Sylvia Pearson - Grosvenor Park Childminder

Today is my last day! It’s been an absolute marathon, I’ve had 47 early years children through the door, 3 amazing assistants and worked with too many grown ups to count. I’ve had the best fun, so many adventures, friends, caterpillar cakes, cups of tea and snuggles. I’m really excited for the future Larksfoot CIC but it feels like such a massive chapter of my life coming to a close. I’ve loved being a childminder it has been the most rewarding job I could have ever wanted. Thank you to everyone I’ve worked with, it’s been an absolute pleasure!

What a start to the summer, birthdays, dumplings and potions. Discovering how much we enjoyed making these gyozas is definitely a dangerous discovery!

Happy coronation day! We had our little celebration in honour of the coronation yesterday, we made flags to wave and all wore willow crowns. And in true British tradition danced in the rain as soon as we’d finished our picnic.

Today is a sad day for the adventurers and myself. We are saying goodbye to Michelle. Unfortunately we’re having to part ways but that doesn’t mean we aren’t exceptionally sad that we are loosing our friend! Michelle has helped look after over 30 children in our time together. It’s been amazing! And I couldn’t have done it without you! All of our love and wishes for your future!

Hope all our families have a fabulous half term break. It’s been a brilliant start to the summer and we can’t wait to get stuck in next week.

Playinthewoods'Wild'n'wellies@WilliamsonPark
Ever wondered about the play opportunities involving sticks? Join us tomorrow to find out.
Wild and Wellies Wednesday 10-11.30 and
1-2-30.
You can now book through larksfoot link below or turn up and pay on the day.

https://bookwhen.com/larksfoot

Hope to see you tomorrow

This month I am not running a FREE Saturday morning talk in Lancaster.

Instead I'm running a longer, paid, workshop, looking at bedtime struggles and separation anxiety.

I wanted to offer something more in-depth, something more interactive and personalised, where you can begin to get to grips with some tools and get some juicy ideas to help with the more tricky situations going on at home.

The workshop will be held between 10.00am-12.30pm on Saturday 7th May.

We'll be revisiting the basics of what is going on for our children when they struggle to say goodnight or goodbye.

We'll be taking time to explore what's happening for us personally when our children struggle in this way.

We'll discuss how we can implement the tools that can help in preparation as well as in the moment.

You'll get to take home cheatsheets to remind you of what we talked about.

To top it off, you'll get a free hot-drink at break time!

Your investment for easier goodbyes and smoother goodnights? £25 and 2 and a half hours of your time.

Link is in the comments to reserve your space and get the support and non-judgemental community we all need in order to enjoy parenting more.

Happy Mothers Day 💛 we hope you're all having a wonderful day in the sunshine 🌻

We’ve been stuck in for 2 weeks but we are so ready to play with our little friends again! Starting slowly and building back up to our full team next week x

We have done some training with Katy aimed at practitioners. These talks are for parents and I cannot recommend enough! Katy is brilliant and if you get chance I would try and get to some of these x

I'm so excited to be starting in-person talks in Lancaster again! Even more so because I'll be holding them at The Herbarium Cafe (5-7 Great John Street, LA1 1NQ) where they have created such a beautiful space to meet, share and connect with others.

The Herbarium is 100% plant based, serving coffee, cakes, brunch and some evenings.

The talks (10am-11am, free, no need to book) and workshops (10am-12.30pm £25 per person) will be held every 1st Saturday of the month, starting next month.

February 5th: Talk: Healing the Hurts of Separation
Learn what is really going on for your child when they resist separating from you and how you can support them to grow in confidence and resilience when they are away from you.

March 5th: Talk: Why our Children Push our Buttons, and How We Can Help Ourselves
We know how we'd like to respond to our children but somehow we STILL end up doing and saying things we regret. Find out how we can turn that around and be more like the parents we want to be.

April 2nd: Talk: No More Biting, Hitting, Pulling Hair: Helping Children with Aggression
Find out what is behind our children's aggression and how we can help them in ways that strengthen our connection with them, AND stops the aggression.

May 7th: Workshop: Separation Anxiety & Bedtime struggles
Want to delve in deeper to help your children become more confident when they leave you? Find out how dealing with separation anxiety can help with bedtime struggles as well.

June 4th: Talk: Setting Limits and Building Cooperation
We teach a different way to set limits that is non-permissive, yet gentle. That honours the child and the adult, that builds connection, trust, co-operation and fun.

July 2nd: Workshop: Preschoolers Tantrums and Aggression
Want to dig deeper into what we can do when our children tantrum, or are aggressive. And how we can prevent tantrums happening in the first place.

Bonfire Night 🎆
Today we've celebrated all things bonfire night! We imagined that our party lights were fireworks while listening to the sounds they make and then pretended to be fireworks and shouted BANG! It wouldn't be bonfire night without sparklers or toffee apples, so we made our own version of them which we enjoyed together at snack time!

We've had such a brilliant half term in the new house! We enjoyed the last of the summer sunshine with lots of activities in the garden, trips out and play dates with friends; we've watched the seasons change and collected leaves and berries in the woods; we've read stories, sung songs and played games! The children have continued to form fantastic friendships with one another and develop into excited, active learners!