Counting Stars Childcare

So much learning and skill development going on here @littlebirdsatelier Posted @withregram • @littlebirdsatelier The little Sparrows made their own den this morning! We experimented with spray bottles, using the paintbrushes on fabric, pouring, and shaking. It was such a delight to witness the excitement of the final den, the colours that shone through were just incredible! 🌈 This activity was great for strengthening those hand muscles, facilitating intrinsic creativity, and just feeling pure joy from getting a little messy! 🌈💙

This was so simple but effective. We also loved using washi tape to stick laminated characters to the table and having to peel the tape of to rescue them!

this was such a hit I had to share! We had to rescue the dinosaurs from the webs before the giant spidersouraus returned 💪🏻 the children absolutely loved it and were completely engrossed! Not realising they were building and strengthening those all important finger muscles ready for writing!

This is a great example of a tough tray set up for slightly older children (3-5). Tough trays are everywhere at the moment with messy bits taking hours to arrange. I am obviously a HUGE fan of messy/sensory play but it doesn’t always need to get messy! Something simple like this will keep them occupied for hours and I bet you can coax some brilliant mathematical language out of them 😉

LOVE this … so many children start school not knowing what scissors are let alone how to use them. There are so many child safe options available for children now, so take the plunge and teach your little ones how to use scissors safely! all the while building those all important fine motor skills ✂️

this was such a hit I had to share! We had to rescue the dinosaurs from the webs before the giant spidersouraus returned 💪🏻 the children absolutely loved it and were completely engrossed! Not realising they were building and strengthening those all important finger muscles ready for writing!

Happy spring everyone 🐣💐☀️ I am available for weekend childminding or evening babysitting. Still registered with OFSTED and have all the same insurances and first aid. Please get in touch if you need me 🥰

And that’s a wrap 😢 childminding has opened my eyes to so much. It’s really really hard work, it’s lonely, it’s non stop and it’s back breaking-literally! You are covered in every bodily fluid imaginable, you are an educator and a counsellor. People think you sit around all day drinking tea and watching tv but you are visiting every baby group you can so your children get to mix with a larger group, you are members of every farm and wildlife park in the area so your children experience the best Kent has to offer to assist learning and you are constantly looking to improve your setting to make learning enjoyable. You load and unload children and buggies in and out of cars, you wash and dry snowsuits and arrange lunchboxes daily. You have to keep up to date with the same safeguarding, first aid and curriculum as nurseries and schools but you have to do this alone and you need to be constantly updating professional development 🙈
But…. Man does it get you 🥰 I have never smiled and laughed so much in my life! Children bring you so much joy and I’m immensely proud of every single child I have cared for over the 3 and a half years I have been lucky enough to be a childminder for 🌟 that’s it for Counting Stars Childcare 🥰

Well it’s almost time to say goodbye to the most wonderful children I have been lucky enough to spend my days with. Childminding is like nothing you could ever prepare yourself for, it grabs all of you tight and wraps you in love, fun, laughter, learning, cuddles and pure joy. It’s tough and all consuming but so so worth it! I have met friends for life and been taught more by these amazing children than I could ever hope to teach them.
Thank you to all my parents, past and present, for giving me the opportunity to do the most rewarding job imaginable 🥰

Although I’m not a huge follower of The Curiosity Approach, I do think they have this right! This Christmas, as always, I won’t be sending home production line foot and hand print ‘crafts’, instead I will be sending home wonkey snowmen, pages of brown paint and mixed in glitter and quite possibly something resembling a tree 🤷‍♀️ what will happen is your child will be free to create what ever they like using any material they can find and we will tell them how wonderful they are 🎄

Day three of and we’ve been winding our bobbins up! And pretty much everything else we could find including each other 😂