Free Spirits Childminding Services

There are a lot of mini beasts going on around here at the minute. The children are learning about the life cycles of butterflies and ladybirds by watching them first hand. We also have some pond snails that are fun to feed lettuce to. We will release them in the pond at the end of the summer term. 🦋 🐞 🐌 #childminder #lifecycles #minibeasts #nature learningaboutnature

What a lovely morning in the sun exploring Bestwood woods 🌞 🌳 💚 #childminder #eyfs #hyggeintheearlyyears #hyggeintheearlyyears #visittothewoods

Gosh one dry for us to enjoy the garden now that our new fence has been installed. Since we’ve been living here we haven’t been able to use our lovely new garden because we have a pond at the bottom of the garden. Rather than filling it I decided to keep it so we can see what wildlife it will attract and look into getting some frogs in there 🐸

I am really looking forward to spring time to enjoy the garden with my mindees and as a family 🌼🌿🌱🌷

This is where we sit to say good morning, to talk about the weather and how we are feeling. Enjoying a story and singing songs, important skills are learnt such as taking turns and listening to our friends.

A lovely calm first day back to term. Exploring the frost and ice in the garden, extending the play with sensory snow indoors. Everyone was happy to be back to the play and see their friends.

It was a lovely last few weeks before breaking up, already I’m feeling settled into the Christmas break. I am ready for family time and filling my face for a few weeks, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday with your loved ones 🎄🎅🏻

Some of the Christmas activities that I set up for the children on the run up to Christmas so far…

🎅🏻 Cloud dough in a lap land setting using our Lanka Kade Christmas set was absolute chaos, in the best way! The kids were completely absorbed in tipping, pouring and transporting it around at the peril of the play room!

🎄 Festive play dough with Christmas decorations was another huge hit, the bright setup drew them in time and time again.

☃️ Frozen snowmen! This was a wonderful activity! They loved melting the snowmen with pipets and warm water, it was great a winter themed science experiment. We chatted all the way through about the effects of warm water on ice and about how it feels.

Beautiful ice painting is always a great idea, it’s creative and sensory whilst giving lots of opportunity for rich conversation. I especially enjoyed how this year the children created a northern lights effect ✨ #eyfs #creative #messyplay #seasonalplay #childminder #nottschildminder #learning #homebaseschildcare

It has been a very busy and exciting couple of weeks here at Free Spirits Childminding as we’ve moved house! The new setting has a lovely big conservatory which is being used as a play room. We also have a cosy and spacious living room/ diner where children enjoy meals or calm time.

The garden is gorgeous but cannot be used until a fence has been put up across the bottom. This is because we have a little pond down in the corner. This will be a lovely learning opportunity for the children under supervision however must not be easily accessible for safety. In the mean time we are enjoying trips to our new local park and play group to get out in the fresh air.

The guinea pigs have a new shed near to the house, meaning that they get to be more part of the action when we can venture out into the garden. Sprout is now on his own so he has moved into the play room for his retirement, for his sins! The children are loving having him so close by.

I have lots of ideas and plans to put into place in this new space and I can’t wait to implement them and share them with you.

Here are some highlights from our October outing. When I only have two little ones in tow, we love venturing further out with the double buggy. 🌳 Forest school 🪵 🛝 Park trip to feed the ducks 🦆 🐇 City farm visit 🐐 #childminder #eyfs #earlyyears #hyggeintheearlyyears #nottinghamchildminder #localchildminder #daysout #forestschool #park #ducks #cityfarm @forestfolkplay @stonebridgecityfarm