DanDan's Playhouse: Ofsted Registered Childminder

We visited the zoo 🐒🐯🐘
Our littles are loving Lego at the moment- so when I saw there was a Lego animal hunt it was a must on our list!

Last summer (my first as a childminder) I turned the garden into a pop-up cinema… complete with an 8-man tent, a snack stall and a movie 🍿⛺️

This year, we’ve gone one step further… a full-blown beach and ice cream parlour! 🏖️🍦

I absolutely love taking a more relaxed approach to learning during the summer holidays. Of course there’s still so much learning happening, but my biggest focus is giving my littles and holiday clubbies the kind of summer memories they’ll look back on with a smile.

Now the question is… what on earth am I going to do next year? 🤭💛

If DanDan can’t take us to the beach, DanDan will bring the beach to us… yes, yes I did turn my whole garden into a beach! We had beach sounds playing from our garden speaker, it was a special touch and brought the experience to life.

One of my favourite parts of childminding is creating experiences children might never have had before, while also building on the knowledge and memories they already have. Whether it’s introducing something completely new or bringing a familiar experience to life in a different way, I love seeing their excitement, curiosity and imagination grow.

Of course I took the opportunity to turn yesterday’s activity into a beach… and you can’t go to the beach without visiting the ice cream parlour after 🤭🏖️💦🍦

💦 Pouring and flow station activity from The Early Years Edit- but on an extra large scale💦

We investigated (man-made) rock pools and a stream today…

The children loved being in charge of the water! They spent ages filling containers, carrying water around and pouring it into the different rock pools- each rock pool was its own investigation station, and the children were absorbed in each and every one!

The children quickly realised they needed enough water to help the boats travel down the steam, and enjoyed experimenting with different ways of making them move. They repeated the activity again and again, tweaking their ideas each time and celebrating when their boats made it all the way through.

🌟 We’re Hiring – Childminder’s Assistant 🌟

An exciting opportunity has become available to join our small, friendly home-from-home setting!

Requirements:
• Must be Level 3 qualified
• Must have experience working in the Early Years sector
• Full UK driving licence preferred

If you’re passionate about supporting children’s learning and development and would like to join our team, we’d love to hear from you!

For further details regarding hours and pay, please message me directly.

Please share this post to help us find the perfect person! 💛

I’ll admit, I’ve spent a small fortune on play dough rollers, cutters and all the fancy sets over the years… but today reminded me that simple really is best. 💚

We gathered random bits from around our playroom and used them to make prints in the play dough. The younger children loved exploring the different textures and comparing the marks each object made, while my daughter and the older children started creating patterns with their favourite finds.

The biggest surprise? This activity stayed out for both our morning and afternoon sessions because the children kept coming back to it. That hardly ever happens!

It was such a simple setup, but it ended up being one of the biggest hits we’ve had in a while. Safe to say it’ll be making another appearance next week—with a little twist!

My daughter’s first day off school today, and she clicked right into childminder mode. 🥹❤️

At 6am this morning, she had me washing up and scrubbing the labels off glass jars because she had an activity planned. 😂

She carefully took her time with every child who joined in, helping each one count their “pom poms” into the jar, encouraging them every step of the way. Watching her be so patient, kind, and confident with the little ones filled me with so much pride.

Safe to say, this was a proud Mommy moment. ❤️✨

💦 What better way to explore the movement of water than with our new water run? 🌿

This fantastic new addition to the garden went down an absolute treat! The children loved experimenting with how water flows, pours and travels through the different channels, sparking curiosity, teamwork and imaginative play.

To extend the fun, we brought the ‘5 Little Ducks’ nursery rhyme to life with exciting duck races! 🦆 The children experimented with a variety of water play tools to see which worked best to help push their ducks further down the water run and across the finish line. It was wonderful to see them predicting, testing their ideas and celebrating each other’s successes while developing their understanding of cause and effect through play.

Another inspiring activity sparked by The Early Years Edit curriculum prompt. I love how these prompts encourage us to look at familiar resources in new ways, leading to rich, playful learning experiences that the children truly engage with. 💙💧

🧡 Today we continued exploring the colour orange through creative and sensory play.

The children painted on mirrors, observing and recreating the reflections they could see. We also adapted yesterday’s favourite orange sensory activity by introducing frozen discs filled with orange petals.

The children explored how changing the height of the channeling tubes affected how fast the ice slid down the ramps.

Adding warm water sparked lots of conversation as they watched the ice melt and reveal the petals hidden inside.

A lovely morning full of curiosity, creativity, and early scientific exploration. 🧡❄️🌼

Thankyou again, for yet another beautiful activity prompt The Early Years Edit 💕

Exploring the orange thread from The Early Years Edit…

I must admit, I’ve been really enjoying the Colour Threads from TEYE. 🌈

I’ve always embedded colour into our everyday learning, but having a dedicated colour focus each month has made such a difference. Rather than simply identifying colours during play and moving on, it gives us the opportunity to really explore and immerse ourselves in one colour at a time.

We’ve been talking about where we can spot the focus colour, collecting objects, creating with it, and thinking about all the different things that are that colour. It’s been lovely to see how engaged the children have become. They now come into the setting excited to tell me about the orange things they’ve spotted at home or on the way in, and they’re making those connections independently.

It’s such a simple idea, but it’s encouraged deeper conversations, extended learning, and helped the children develop a much richer understanding of colour in the world around them. I’m really looking forward to seeing where the next Colour Threads take us!