Tracy’s Childminding

Let’s go feed the animals

JUNE 2023

June has been a very busy month and has seen us taking part in many activities.
Whether it be our regular visit to:
Chester Zoo
Jiggy Wrigglers
picnic lunches in the parks
feeding the animals at Home Farm
splashing around at the towns splash park
Free play at home
Picking the most delicious strawberries
Making Father’s Day presents
Enjoying our local playgroup
Feeding the ducks
Exploring science
Or learning some very important knowledge about fire safety and people who help us
Every activity loved and every bit of knowledge is absorbed and loved by the children.

MAY 2023

May saw us visiting Jiggy Wrigglers and afterwards enjoying a picnic lunch and fun in the park, Pushchair People then a lovely walk home along the Silken Way, having fun at home learning our numbers, letters and our personal names as well as playing games, exploring Blists Hill Victorian town and also having fun in the adventure playground and lastly visiting Home Farm and feeding all the animals.

APRIL 2023

April saw us out and about feeding the swans at our local nature reserve, as well as visiting Chester Zoo, Blists Hill, Medieval Madness, having fun at Jiggy Wrigglers Easter Party, Pushchair People Playgroup, RAF Cosford, as well as spending time indoors enjoying number games and memory board games.

March 2023

Saw us having lots of fun at our music and movement class ‘Jiggy Wrigglers’, visiting local playgroups, softplay centres, feeding the swans at our local nature reserve, having fun in the park, making Mother’s Day gifts, hunting for Easter eggs with our handmade baskets.

FEBRUARY 2023

Yet again I’ve let the months run away with me.
So apologies to anyone who enjoys following the children’s adventures.

February saw us having fun at Jiggy Wrigglers, visiting Chester Zoo, having fun at bowling, experimenting with colours, making pancakes, enjoying playgroup, Jungleland soft play and enjoying some child led free play.

Let’s begin todays adventures

Having fun picking the delicious strawberries

Look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 20th February # # #

A snapshot into the daily life’s of our little ones throughout January.

December passed by like the blink of an eye!
The month was spent enjoying Christmas parties, making gifts for our mummies and daddies that were made with love and pride.
This year came with mixed emotions, watching some of the little ones making their gifts and enjoying the parties, knowing that this would be their last December with me, you cannot help, but get attached and have feelings for these little people who are in your life’s on a daily basis.
Next year the schools will be the ones lucky enough to share their excitement on the lead up to Christmas.

Back indoors after a brilliant Christmas party with all our mindee’s and their parents. Sometimes experiences and memories are worth more than a thousand presents.

Hopefully the next party we organise will also include the four little ones who sadly could not make it, you were all definitely missed.

As our regular followers know, we never normally show our children’s faces, but with all our families consent, we all felt that these photos needed to show the magic and wonder of Christmas on the children’s faces.

This party would not have been complete without a visit from a very important guest. Thank you Father Christmas. 🎅🏼

Now for the rest of November with a little hint of Christmas sneaking in

Just another peek into the world of our little ones in November

Time - something so precious that you can never buy and can never be got back.

As I always tell my parents, children grow up way too fast, that little girl who you are running along beside as you’ve taken the stabilisers off her bike, will be sitting next to you learning to drive in what will seem like a nano second.

With that to reflect on we can jump to the month of October.

Days, turn into weeks, which somehow turn into months!

I honestly need to invent an eight day week!

As always, I’ve been so busy with the little ones that I’ve let the page get behind.

So here’s a few photos from our days out in September.

Thursday 25th August

After a very busy week, we felt a day at home would be welcomed by the little ones.

First we got out the wooden blocks and the children were given the opportunity to play freely with them.
The children proudly made everything from paw patrol towers to a variety of shapes, including diamonds made out of the blocks.

Once the children had finished playing with the wooden blocks, they asked to play the dinosaur game, this is a great game to have when most of the children are obsessed with dinosaurs! So a game that is guaranteed to keep their attention.
This game encourages, colour and shape recognition, as well as building on hand eye coordination, turn taking and also listening and understanding.

Once the children had finished with this game and helped to pack it away, they then helped themselves to the food match game, this another excellent learning game, again involving turn taking, colour matching, hand eye coordination and a perfect opportunity to discuss healthy eating.

After lunch we decided to move away from the games and asked the children if they would like to practice writing their names - this is always a firm favourite and is popular with all ages.

Wednesday 24th August

Today saw us returning to one of the childrens favourite places - Chester Zoo.

The children love visiting here, it seems that no two visits are ever the same.
I love how no matter how many times we visit this place, we still manage to see an animal that we’ve not seen before each time we visit.

Although the forecast was for heavy rain, we knew that puddle suits and Wellington boots would ensure we still had a fun day! 👢 🌧 ☔️
Well, the weather must have looked down on us and decided to be kind, as within 30-40 minutes of being there the sun began to shine ☀️ 🍦

Apologies for the posts being slightly out of sync.

The wise old minds behind Facebook have decided that editing a post will no longer be an option.

So here goes - below you will find the rest of the photos from our fun day out at the Gruffalo Trail

I’ve decided I must use another weather app! 😂

As the weather app had forecast rain we made the decision to take part in an indoor activity.

We have not been to Jungleland for quite some time, which probably made the day out even more special for the children.

The children loved spending their time there crawling, jumping, running and sliding through, over and under all the play equipment.

After the ride on the Jungleland Express we decided it was the right time to bring out the cake and candles for the birthday boy.

We’ve found him!
Another brilliant day at the Gruffalo Trail

Never too young to learn.
Give a child a safe place to explore as this will open up a vast amount of opportunities to learn.

Another day, another adventure

Tuesday saw us taking a trip to Royal Air Force Museum, Cosford.

The children love visiting this museum. Seeing the look of amazement on their faces as we walk through into the first aircraft hanger is always guaranteed to bring a smile to my face.

Chester Zoo!

This place will never cease being one of the children’s favourites.

Today was made that little bit more special as not only were we lucky enough to meet Stanley the baby Giraffe❤️

But, we also visited the Jaguars enclosure just as he was being fed!

Then treat number three was seeing the cute baby flamingo.

As the temperature was predicted to hit the mid 30’s, Thursday saw us staying in and enjoying ourselves in the garden - so thankful the children can play under the safety of the play area roof - capable of blocking out the suns UV.

Guess where we are today?

Guess where we are on this beautiful sunny day?

Sun is shining and time for some fun on the train
I feel it is so important for children to explore the wider community and to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of the world.
What better way to do this than through days out.

Thursdays plans were to go to Baggeridge Country Park, but unfortunately we had heard of some road closures and also the main road into the park was closed for resurfacing.

This would have meant us parking out on the main road and walking the children along a very busy road to gain access from another route. None of which would have been safe to do.

A quick decision to change our plans saw us heading off to Severn Valley Country Park instead.

As we were only here a few weeks back we decided to stay around the sand pit and park area and let the children be children and play!

Watching the pride in their faces as they turned their buckets over and created the most amazing sandcastles is one of the reasons this job is so rewarding.

After a lovely picnic lunch we made our way over to the play area.

The children loved it here.
Unless a piece of play equipment is dangerously unsuitable, I believe in giving every child the opportunity to master anything they chose to.
This can mean that sometimes it is easy to forget how young they are, especially when you are watching a 23 month old confidently climbing alongside an 8 year old.

A child should never be told that they cannot attempt to achieve something before being given the opportunity to try.
Sometimes their body is physically capable and they are feeling brave enough to try, but just need to know you are there to offer that steady hand if needed.

A wonderful day spent at Appley Woods feeding the ducks, with fun in the woods and park before enjoying a delicious our picnic.

Yesterday saw us having lots of fun, climbing, sliding, swinging and splashing. Not to mention a cheeky cookie or two in the cafe at Love to Stay

Today saw us enjoying another dry, cooler day at Blists Hill Victorian Town.

The children love spending time here. They love stopping to say hello the George and Benjamin the resident horses.
Then walking on to see the chickens and pigs.

Not forgetting our quick stop at the bakery from some freshly made shortbread.

Although the place they love to spend most of their time (apart from the cafe eating lunch!) is the adventure park.

We decided to leave the park a little earlier today, so that we would allow time for an extra treat - a horse and carriage ride!
The children loved the ride around the town and showed impeccable manners when we climbed down from the carriage - Thanking the groomsman and also Thanking George😍

Who does not love a trip to the park and a picnic lunch?

Although we all love a nice dry sunny day, the drop in temperature was most welcomed today.

I felt we all had so much more energy and enthusiasm for play.

As it was the last playgroup and one of the leaders was retiring we thought we should attend and give the children the opportunity to say “Thank you” and “Good bye”

Normally we would enjoy a relaxed walk along the silkin way, enjoy the playgroup session, have a picnic lunch underneath the shade of the large tree, then walk back along the silkin way.

We decided the most sensible option was to travel in the air conditioned minibus directly to playgroup.

Thankfully the leaders had taken all sensible measures to keep the hall cool, blinds closed and several fans on around the hall.

Todays activity also kept the children cool, making their own boats to float in the ice cubes and water.

After playgroup, we again travelled back home in the air conditioned mini bus.

After their afternoon nap and snack we all ventured out under the covered play area and took a dip in the pool.