Mini Badgers Childminding

🏴‍☠️ Ahoy, mateys! We’ve been having so much fun lately being pirates on the hunt for hidden treasure! 🏴‍☠️💎

Yesterday, we extended the children’s interest by creating our very own treasure hunt in the local woods. Armed with their clipboards, the children carefully searched for treasure chests hidden along the trail, matching the numbered chests they found to the ones on their sheets and ticking them off as they went.

There was lots of excitement, teamwork and problem-solving as the children explored the woodland, searched for clues and celebrated each new treasure chest they discovered. It was a wonderful adventure filled with laughter, curiosity and plenty of pirate imagination! ☠️🗺️✨

⭐ Learning opportunities: • Number recognition and matching
• Counting and early maths skills
• Concentration and observation
• Problem-solving and critical thinking
• Physical development through walking, searching and exploring outdoors
• Communication and language through discussions and shared excitement
• Imaginative play and storytelling

🏴‍☠️✨🌳💎

🚀✨ Today we blasted off into a space adventure! ✨🚀

This morning our sensory tray was transformed into outer space, where we explored planets, rockets, numbers, and sparkly "moon rocks." The children loved singing one of our current favourites, "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, We're Going to the Moon", as they launched rockets and created their own imaginative space missions. 🌙⭐

Learning opportunities included: 🔢 Number recognition and counting as we explored the space-themed resources.
🚀 Developing fine motor skills through scooping, pouring, and manipulating small objects.
🗣️ Building language and communication skills by talking about planets, space travel, and what we might find in the galaxy.
✨ Encouraging imaginative play, curiosity, and problem-solving through open-ended exploration.

🐠🌊 Later, we dived beneath the waves to learn about coral reefs. Using watercolours, the children created their own beautiful coral reef pictures inspired by the colourful underwater photographs and book. We also discussed the amazing creatures that call coral reefs home.

Learning opportunities included: 🎨 Exploring creativity and self-expression through painting.
🖌️ Strengthening fine motor control and hand-eye coordination.
🌍 Learning about marine habitats and the importance of caring for our oceans.
💬 Expanding vocabulary with new words such as coral, reef, and ocean.

A wonderful day full of imagination, creativity, and discovery! 💛

We are all set and ready to go, and we can't wait to welcome the children in the morning! 💛

In our sensory tray, we are heading off on a treasure hunt as a continuation of last week's adventures. The children absolutely loved exploring life as pirates and searching for hidden treasure, so we're excited to continue the fun! ☠️🏴‍☠️✨

In our playhouse, our dinosaurs have moved in! 🦕🦖 This is one of the children's favourite resources at the moment. We've added some real fossils that my hubby and I found on the Jurassic Coast, along with dinosaur bones and footprint discoveries for the children to investigate.

Our shelves are full of exciting invitations to explore:
🌊 Our ocean shelf, where children can catch and name the sea creatures they find.
🌿 Our jungle shelf, inspired by one of our current favourite songs, "Walking Through the Jungle."
🐦 Our bird shelf, complete with wriggly worms for little hands to catch.
🐞 Our bug shelf, packed with a variety of fascinating minibeasts to discover.

At the table, we're inviting the children to create their very own coral reefs for the fish as we continue our exploration of the ocean. 🐠🪸

Through these activities, the children will be developing their communication and language skills, fine motor control, imagination, problem-solving abilities, early scientific thinking, and understanding of the world through hands-on play and exploration.

We can't wait to see where the adventures take us! ❤️

Ta-da! 🦈

We love sharks here, so I've created a fun balancing and counting activity all about feeding the sharks!

Using recycled materials and a little creativity, this invitation to play encourages children to develop their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, balance, counting, number recognition, problem-solving, and concentration. Best of all, they're learning through play while exploring something they're genuinely interested in.

Following children's interests is such a wonderful way to keep learning meaningful, engaging, and fun. I can't wait to see the children dive into this one! 🦈💙

Being a childminder often means getting creative to support children's interests and extend their learning through play and exploration.

I love using cardboard and recycled materials wherever I can to create new resources for the children to enjoy. Even on a Sunday evening, you'll often find me crafting something new! It's one of the many things we do in our spare time because we're passionate about providing the best experiences and opportunities for the children in our care.

Any guesses what I'm making? 👀

version keeps it genuine and appreciative of the effort you put into your childminding while flowing naturally for Instagram.

☀️🌊🍦 We are all ready to goooo and cannot wait to see the children in the morning! 🍦🌊☀️

A new month and a new season means a fresh play space full of exciting summer-themed invitations to play, explore and learn. 💛

🍦 Sensory Tray Our sensory tray has an ice cream theme with bowls, scoops and cones ready for lots of filling, emptying, pouring and scooping fun!

🎨 Craft Table We will be creating our very own ocean silhouettes while learning about the amazing creatures that live beneath the sea. 🐙🐠🦈

🍨 Home Corner Our home corner has been transformed into an ice cream shop, where the children can serve customers, take orders and create delicious imaginary treats. 😋

🏠🚒 Small World House Our fire station is still going strong! The children have loved it so much that we decided to keep it a little longer. We have now added doctors and paramedics to extend their play, encouraging conversations about people who help us and the important roles they play in our community.

🏴‍☠️ Top Shelf Adventure We're heading off on a treasure hunt and exploring the ocean, searching for hidden treasures and discovering fascinating sea creatures along the way.

🦀🦈🐢 Little Shelves Our shelves are full of ocean-themed activities to help strengthen fine motor skills, including catching sea animals, exploring sharks and crabs, and learning all about life under the sea.

🦁🐘 Dear Zoo Corner We also have a little Dear Zoo area ready, as it won't be long until our exciting visit to Marwell Zoo! We can't wait to learn more about different animals and their habitats.

✨ Through these activities, the children will be developing their fine motor skills, communication and language, imagination, creativity, early maths skills, problem-solving, social skills and understanding of the world around them — all through play and exploration.

We are so excited to see where this month's adventures take us! 💙

🌊☀️🍦🦈🐘💛

Today we visited the Family Festival in Wimborne during my weekend off. 👀😂

I don't usually work weekends, and this one was no exception, but I couldn't resist sharing this...

I got to hold a beautiful barn owl 🦉 and I am far more excited about it than any grown adult probably should be! 😂

The children know how much we love owls here, so I can't wait to tell them all about it next week. I'm sure there will be lots of questions, owl facts and excited conversations!

I promise I am an adult... but getting to hold a barn owl absolutely made my day! 🥰

I’m so proud that my colleague Danniella has smashed her Level 2 qualification in Early Years! 🎉

Over the last year, I’ve watched her grow so much in confidence and become such an important part of our team. She is an amazing playmate with the children, always bringing fun, creativity, and kindness into every day.

Danniella is supportive, caring, and always willing to help others, and I’m so excited to continue supporting her through her Level 3 journey. We are all so proud of you! 💛

☀️🌻 This morning we are starting to explore all things summer with our sunflower sensory tray.

I have added sunflowers, sunflower seeds, bugs and the sunflower life cycle to help extend the children’s learning and encourage lots of curiosity and conversation. 🐞🐛🦋

The tray is set up with different tools and containers ready for the children to enjoy filling, scooping, pouring and emptying as they play and explore. ✨

Earlier this year the children planted their own giant sunflower for their mums, so this activity also gives them opportunities to talk about how tall their sunflowers at home have grown so far. 🌱💛

This invitation to play will support:
🌻 Fine motor skills
🌻 Hand-eye coordination
🌻 Communication and language
🌻 Understanding the world
🌻 Mathematical language such as full, empty, more and less

🦕❄️ Following the children’s interests and helping us stay cool, I created this icy dinosaur swamp tray ready for the children to explore!

I’ve added pipettes to encourage the children to strengthen those little fingers and develop fine motor skills while squeezing and squirting the icy water. 🖐️💧

There are also dinosaur footprints for the children to match to the dinosaurs, supporting problem solving and recognition skills. The dinosaur bones will encourage lots of mathematical language as the children explore the longest and shortest bones. 🦴🦖

A fun, sensory-rich setup inviting curiosity, exploration and imaginative play while keeping cool on a warm day! 🌿✨

Links to learning:
• Fine motor development
• Hand-eye coordination
• Problem solving and critical thinking
• Early maths language (size comparison)
• Communication and language
• Sensory exploration and imaginative play