Curious Cubs Childcare

Curious Cubs Childcare Childminder based in HOO, ROCHESTER📍
Registered with Tiney, check out my profile👇🏼

https://tiney.co/childminder/charlee-bealey

✨ OUR WEEK IN PHOTOS ✨This week we’ve spent lots of lovely time playing at home, enjoying the sunshine out in the garden...
28/08/2026

✨ OUR WEEK IN PHOTOS ✨

This week we’ve spent lots of lovely time playing at home, enjoying the sunshine out in the garden and making the most of some water play! ☀️

We’ve been really tuning into those specific interests of the children this week and planning our play around the things they’re naturally drawn to, following their lead and letting their curiosity guide us! Mostly towards vehicle themed play!

And to finish the week… we fully embraced the rain! Because rain means puddles, and puddles are made for jumping in! The children had their shoes off and were straight into the muddy puddles, splashing and exploring to their heart’s content, it was so much fun.

Clothes can be cleaned. Mud washes off. But the joy, laughter and memories made, that’s it’s all about🤎

Here’s to a week filled with sunshine, water, muddy puddles and lots of play as we come to the end of summer☀️

27/08/2026

🚧 CONSTRUCTION SENSORY PLAY 🚧

Today we’ve been getting busy on the building site with this fun construction-themed sensory tray! The children I care for have such a strong interest in vehicles at the moment🏗️👷‍♂️

With a bright yellow and orange rice base, chickpeas, diggers, mini bricks, cones, lollipop sticks and lasagna sheet roads, there was so much to explore, build and create! 🚜🧱

Resources:
•Yellow & orange rice
•Chickpeas
•Diggers
•Mini bricks
•Cones
•Lollipop sticks
•Lasagna sheet roads
•Hammers

Learning Intentions:
•Sensory exploration
•Fine motor skills
•Hand-eye coordination
•Imaginative play
•Language development
•Understanding the world
•Creativity and problem solving

This one was so much fun! 🧡

✨OUR WEEK IN PHOTOS ✨What a lovely, slow reintroduction into life this week has been after being off poorly last week🤎We...
21/08/2026

✨OUR WEEK IN PHOTOS ✨

What a lovely, slow reintroduction into life this week has been after being off poorly last week🤎

We’ve spent the week following the children’s lead, enjoying lots of slow, uninterrupted free play and taking the time to rediscover those little interests after a week away. And it’s been so lovely watching them settle back into their routines and just enjoy being together again🥹

We’ve spent most of our week outdoors, soaking up the last of the summer sunshine before the ‘ber’ months arrive! With our tuff trays following the children’s interests, there’s been plenty of opportunities for open-ended, child-led play.

We made our own car roads indoors using loose parts, building bridges, barriers and all sorts of little creations. Role play has been a BIG interest this week, especially making endless cups of tea! We’ve had lots of water and sensory play, exploring pouring, squeezing, scrubbing and splashing.
And of course, plenty of messy small-world play with our muddy farm animals!

It’s been a week of simply slowing down, following their interests and letting the play unfold naturally and honestly, after last week, that’s exactly what we all needed🤎

Another week full of little moments, big imaginations and lots of happy play✨

21/08/2026

☕️🌿 TEA TIME 🌿☕️

The children are LOVING role play at the moment, and making cups of tea has definitely become a favourite! So today we set up our very own little tea party☕️

I kept the tray simple but filled it with lots of lovely real-life resources to encourage their imaginative play:

☕️ Water
🫖 Stainless steel jugs & kettles
🍵 Tea set with cups, saucers & spoons
🌿 Dried lavender
🍋 Lemon & lime slices
🥕 Fruit & vegetable stones from

There was lots of pouring, stirring, serving and, of course, offering everyone a cup of tea!

Learning Intentions:
✨ Encouraging imaginative and role play
✨ Developing language and communication
✨ Strengthening fine motor skills through pouring, stirring and scooping
✨ Exploring capacity and early mathematical concepts
✨ Developing social skills through sharing and turn-taking
✨ Building confidence and independence
✨ Making connections with familiar everyday experiences

I love watching children take everyday experiences and recreate them through their play. It gives them the opportunity to practise new skills, develop their language and communication, and make sense of the world around them all while having a lovely time together🤎

19/08/2026

🐷🤎 MUDDY ANIMALS 🤎🐷

After yesterday’s car wash was such a hit, I thought we’d stick with a very similar set-up today… because if they love something, why not do it again but slightly different?! 🥹

This time, our cars were swapped for some very muddy farm animals! 🐮🐷🐴

I used the same two-tray set-up, with soapy water around the outside in the big tray, complete with squeezy bottles, soap dispensers and cloths ready for the ultimate animal clean-up!

Then in the little tray in the middle, I made our very own taste-safe mud using yoghurt and cocoa powder, before adding lots of farm animals ready to get themselves VERY messy! 🐖🤎

Learning Intentions:
✨ Developing fine motor skills through squeezing, spraying and scrubbing
✨ Exploring cause and effect
✨ Encouraging imaginative and small-world play
✨ Exploring different textures and smells
✨ Developing hand-eye coordination
✨ Building independence through practical play
✨ Supporting language development through animal-themed play

Sometimes the simplest ideas really are the best… and after how much they loved yesterday, I think we may have accidentally started a little washing station obsession!

18/08/2026

🚗🫧 CAR WASH WATER PLAY 🫧🚗

And we are BACK! 🥹 After a week off because we’ve all been poorly, it feels so good to be back to normality and doing what we love! ❤️

Today we got stuck into some car wash water play, and the children absolutely loved it!

I used a small tuff tray inside a larger one, then used masking tape around the gap to create our very own road. The middle was filled with lovely soapy water, ready for all the cars to go through the car wash! 🚘🧼

We had:
•Soapy water
•Lots of cars
•Soap dispensers
•Spray bottles
•Scrubby brushes
•Cloths for the all-important clean-up!

Learning Intentions:
•Developing fine motor skills through squeezing, spraying and scrubbing
•Exploring cause and effect
•Encouraging imaginative and small-world play
•Developing hand-eye coordination
•Exploring water, bubbles and different textures
•Building independence through practical play

And after a week of being poorly, it was honestly just lovely to hear happy little voices and see everyone back getting stuck into play again🥹❤️

07/08/2026

Summer days at Curious Cubs look a little something like this… ☀️

Running outside, coming back inside covered in dirt, grass stains and the biggest smiles🤎

And these are the moments that remind me exactly why I do what I do.

Because childhood doesn’t need to be complicated. It doesn’t need perfectly planned activities or packed schedules.

Sometimes, the best days are simply the ones where they have the freedom to run, explore, get messy and just be children. The days where we just go ‘shall we do this today?’.

I get to watch these little people grow, learn, build friendships and make memories and I honestly don’t think I’ll ever take that for granted🥹

✨our week in photos✨Another week full of little moments that remind us that childhood doesn’t need to be rushed💛This wee...
03/08/2026

✨our week in photos✨

Another week full of little moments that remind us that childhood doesn’t need to be rushed💛

This week has been a lovely slow one. We spent time exploring the beautiful trails at Shorne Country Park, collecting treasures from nature before creating our own nature paintings together.

We stayed home to keep cool with plenty of water play in the garden, and I’m fairly certain we sang Hop Little Bunnies at least a hundred times (and somehow it never gets old!)

To end the week, we shared a really special moment as we released our butterflies after watching their incredible journey from tiny caterpillars. Seeing the children’s excitement and wonder as they flew away was such a magical way to finish the week🦋

From tiny caterpillars to beautiful butterflies… what an incredible journey it has been🐛🦋What started as a few hungry ca...
31/07/2026

From tiny caterpillars to beautiful butterflies… what an incredible journey it has been🐛🦋

What started as a few hungry caterpillars munching through our broccoli quickly turned into one of the most meaningful learning experiences we’ve shared together.

Instead of seeing them as pests, we saw an opportunity.

We carefully rescued them into our butterfly net, observed them every single day, watched them spin their silk, form their chrysalises, and then experienced the magic of seeing butterfly after butterfly emerge before releasing them back into the garden.

There were so many questions, so much excitement and so many moments of genuine awe. The children weren’t just learning about the butterfly life cycle, they were living it.

This is why I love following children’s interests. Some of the richest learning isn’t something you can plan weeks in advance; it happens when we slow down, notice what captures children’s curiosity and allow that interest to lead the way.

These real, hands-on experiences create memories that last far beyond any worksheet or planned activity. They encourage children to ask questions, investigate, care for living things, develop empathy and build a genuine connection with the natural world.

As educators, our role isn’t simply to teach facts, it’s to nurture curiosity, create opportunities for discovery and embrace those unexpected moments that become the most valuable learning of all.

This little caterpillar adventure is one I know we’ll all remember for a very long time💚

31/07/2026

Caterpillar Playdough 🐛🦋

A very exciting update in our caterpillar adventure… nine butterflies have now hatched from their chrysalises! 🦋

The children have loved following the transformation from tiny caterpillars to beautiful butterflies, and today we continued exploring the butterfly life cycle through this playdough invitation.

In the tray:
•Green playdough
•Butterfly and caterpillar figures
•Butterfly life cycle puzzles
•Real images of the butterfly life cycle
•Playdough tools and cutters

Learning intentions:
•Developing an understanding of the butterfly life cycle
•Strengthening fine motor skills through rolling, squeezing and moulding playdough
•Encouraging curiosity and observation of the natural world
•Building language and vocabulary linked to life cycles and minibeasts
•Inspiring imaginative and creative play

Following children’s interests is such a wonderful way to encourage curiosity, deepen learning and create meaningful experiences that they genuinely connect with💚

Address

Rochester

Opening Hours

Tuesday 8am - 6pm
Wednesday 8am - 6pm
Thursday 8am - 6pm
Friday 8am - 6pm

Telephone

+447305789474

Website

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