

What they were learning whilst they played:
Communication: understanding and following instructions, new vocabulary
Maths: counting, using mathematical languages (e.g. lots, full, empty, long)
Physical: fine motor skills, small hand muscle development (which helps support pre-writing skills), pincer grip, hand:eye co-ordination
PHSE: concentration, thinking skills, perseverance, celebrating achievements
The World: talking about the seasons, discussing the impact of less food available to wildlife, empathy for others

So they learnt lots but are all convinced they just had fun and ate lots of Cheerios! 😎

Here is a fun invitation to play we had earlier this week. The playdough mats suggest activities such as cutting and shaping the dough to create sails for a boat. Plus there are plenty of cutters, dough extruders, stamps, scissors, tweezers, scissor scoopers, modelling tools, pipe cleaners, googly eyes etc to allow the children's imaginations to truly run wild. We had sea creatures, hedgehogs, cars, clouds and yummy desserts created during this session.

Manipulating playdough helps to strengthen hand muscles and develop control over the fingers. Squishing, squashing, rolling and flattening playdough all help to develop children's muscles and encourage prewriting skills as well as other skills such as cutting with scissors and using tweezers.

Our playdough is homemade so we know it is taste-safe just in case. ✔

Our new mud kitchen just needs a few final additions and then will be ready for the children to let their imaginations run wild! They've loved watching it take shape at the allotment over the last few weeks. 😍

Lots of exciting Children In Need activities to do tomorrow! 😊

Four fabulous interpretations of the remembrance poppy created last week.