Sunnyside Childcare

Sunnyside Childcare Outstanding Childminder in Stansted Mountfitchet The next best place to home, offering excellent childcare from 0-16! Graded 'Outstanding' by Ofsted.

Today marks 20 years since I set up Sunnyside Childcare! 20 years of working together with fabulous parents in the care ...
06/09/2026

Today marks 20 years since I set up Sunnyside Childcare! 20 years of working together with fabulous parents in the care for their children. 20 years of nurturing and teaching very young children, and helping them find their best route through early years learning. 20 years of building strong foundations, and a strong sense of belonging. 20 years of cuddles and shared love. 20 years of being reminded how individual each child is, how differently they learn, how differently they love, and how differently they express their delight in their world. 20 years of welcome new little ones to the Sunnyside Childcare family, and 20 years of saying goodbye when they’re old enough to leave to go to school: that bit never gets easy. I watch every child with a huge sense of pride in all they achieve, and the privilege of being a part of their lives, albeit for a short time. I don’t take this role lightly, and thrive in learning better ways to care for and educate each young person. Here’s to many more happy years together!

September has brought more rain, so we headed out in search of puddles to splash in. Unfortunately, we weren’t as succes...
02/09/2026

September has brought more rain, so we headed out in search of puddles to splash in. Unfortunately, we weren’t as successful as we had anticipated as the dry earth has soaked up the water really quickly. The children were briefly disappointed until I offered them the chance to search for acorns and conkers. We then had a lovely walk, working out which trees were oaks, with the children learning which shape of leaves to search for. We knew it was a little early to be gathering, but there were some under each tree. The conkers were a real bonus, with the children exclaiming over the spiky shells with their hidden treasures inside. The sheep were an added bonus, once again: the children love singing to them, and pointing out which ones they like best. Great walks, lots of fresh air, hands on learning about nature, and acquisition of new vocabulary as we chat along the way. These walks are amazing for a broad range of learning opportunities!

We have had a world map on the wall for more than a year, and it has been part of our learning. Today, however, it was u...
18/08/2026

We have had a world map on the wall for more than a year, and it has been part of our learning. Today, however, it was used even more than usual as my youngest daughter is travelling back from Australia to visit us after being away for 9 months. The older children remember her well as she was my assistant before travelling, and they have been so excited to track her journey on the map with a named sticker, as well as on a flight tracker on my phone. It has really brought the map to life for them!

This spot in the brook in our village turned out to be the most magical place to be on such a hot day! We were there ear...
13/08/2026

This spot in the brook in our village turned out to be the most magical place to be on such a hot day! We were there early, not wanting to be out when the temperatures rose too much. We had been sitting at the top of the bank, watching the water, and chatting about what we could see. I then asked the children if they wanted to try sliding down the bank with me: they hesitated, but were fine in copying what I did. Once down at the edge of the water, the braver ones asked if they could paddle. I looked at their shoes, and decided that childhood is for living, and said yes. After some tenuous tiptoeing over the stones, one jumped into the water making a splash. The look of delight was fabulous. Soon all of the children were joining in, even those who were worried about getting dirty. I reassured them that everything could wash and dry easily in this weather, and we had such a lovely time in an unplanned and unstructured way. Back to nature: the very best way to spend time!

I’m often looking for ways to challenge the pre-schoolers development in fun ways. This time, I got the big round sticke...
13/08/2026

I’m often looking for ways to challenge the pre-schoolers development in fun ways. This time, I got the big round stickers out, putting a row of them along one edge of a large page, then randomly over the rest of the page. I then made a ‘key’, putting a different type of line over or around each colour of sticker, and explained to the children that I wanted them to copy the lines I had made onto the other stickers. For our new writers, this was a great challenge, and they busied themselves with drawing the lines. The circles were fine, but triangles took some practice, with plenty of “I can’t do it, Rachel!” I then drew 3 dots, asking them to draw a straight line between each dot. Each child was delighted to find that they could, indeed, draw a triangle, and transferred this skill to the stickers.

These hot days require many more ways of playing with water. Today was the turn of cornflour gloop, but a very watery ve...
13/08/2026

These hot days require many more ways of playing with water. Today was the turn of cornflour gloop, but a very watery version. I added plenty of pirate treasure and it settled quickly to the bottom, hiding under the milky liquid. By the time the children arrived, it had settled out a bit so that the outline of the coins was visible, enticing them in. Some of the children weren’t sure about the feel of the gloop, needing reassurance and modelling of how to scoop it up and watch it run off our hands again. This started hours of fun, with lots of chat between everyone when they discovered more and more coins, prising them out of the gloop at the bottom of the tray. Great fun for upper body muscles, conversation, maths, as well as the benefits of sensory play.

Fine motor, concentration, colours, problem solving, turn taking, language development, perseverance: all covered with t...
03/08/2026

Fine motor, concentration, colours, problem solving, turn taking, language development, perseverance: all covered with this simple activity! I had bought a new set of Washi tape, and the children had enthused about the bold colours, telling me their favourites. It took me longer than I thought to set up, wrapping a small strip of tape around so many of the children’s much loved sorting toys, snugly sticking it around camel legs, sheep’s tummies, the family figures, and various vehicles. It all went down well today, with the children finding that they had to concentrate hard to find the end of the tape in order to unwrap each item, then scrunch up the tape and put it into the bin. Each child told me about the colours they like best, and chatted with each other whilst they worked out how to free each item. This was a great cooling down activity on a hot day as the children stopped rushing around to play with it. So good for those fingers that like to pick, and particularly good for strengthening those developing hand muscles.

26/07/2026

How very interesting! I’ve known many mums who struggle hugely with Postnatal Depression, and reading this explains just what can cause it. We are understanding so much more now about hormonal imbalance, and what the knock-on effect is. Time to look out for you mums even more, and keep informed so that we can push for the right help!

Today was a day for homegrown produce! We spent the morning at the allotment, with all of the children helping with the ...
22/07/2026

Today was a day for homegrown produce! We spent the morning at the allotment, with all of the children helping with the endless watering. They were so excited when we got to the cucumber patch as there were several perfect looking cucumbers hanging on the frame. We picked one and ate it immediately, with so much enjoyment from each of the children. We then sampled the raspberries, with everyone declaring them to be delicious, even though the lack of rain meant that they were tiny. We brought more cucumber and courgette home, and explored the potatoes that we had grown in a bag. As it had been our first time doing so (the rest are happily under ground at the allotment), we didn’t know what we would find when we turned the bag upside down on the tuff tray. The shouts of excitement as each child found more and more potatoes was fabulous! They washed them, and added them to a saucepan, and ate the lot with their lunch. This afternoon, we picked tomatoes from the garden too. We love the growing season, making the most of fresh and delicious food, along with so many learning opportunities for the children.

Ooh, we love deliveries like this! Time to read the new books together!! World of Books
20/07/2026

Ooh, we love deliveries like this! Time to read the new books together!! World of Books

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Stansted Mountfitchet
CM248AX

Opening Hours

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

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