Among The Leaves

Summer is chugging along!
Here's some of last week!

Happy Friday everyone!

Here's our week at a glance!

A week off by the sea has come to an end and I’m looking forward to being reunited with all of ‘my’ littles this week.

I thought about them all loads, from wondering about how they were coping with the heat to thinking about all the fun things they would enjoy at the seaside. (A childminder is never truly off duty.)

A bit of a chopped up time coming up with school visits and settling in periods and getting ready for our new little over summer, so big breath and off we plunge into it all together.

Oh and I bought us all some new litter picking gloves 🤣

Another week done!

There are 7 areas of the EYFS and we cover them all constantly!

Personal social and emotional development- Being with our peers, lots of sharing navigation + conflict resolution and attending our playgroup to meet with more people.

Communication and language- there is new vocabulary, books and singing happening every day. Giving space to our younger friends to talk and thinking about body language.

Physical Development- Ball painting in a large tray as a group to raise and lower different sides, obstacle courses and scissor skills have been highlights this week.

Literacy - post office role play has been very popular, and books every day , a great balance between fiction and non fiction

Understanding the world- Lots of discussions about different sources of protein this week, visiting our Alpaca neighbours, looking after our little library and much more

Mathematics - Organising Dino's into sizes and categories, scientific containers in water play and our cupcake game helps us count past 10 when finding out who collected the most cakes

Creative Development- cutting and sticking, exploring a new scissor technique to make a fringe design, lots of role play holidays going on at the moment and yesterday afternoon we wore floaty scarves and became fairies

And that's just the highlights
Well done littles!

Considering it's only been a 3 day week with the children this week it's still been varied!

Repetition is very important for children, but so is using learnt skills in different ways. This helps keep it interesting, build a sense of self competence and build those connections in the brain.

Happy Friday one and all!

New episode is out!

Ep 16: Music to a Childminder's ears! In this episode, your host and colleague Charlotte will be chatting...

What a half term!

*Coloured water play with rose petals and containers
*Ice play with watercolour paints and brushes
*Painting with Alliums
*Item collections - large lids and metal objects
*Gardening- Picking Pea Pods, planting out cucumbers and tomato plants
*Observing Mullien Moth caterpillars
*Painting with water on the ground and with pebbles
*Chalk coding
*Writing in diaries
*Action rhymes
*Chasing bubbles
*Obstacle courses
*Playdough

And so much more!

Why do so many childminders reject the phrase Just a childminder?

Because if you have a look at our week you might spot the many many things we do!

I didn't get a chance to take many photos this week, activities missing from these photos are:
Floating and sinking experiment
Weeding and caring for our plants
Guitar and singing time
Large movement skills
Reading
Toddler group
Craft
observing creatures in the garden
And a birthday snack!

That's on top of all of the usual free play, chatter and life skills that happen every day, plus caring for our Little Library.

The last two weeks have bought some unexpected home situations for children to deal with and next week there will be a family celebration too. Families supported through the good times and the harder ones

'Just' another week.

Thank you to everyone who nominated me in the local village for the Gay Bulleid award. I’m feeling very proud and surprised!

It is very special to have been awarded our local award in memory of Mrs Gay Bulleid who died in 1998 but sounded like one committed village champion and community builder.

I will have to find somewhere very lovely to hang this beautiful painting for the year it is with me before it passed onto the next winner!

Community is so important and I’m very grateful to people noticing the ways in which I am trying to contribute to our little village and I hope we can continue to make it an enjoyable inclusive place to live, and that the children in my care get to be involved in a real and empowering way!

A blog post for parents about what school readiness probably looks like for your child attending my setting.

amongtheleaves.co.uk