ABC Childminding Services

When you tell people you’re a childminder and they think ‘babysitter’ and that all you do is change nappies!

58 hours + of continuous professional development so far this year… I have completed training courses in:

💡 Carbon literacy
💡 Speech and language therapy
💡Level 2 Children’s mental health
💡School transitions
💡Confident communicators
💡Level 2 safeguarding
💡Paediatric 1st Aid
💡Early relationships and infant mental health.

Every day is a learning day!

What we got up to in May…

▫️Neighbourhood walks - listening and looking for different colours 🌈
▫️Nature pond
▫️Tree climbing 🌳
▫️Mudeford quay - new mosaic artwork and we painted our own mosaic pictures.
▫️Pirate park 🏴‍☠️
▫️Visits to Highcliffe Nursing Home
▫️Highcliffe Toddler Group
▫️Lots of painting 🎨
▫️Lots of yoga 🧘‍♀️
▫️Paddling pool fun 💦
▫️Visits to our friends at Sandra's shining stars Childminding
▫️Learning about butterfly and ladybird lifecycles 🦋 🐞
▫️ we celebrated a few birthdays too 🎂 🎈

We love our visits to see the ‘nannies and grandads’ ❤️💛💚🧡💜💙

What we got up to in April…

Made dandelion biscuits
Ball skills
Toddler group
Nursing home visit
Various Parks
Garden fun
Arts and crafts
Forest school
Wriggle and rhyme
Yoga

February. A short month but we packed lots in!

It has been so wet but we managed to get out for walks and to the park when the sun peeked through.

We celebrated Valentine’s Day, pancake day and learnt about Chinese new year. We also enjoyed watching the Winter Olympics and were so inspired we even had a trip to Snowtrax to watch people ski-ing in real life!

We have been for our regular visits to Highcliffe Nursing Home and Highcliffe Toddler Group.

We explored colour and lights, did some yoga and the usual crafts, singing, dancing, reading and building towers.

During half term we met up with some of our old friends that have now started school and had fun playing at the log park at highcliffe castle. We also went to New Milton Library - Hampshire County Council for an interactive storytelling of one our favourite stories - we’re going on a bear hunt!

I saw this myself and it’s so disappointing that we aren’t supporting each other in an already struggling sector. Both nurseries and childminders have their place. Disgusting that a national chain feels the need to very publicly undermine childminders. The government and press already do enough of that! I can only surmise that they feel threatened by what we offer… 😔

A fellow childminder brought this to my attention today and it made my stomach drop…

Seeing a nursery publicly claim that childminders ‘cannot prepare children for school’ — is not just inaccurate, it’s damaging. 🤯

What makes this particularly concerning is that this messaging comes from a nursery group, meaning it risks shaping perceptions of childminding on a national scale. 😳

And yes, I’m calling it out.

Because childminders don’t just prepare children for school… We lay the foundations that will carry them far beyond any school gate.

We prepare them to feel safe away from their parents.
To build secure attachments.
To communicate their needs.
To regulate big emotions.
To problem-solve, to wait, to take turns, to negotiate, to recover when things don’t go their way.
We prepare them to walk into a classroom knowing who they are — not just how to sit in one.

The idea that small, relationship-led settings somehow limit children is a tired and uninformed narrative. Research, practice, and lived experience tell us the opposite: children thrive when they feel known, seen, and emotionally secure. That is not a weakness of childminding — it is one of our greatest strengths. 🙌

What concerns me most is the division this kind of messaging creates.

Nurseries and childminders are not competitors
in a playground argument. We are part of the same early years sector, doing the same vital work under different models. When one arm of the sector is publicly diminished, we all lose. 😣

So let me be very clear:
Childminders are professionals.
We follow the EYFS. We observe, assess, scaffold learning, and support transitions.
We work in partnership with families, schools, and the wider early years community to support each child’s journey.
And we do it with heart, skill, and intention. 🤩

To any nursery — or organisation — that feels the need to put childminders down to elevate themselves: do better. Children deserve better. And this sector deserves unity, not hierarchy.

We are not “less than”.
We are not a stepping stone.
We are educators.
We are professionals.
And we are preparing children for far more than school — we are preparing them for life. 💗

Whatever role you play in early years — or if you care about children at all — please share this message…
Division weakens us. Unity strengthens children.
Let’s change the narrative — together. 🌈🫶🏻❤️

It’s been a very wet and windy January to say the least.

We have hunkered down for the most part - playing, singing, reading, baking and doing yoga!

We have ventured out when we could with visits to Highcliffe Toddler Group, Highcliffe Nursing Home and Highcliffe Library and we’ve managed to wrap up warm and go for a few walks. The children even enjoyed exploring ice earlier in the month!

We’ve learnt about winter animals with our friends from Little birdies Childminding and Sandra's shining stars Childminding too.