Little Explorers - Childminding Scarborough

12/10/2026

Our children have been going to Friday Night Tumbling with Coach Josanne - tumble tots class now for nearly a year... The confidence of the children is SHINING! - The physical development skills is HUGE. Joanne encourages the children to listen, follow, take direction and to ENJOY climbing, jumping, rolling - but in a safe and inclusive environment. To see the children beam when they master a skill, or to try something new is just everything and we are so very lucky that Josanne has opened her doors and allowed us to join her classes as this gives the children in our care some much needed safe play!.

🌿 **The Importance of Risky Play in the Early Years!** 🌿

Climbing, balancing, jumping and exploring all help children develop confidence, resilience, coordination and problem-solving skills. 💪🧠

Risky play gives children opportunities to test their limits, assess challenges and learn about their own abilities in a meaningful, hands-on way.

By providing a **safe, supportive and stimulating environment**, we allow children to explore age-appropriate risks, build independence and develop essential life skills through play. 🌱

✨ **Safe environments don’t remove risk — they create the conditions for children to learn, grow and thrive!**

05/10/2026

Halloween season is upon us...

We have...

🐈‍⬛ Matching
😡 Emotions
🕸 Numbers
🎃 Language skills
👻 Sequencing - in age appropriate activities...
1- Sequencing below
2- Sequencing with a little help
3- Sequencing independently
❤️ Colour matching
👻 Picture copying (a real interest for some of our children!)
🎃 Pumpkin decorating - alongside real pumpkin carving.

I have added a few of the downloadable files if anyone wants to use the resources in their setting.

02/10/2026

🎃 🕸 Halloween Makatots York & East Coast 🎃🕸

Even the smallest of the crew could not take their eyes off 😍

02/10/2026

🎃 🕸 Halloween at Little Explorers featuring the wonderful Vicky from Makatots York & East Coast 🎃🕸

Our staff have previously learnt the use of signs with Little signs, Big voices - Makaton Training Provider so it felt only right that we got Vicky in to help us further develop the use of signing in the setting. The children have excelled in their use of the signs and use them daily so to be able to bring some games, activities, and music alongside signing was something we wanted to get onboard with.

Vicky was amazing with the children, and the children engaged so well, we are immensely proud of them. 😍

Why are we using Makaton in our setting?...

Using Makaton in early years settings helps create a more inclusive environment where every child can communicate, participate and feel understood.
Pairing signs with speech can support language development, reduce frustration and help children express their needs, choices and feelings. When practitioners use Makaton consistently throughout play, routines and learning, communication becomes something everyone can share.

01/10/2026

🍁🌰🍂

Loving the experiences that Autumn treasure is giving us...Today a child gave us a bag of conkers, so we used those and some extra autumn items with some paint and off we went!

🍂🌰🍁

01/10/2026

We might have a special visitor tomorrow ..... 👀

Happy October MakaTots! 🎃👻

October is a spookily exciting month for Meg the bear and Vicky. October bring lots of our Halloween session!

Tomorrow marks our first halloween special of the year for the wonderful Little Explorers - Childminding Scarborough 👻🎃😍

We cannot wait to join the children in songs, games, and Halloween Makaton signing!

If you have a childminders/ nursery playgroup that would love to see some Halloween themed fun! Drop me an email today at [email protected]

🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻

25/09/2026

Of course when the staff get an idea....they have to try it out then rope all the children in to give it a go!!!

A new way of drawing...... 🤣

18/09/2026

September 🍁🍂🍄🌰

We keep updating our insta but keep forgetting about over here! So here is what we've been up to on our first 2 weeks back!!

🍂 Berry picking - Learning which we can touch, which we can taste and how we can do this safely - and of course a taste test once they washed them all.
🌲 Autumn treasure (language skills) - so many new words to learn as we enter a new cosy term
🍂 Conker rolling - on a range of different surfaces
🌲 Sensory exploration - including age taste safe options
🍂 Signing and learning a new sign each week! - so far the children have learnt 'good morning' and 'autumn' and an added extra we learnt squirrel as we needed it for our reading!
🌲 Shadow hunting - a simple walk ended in a learning experience from the children as they took notice of their shadows..so of course we had to explore this and of course learning how the sun can reflect our shadow 🌞
🍂 Back to tumble tots - new cohort of children and they did amazing! - we can't wait to see the new skills they develop over the term.
🌲 Back to Story garden - Always an amazing experience for the children - this week was Gruffalo Granny!
🍂 Exploring with construction using different materials - mouldable soap smells amazing!

07/09/2026

A very productive day for the team....

😍Safeguarding renewed
😍 Next steps for the children completed
😍 Autumn curriculum organised
😍Activities set in an age appropriate order

Here's to routine, structure and a new term 😍

19/08/2026

Why us??

We get a lot of people asking 'what makes your setting unique'? 'Why do people choose you'?

We are unique - every childminder is unique, each of us have our own 'special' way in which we bring the children learning to life.

We have always and still remain 7 years later head strong in our ethos that the children need freedom to explore, learn, develop and adjust their skill set through mess, play and love.

We promote the rules and boundaries that keep the children safe, secure and happy - and in return we offer freedom, choices and ideas that enrich their early learning - of course most of which is following their lead and joining in their world!

We love that our parents are happy, we love even more that the children are happy, we love that the children can be themselves!

Want to spend all day looking for pirate treasure in the water tray? - we will provide 3 changes of clothes...

Want to slide down hills on your bottom while racing your friends? - we will provide you the area, the safety, and of course the change of clothes!

Want to play board games? - we will happily teach the children that it's ok to lose....because we are totally going to try win - encouraging those important skills for school...and the determination to succeed and try again!

We totally get we might not be for everyone - that depends if you want to take home 3 bags of washing each night - but when we get people asking to come back each year we know that we are doing a good job 😍

Happy Wednesdays!