Will & Netty's Childcare

Did you know that rolling down hills provides essential vestibular (balance) input that helps children know where their body is in space? It also helps with supporting and organizing all of the other senses (vision, listening, etc.) -- for improved brain and body functioning.

Let the children roll down hills!

(Image via Rhythms of Play)

It’s that time of year again when mini eggs are lining the supermarket shelves. But, did you know that, just like grapes, they are the perfect size to block a small child’s airway and choke them? And, their hard shell can make it difficult to dislodge with standard first aid techniques.

With whole grapes we advise cutting them in half lengthways and ideally into quarters to create thin strips. But chopping up mini eggs isn’t as easy. So, what can you do?

1. Hide them from the children and eat them yourself – good luck with that!

2. Put the mini eggs into a sealable plastic bag and smash them into small pieces with a rolling pin. Or, crush them in a pestle and mortar.

3. Opt for a different treat. Larger, hollow eggs are much safer for little ones.

Visit our choking hub to learn more about common choking hazards and what you should do in an emergency: https://capt.org.uk/choking-prevention/

One of our favourite books is Room on the Broom, a sound book. Sadly this one is on its way out, but we were gifted it some years ago by a young lady we looked after 10 or so years ago so it's done well to get us this far! I think we'll try one more expert repair job!

Our lovely birthday banner comes out to celebrate everyone's birthday close to, or on their special day. It can prompt some great conversations about whose birthday is next, or was last, or what they want for their birthday, etc. We have some lovely conversational opportunities and it encourages thinking about others as we sing to celebrate their special day 🎵 🎂🎈

We had a quiet start to the new year with floods keeping some away yesterday, but today we are back to normal attendance, and starting off with a birthday!! 🎂 Young man A is 3 today!

We're a bit run down here today but the children are getting stuck into the Christmas fun so we're doing ok 👍🏻 🎄

We had a lovely time meeting Gemma's chickens this week. We met a few of the ladies for a cuddle, and collected some eggs, before carefully washing our hands and going home for scrambled egg with our lunch 🥚🍳

We've been looking at skeletons of a different kind this week, when 3 yr old M found one of these and asked what it is. We'll keep our eyes open for new poppy seed pods later on to show her how these used to look.

Looking at the bunnies Dave and Puddles...edited to amend, "Puffles" is the other rabbit, thanks autocorrect 🙄😆🐇🐰

I love finding little things like this as I move around the house after the children move onto something different 🥰

What actually happens....💚

Thanks to the lovely bunch at Sileby Mill Boatyard for taking us out for a short ride. Always looked after and made to feel very welcome. Thank you!

Very happy to be celebrating this today, we have made it, our aim is to beat last year's 1008 hrs outside in 13 months, we have one month left so we've definitely got this!! 🎉

A little bit of Easter craft today 🐰🐣

And just generally getting outside more.

Loving sharing this beauty with the children