Create & Explore Childcare

🌷 Happy Mothering Sunday 🌷

Elle, Maggie, Annabella, Claudia, Ella, Abbie, Sophie, Emma & Claire 🌺

I hope you beautiful ladies have the most amazing Mothering Sunday with your wonderful little families. I am so lucky to have witnessed first hand what amazing Mothers you all are! Working tirelessly to provide for your family, running a home & nurturing your little ones, it can often feel like a thankless task so I hope today, you are all showered with love & truly appreciated. Your little ones are incredibly blessed to have such wonderful Mothers ❤️

Wow 🥹

& just like that, I have closed my door for the next nine months whilst I spend the next chapter of my life with my own precious family & we welcome our new addition into the fold 🥹

Seven years ago, my family was left heartbroken by the loss of our daughter, Destiny. I put all of my energy into becoming a registered childminder & spent the next seven years working hard to go above & beyond for all of the little people that entered my door. I just can’t help but want to fix everything for everybody in my life 🥹 I feel like I’ve come full circle now, leaving Create & Explore Childcare & having our precious rainbow baby, I never imagined that this day would come, that I would feel brave enough to go through this all again 🥹

The last six to eight months of my life have been so difficult, finding out that my Dad had terminal cancer, helping him through his treatment & then losing him, supporting my mum through the most difficult time of her life, as well as overcoming challenges from my own children & step-children. Life has been hard, so hard. I am using this next chapter of my life to focus on my family, my mental wellbeing, my physical health, my marriage, my own happiness, all of those things that have been neglected over the last seven years, it’s my time now.

Create & Explore Childcare wouldn’t be what it is today, without the support of our amazing families, they have really stood by me over the last few months & I am ever so grateful for their trust & loyalty.

Of course, I have to say a heartfelt thank you to Becky who has been so much more than just my assistant, she has come on in leaps & bounds over the last couple of years & I cannot wait to help & support her as she settles into her new rhythm at Snowdrop Childcare ☺️ I am sure that baby & I will be regular visitors & I cannot wait to catch up with our Creative Explorers in their new setting, they will absolutely love it ☺️

I’m not saying goodbye, as I’ve told you all already, I am still here & you can reach out to me when & if you feel the need too! I’ve cared for generations of families & watch them all transition to school & turn into the most amazing humans, you can’t get rid of me that easily..!

Just for now, take care Create & Explore Childcare ❤️

Yesterday we had the pleasure of going to creative explorer Es house to plant some potatoes and pansys.
E's mum showed us how to dig a hole, put the potatoes in and cover them with compost.
Everyone enjoyed planting the potatoes, but the fun part was watering what we had planted, let's just say we had some wet and muddy children on the walk back to Louise's house 🫣🤣
Before we left, Es mum let us pick some of her beautiful daffodils she had growing in the garden so we could take them back to Louise.
Thankyou so much Emma Jane Gourley for inviting us over, I hope they didn't over water them too much 🤣

Oh Creative Explorer E, look at what a beautiful big boy you have grown into! It has been such a pleasure to care for you & watch you grow into this wonderful, talkative, funny & kind, amazing little human ❤️

Good morning everybody 👋

What a lovely, Spring morning 😌 I am feeling completely wiped out with a chest infection but still enjoying a slow day at home getting everything ready for our Creative Explorers to take home with them this week, in preparation for my Maternity Leave 🥹

We had a very rare day on Friday where we only had four Creative Explorers in, so we really made the most of it & visited some of our favourite places. We began our morning with a visit to Chilton Garden Centre to collect some bits for our Mothers Day gifts & admire all of their beautiful plants & flowers 🌷 We then headed off to Harwell Park for a good run around & stretch our legs ☺️ Little E was absolutely fearless & loved all of the different slides, giggling as she slid down them & O made the most of Russell being with us to push her super high on the basket swing 😊

We headed home for a Hotdog lunch & then spent our afternoon at The Old Farm Shop where our Creative Explorers were lucky enough to watch a lamb being born 🥹 L never ceases to amaze me with her love for nature & animals, she has bags of confidence & happily held her hand out to feed the chickens, ducks & goats, I can really see her living on a farm when she’s older ☺️ OM was a little more wary of the animals but enjoyed watching her friends feed them & she had a great time on the climbing frame & riding the toy tractors 🚜

I absolutely love working with Becky & having our family of Creative Explorers but spending the day with just four little ones did make me feel excited for next year when I will return to work with a smaller cohort of children ☺️

I hope you are all having a fantastic weekend & having a well deserved rest or spending some quality family time together. Becky & I are both very excited to see you all next week for our last week of fun together! ❤️

Best friends, enjoying their time together 😌

“Let’s play bus drivers together!” 🚌

It’s safe to say that my hormones are getting the better of me this week & I’ve already shed a lot of tears 🥹

Childminding has never & could never be, just a job. Childminding has been my life for the last seven years, I’ve dedicated so much time, effort, money, trust & love into Create & Explore Childcare, continuously learning, expanding, wanting better & better. These children have become an extended family, they have spent nights asleep with my own children, I have been there to wipe away their tears, clean their grazed knees, regulate them through some big emotions & cheer for their every achievement.

The last six months have been so difficult for my family & I, supporting my Dad through his cancer battle, losing him, coming to terms with a High Risk pregnancy & dealing with everything else on top of that. We are all more than ready for me to take some time off to rest, recoup, reset & enjoy the next chapter of our family life. I am so excited for us but so sad for my Create & Explore Childcare, but I need this, my mental health needs this & my family needs this.

We will be back, bigger & better, just watch this space!

Six days to go ❤️

This is definately worth a little watch if you are thinking about potty training your little one any time soon! Eric offer some really brilliant webinars, very informative 👍

Are you planning on potty training your little one soon or have you already started your potty training journey?

This free online webinar for parents and carers 'Talking about Potty Training' is led by our Family Services Team, who will be answering some of the commonly asked questions and will outline our evidence based 3 step approach, involving preparation to use the potty, practising potty skills before eventually stopping using nappies as your child gains confidence.

📆Thursday 20th March
🕧7pm-9pm (via Zoom)

❗️booking closes at 12pm on Weds 19th ️March

Find more information and how to book your place - https://eric.org.uk/talking-about-potty-training-2/

🗣Please share this post so that other parents and carers can benefit from this free event.

❗️️PLEASE NOTE: these free events are for parents and carers. If you are a health, education or early years worker interested in events to support you in your professional capacity please see our programme of training courses for professionals on our website.

If you are free this Friday morning, the Children’s Community Dental Team will be popping into the Library & always have so much amazing advice! 🦷

This is the way we brush our teeth.... and other songs wait for you at Rhymetime on Friday, as well as expert advice on snacks, toddler cups and brushing from the Community Children's Dental Team.

☘️ Happy St Patrick’s Day (for yesterday!) ☘️

We may be a day late but we have had a fantastic day today, learning all about & celebrating St Patrick’s Day ☘️ We started our morning by doing what we do best, wrapping up warm & pulling on our welly boots before heading off for a wander towards the Millennium Woods. We admired the blue sky above us & listened to the birds chirping, tweeting & chattering to one another 😌 We stopped off in the woods as we were very intrigued by a man doing a spot of gardening..! We asked him lots of questions & the children discovered that he was planting an entire area of Snowdrops in preparation for next year, we said thank you for his Kindess, what a wonderful thing to do for his community & he even encouraged our Creative Explorers to plant some also 😌

We continued with our morning meander & had great fun discovering the masses of Frogspawn in the stream at Butts Piece! We didn’t see any frogs but we did see the adorable little goats & spoke all about the life cycle of a frog 🐸 We stomped on the mole hills & headed over to the benches for a morning snack & a fun story all about creating a Leprechaun Trap which inspired our activity this afternoon 🪤

On our walk, we collected alot of greenery & we used our pinchy powers to tear the leafs into small pieces & glue them to our lovely Shamrocks we made at an earlier date. It was so funny to watch our Creative Explorers attempt to decorate their Shamrocks with glitter, in the gusts of wind 💨

We headed home for a lovely warm lunch of Irish Stew & Irish Potato Candy (very different & not a potato in sight!) Whilst some of our little ones had a lovely afternoon snooze, our older children & I had a great afternoon creating our very own Leprechaun Trap! We decorated it with glittery shamrocks & created a ladder from pipe cleaners, we even created a trap hole & hid it with a pot of gold, I wonder if we will entice any Leprechauns into our trap tonight or whether we are too late for some Irish mischief 🇮🇪

We finished our day by exploring & playing with our St Patrick’s Day sensory tray, DD used the tongs to carefully pick up the golden coins & L enjoyed scooping the rice in & out of the pots of gold, we extended on our vocabulary introducing words such as leprechauns, Irish, lucky & so much more!

We have had an awesome day & I cannot wait to see our friends nice & early tomorrow morning for another day of fun together ❤️

I’ve only got eight working days left after today & it is really starting to hit home now that I won’t be seeing our Creative Explorers every single day & enjoying our adventures together 🥹

Becky & I better make the most of these last few days & this glorious sunshine is certainly helping with that ☺️