Hailee's Childminding

Lots of great mark making occuring this morning. Me, the children and the playroom look like we've been through a snow blizzard as we're all covered in flour but the children have loved it.

These 2 little ones have loved the christmas themed mark making area.
I've added some old Xmas cards, stickers, postage stamps, sellotape, envelopes, wrapping paper and stamps along with a range of mark making pens and pencils so they can draw, write or creat what they like.
We've been talking about Santa, and what colour his outfit is, and using stickers to build up those muscles in the thumb and index finger which will help with good pencil control that will eventually lead to writing. They've then posted their cards in our little post box - the most exciting thing was getting the letters back out and reposting them again!
It's the small activities like this that all form the foundations of writing when children are ready.
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I have loved watching this little ones game of hide and seek this morning.
Is initially set up an proco action for the children to decorate a Christmas street outline on the floor with various different items. Initially he started to place the items on the tape. But half way through he got the gold beads and put them over an orange slice.
He looked a little bewildered at first and looked at the beads as if to say "wheres that orange gone?"
Then he lifted the beads up and shouted "whoooa" and laughed.
He then continued to repeat this action several times, each time shouting "woooah" at he found his orange slice.
I love how children find their own way to explore and use resources when they are able to lead their own play. This is how they learn best.

This children loved sitting down together and reading this Christmas book.
It opens out to make a Christmas scene so we used our Christmas buddies to add a different dimension to the story as we talked about what was happening, encouraging the children to improve their language skills as well as learning new festive words and meanings.

At the weekend I was at my parents and my mum gave me a music jewellery box that I had as a child.
Today this little one discovered it and I just love the excitement on his face as he opened the box and the ballerina started moving and playing music.
It's the little moment like this, the sense of awe and wonder you see in a child that makes childminding such an exciting and awesome career.
I then had a little cry to myself because I'm really going to miss the little ones, their families and wonderful moments like this after Christmas when I am no longer childminding. But until that point its December and that means Christmas activities and we are going to have so much fun over the next 3 weeks.

We made fairy cakes this morning which we were going to have for pudding however when the little.ones heard the alarm on the cooker go off and they knew the cakes were ready they all got so excited so we had fairy cakes for snack this morning!!
Not the healthiest snack however the enjoyment the children got earing something they had made was definitely more significant!!
Plus it's nearly Christmas and we're allowed to eat whatever whenever right??!! 😋 😁

We had a lovely walk around the pond this morning, these 3 little ones have such a lovely friendship and it was lovely listening to them chatting and babbling as we walked round.
As we walked I (20m) found a frozen leaf which he got very excited about as he picked it up and pointed at it. I extended this opportunity by taking about the weather and we walked across the grass and felt the grass crunch as it was frozen. This was a great opportunity to introduce new language and words such as frosty, frozen, crunchy and icy as we chatted about what we had seen and found.

On a roll - another page completed towards my ✔

Today as we played outside in the garden this little man (25months) demonstrated some excellent critical thinking skills. He had spent quite some time playing with the the pulley system working out which stringng he needed to pull to lift the bucket up.
In the end he bent down and simply picked the bucket up by the handle. This was excellent problem solving which has added to his emotional well being and reliance. Next time he is faced with a problem, while he might not remember this exact activity, what the will remember is not giving up and having a go. This is an important skill for children to have, and us adults need to be the facilitator in providing activities and resources that encourage children to develop their characteristics of effective learning.

I love planning and writing things down so im spending some time working on my again tonight making a plan of the pages I've done and the specifications they meet and what pages I want to include to demonstrate and evidence my ways of working and the impact this has on the children I care for.

So after a crazy few months, I am finally back working on and making progress on my Just Quality Accreditation.
I love how with each page I complete it is making me reflect on what I do and why and most importantly, thinking about the IMPACT it has in children and their development because if its not having an impact why are we doing it!