Clare's Childminding

15/08/2024

A Level results day.
Proud Parents.
Happy Jude Nelson.

You have worked so hard during your school years, and grown in ways no exam could fully capture.

You have proven that you are quietly confident, patient and caring, resilient, that you have a knack of how to overcome challenges, that you are self assured and most of all, you are loyal and kind.

Whatever adventure awaits you, we are with you every step of the way.

You’ve grown into a lovely human Jude, always be proud of who you are.

14/08/2024

12/08/2024

RAF Cosford never disappoints, a beautiful hot day, the children were excited to learn new things, explore, play, share, laugh and care for each other.

06/08/2024

It’s Lake Day! After a wonderful start to the day at Dosthill Park where we met our friends, the big kids went for a swim at the lake! How lucky are they? The sun came out along with the biggest smiles!

23/07/2024

Friday was beautiful. We arrived at Elford Gardens and our first stop was Peggy the Piggy’s Stable - not a sty. We said hello to the scarecrow and looked at the big wagon that was made in 1923! Next stop was the orchard, the the giant xylophone before heading into the Giants Garden, did you spot how big his fork and spade are? It also doubles as a sensory garden so there’s lots to touch, feel and smell.
We climbed through the bamboo forest and found the river. Stopped for a chocolate chip cookie - ( thank you Emma) and then headed to what was the orangery to see the fish.
After that we entered the walled garden, which has a rose garden and a number of allotments, with every kind of fruit and vegetable growing there. I encouraged the children to touch and smell what was in the garden, we saw lots of butterflies 🦋 too. Soon it was time for lunch so we headed to a shady spot by the river and chatted with our friends while we had our picnics. Xx

We talked, laughed, touched, climbed, smelled, ran, looked, watched, listened, and much more, all while learning in our beautiful world.

26/06/2024

2 days to go! Who's excited? We would love to thank CrossCountry trains for sponsoring our Summer fayre with a fantastic donation of £500! It is also rail safety week so please talk to your children about the dangers of playing near the railway especially during their summer holidays 🚂

21/06/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/L9BmqCZCDgngibG5/?mibextid=0TepDJ

18/06/2024

It’s been a beautiful day in the garden today. We have played with balls, our outdoor kitchen, climbing equipment, the tyre swing, ride ons and scooters and cable reels. The children used the cable reels to walk along and step off and fast became brave enough to jump off! As they jumped higher and higher we thought they looked as though they were flying- like superheroes. They showed us how good they are at taking turns, waiting patiently, and supporting and caring for one another.

Jumping promotes motor planning, balance, muscle development, coordination and improves bones density. Just as importantly it builds confidence and emotional regulation.

This jumping continued throughout the day and then our after schoolers got in on the action. We also played on the tyre swing and rolled down the hill in the garden.

It brought them all so much pleasure and they learned so much today!

05/06/2024

We have two spaces for before and after school from September as two of our Childminding Family are off to High School.

Morning places are available, Monday to Thursday from 7.00am, with a drop off at St Gabriel’s.
After school is available Monday to Thursday, from collection at St Gabriel’s until 5.15pm.

Please share. Thank you. ❤️

28/05/2024

Todays painting. It’s so easy to sit a little one at a table and paint but actually it is so great if they can stand to do this activity. You don’t need an easel, you can stick paper to a door or a fence. Today we had a large box from a new BBQ, (all it’s done is rain since we ordered) and I brought it into our playroom for our painting activity.

Some of the benefits are

Full range of movement in their arms
Allows freedom of movement. Can use their ‘whole’ body
Easier for children who find it difficult to sit still
Gives them more perspective. They can walk back and view their artworks at a distance
Can put more energy into their painting
Little ones find it easier to create bigger paintings standing up
Children tend to find painting and drawing, standing, more fun. Sitting at a desk or table can mean they have to ‘work!’

24/05/2024

iPads, Tablets, screens and children.

I’m not a fan. Please don’t hate me.

When my children were younger I watched a BBC news report on televisions in children’s bedrooms and the detrimental effect of TV before bed and falling asleep to TV. It basically said that children don’t wind down as well, can be more tired the next day and as well as other negative effects it was linked to more children being overweight; Craving energy and calories being the cause.

We decided as parents not to allow TVs in our kids bedrooms. My eldest son bought his own Tv when he was old enough to pay for it with money he had earned from working, and my youngest who is 16 still does not have a screen in his room. We did not allow phones upstairs until they were old enough to understand how to responsibly use a phone and phones were left downstairs overnight until my eldest son was 13/14.

Tech as it’s referred to in our house, was PlayStation and XBox. It was allowed Friday to Sunday and like most parents that have rules in place, that rule for our eldest waivered a little for our younger child and so tech occasionally was used on a Thursday.
I think my kids had a bit of stick about it from friends, we may have slipped occasionally and forgotten but generally we tried to stick to it.

I don’t claim to be a perfect parent, this is the way we did things and it meant that in our house bedtime was calm and quiet, I read to my kids, then when they were old enough to read, they read to me. Then they began to read independently and the next challenge was to get them to put the book down and turn off the light.

I started writing this post today because I came across the article below:

“This past August, as I approached my departure gate in John F. Kennedy International Airport and threw myself across the nearest chair, I noticed a scene so jarring and unsettling it made me question the behavioral trajectory of the newest generation of children. To my left sat a well-mannered toddler whose calm and quiet demeanor was noticeably abnormal for a child of his age. A pacifier hung loosely from his drooling mouth and his eyes contained a firm and determined gaze, fixed on an iPad so massive it dwarfed him entirely. I sat in awe as he navigated the screen effortlessly, tracing lines of grease with each swipe of his chubby little fingers.

My keen observation was interrupted by two spatially unaware young boys sprinting past me. Trailing behind them was a clearly exhausted mother, attempting to contain their overflowing energy as they weaved between chairs and crawled shamelessly around the floor. She begged them to tame their raucous rampage, but her pleas were met with intentional disregard. That is, until, like a magician conjuring a rabbit from his hat, she drew two sleek iPads from her tote bag. She handed each boy a tablet and, within a matter of seconds, they had bounded to two chairs, eager to start bathing in the blue light projecting from the screens held mere inches from their faces. It was as though they had been tranquilized, injected with some form of sedative and put into a trance by their devices.

“Look at every kid here,” said my mom, who had also noticed the alarming trend: every child of ten years or below had their head buried in a screen, noise-canceling headphones secure, gaze impenetrable, parents relieved. My initial reaction was to condemn the parents who were so blatantly fostering their children’s screen addictions. But the motivation for parents to feed their children iPads and tablets is understandable — why try to negotiate good behavior with a terrible two-year-old or a confrontational little boy when a screen could save you the work and guarantee the result you seek?

I can recognize the temptation to take the easy escape route from a child’s persistent wails or misbehavior, but what cannot be ignored is a troubling question: What integral aspects of childhood are sacrificed as a result of hardwiring young children to perk up at the Apple startup sound? What might the repercussions be for a generation of children who would thoughtlessly trade all the Webkinz, Legos and Polly Pockets in the world for an iPad, who would rather play Candy Crush than Candy Land, and who are more familiar with an Apple Pen than a pack of scented Crayola markers?

A study by JAMA Pediatrics released earlier this year sought to investigate this phenomenon through their research on the consequences of screen exposure on child development. The study surveyed over 7,000 mother-child pairs over the course of four years, grouping each pair based on their average hours of daily screen exposure. Researchers concluded that those who had higher levels of screen exposure throughout their childhood experienced significant developmental delays in communication and problem solving skills.

The World Health Organization echoed this claim in 2019, suggesting that in order to improve sleep quality and cognitive and motor development, infants under one year old should not use screens at all, and those from ages two to four should spend no more than one hour a day on screens. Further evidence concerning the harmful nature of screens found a negative correlation between the amount of time a toddler spent watching videos and their language development: one additional hour of videos for infants resulted in a reduction of six to eight words spoken per day.

The reams of newly published research delving into the consequences of screens on early childhood development reveal the disquieting reality that electronics intended to promote communication, connection and education have had quite the opposite effect. Thus, it is my fear that if parents fail to recognize the dangers of using screens to babysit their children, we will end up with a drooling, speechless generation who can connect with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth better than they can with other people.”

21/05/2024

Long Post! But worth the read. ❤️

We took a trip to the garden centre today.
We enjoyed looking at the fishes, talking about their stripes and spots, colours and shapes, whether they looked grumpy, sad or happy. It never fails to amaze me how much the children get out of this activity.

We headed to the cafe for tea and toast and with Fathers Day approaching and on our minds, we chatted about Dads.

We asked the children, What’s their (dads) favourite? Tea or Coffee? What’s their favourite dinner? What is you favourite thing to do with your Daddy? Etc

When you ask a child a leading question, the answers they give open a window to what’s going on in their minds. Our children’s Dads will be happy to learn, there were no embarrassing stories shared at the table today! 😂

We left the cafe and took a look at the books for sale, we found a great one about Incredible Dads and took the opportunity to read it right there in the middle of the garden centre. The children sat down, listened intently and commented and laughed at some of the pages in the book.

When reading to children is a regular activity, their ability to stop anywhere and listen to a story is just brilliant.

My advice to any parent or carer would be to read everyday to your child, it’s the most wonderful activity you can do for child.
The benefits of reading to your child
1. It nurtures the parent and child bond
As your children grow, they spend their days exploring and discovering non-stop until it’s time to wind down for bed with a story. Many children look forward to storytime as it’s their special time with you where they have your attention and they feel close to you. In time, you’ll find that reading to your child gives them a sense of intimacy, one that improves your communication and helps you bond with each other.

2. It provides routine and stability to your child
One of the big benefits of reading, especially if it’s at a set time in the day such as cuddling up with a book at bedtime, is that it provides routine and stability for your child. As children are constantly learning new things day in and day out, routine and stability are essential for your child to learn to take a breath within the busyness of the day to recharge and wind down. If you do this every day, reading will become a nurturing activity rather than a task or a chore.

3. It sparks their imagination
As we read, our brains translate the descriptions that we read of people and places and things into pictures. For young children, not only does this allow them to engage in the story but it also fuels their creativity when they bring this knowledge into their everyday play.

4. It forms strong foundations for their learning abilities
If you read to your children often, you are exposing them to a wide range of language and vocabulary as well as multiple environments and experiences that they will learn to relate to. The benefits of this is that it leads to children developing skills a lot earlier than children who don’t read, skills that are essential to learning and life such as:

Communication and listening skills
Basic speech skills
Thinking skills and logic
Literacy and numeracy skills
By reading to your children, they learn to understand cause and effect, the consequences of actions, and the basics of what is right and wrong. It is also essential for their language development! Studies have shown that 8-month-year-olds who were read to often as babies have higher “receptive” vocabularies (meaning the number of words they understand) of 40% compared to children of the same age who were not read to (16%).

5. It helps them perform better in school
It’s probably no surprise that one of the biggest benefits of reading is that children who read more tend to have a higher academic performance. When you thihnk about it, it makes sense:

The intimacy of reading with your children every day makes it a pleasurable experience.
This fosters a positive attitude towards reading and learning.
Reading also enhances concentration and self-discipline.
Children who love to learn tend to have longer attention spans and better memory retention which help them perform better in school.
Reading and communicating to your children exposes them to a larger range of vocabulary which helps them communicate and learn in school.
Reading often also helps them to develop a higher competency for learning in multiple environments so they are more prepared to adapt easily to each day in school.

6. It helps them to become more accepting
Helping our children be more open-minded is something that will set them up for life. Reading does just that as it teaches children about empathy and about different cultures. From a young age, children will lose themselves in stories but as they grow, they soon learn about different cultures and customs and they start to relate to characters and imagine how they would feel in certain situations. Empathy and an open mind are both essential to help them communicate with people and to make positive changes in the world around them.

7. It helps them to conquer the fear of a classroom and become less anxious in general
Have you noticed that reading calms your children, especially when they are distressed or restless? Many children, as they grow, become nervous about new experiences or situations especially if it’s something that they find scary such as the first day of school. By reading books that are relevant to them, this can help relieve their anxiety considerably as they now know what to expect. Over time, you’ll soon find that they learn to cope better with these negative emotions too.

8. It makes them want to keep on learning
One of the best benefits of reading is that the learning never stops, no matter how old you are! When our children are babies, they develop their senses by feeling tangible materials and listening to sound effects. As they grow, they then learn the basics of reading a book (such as reading from left and write, stories continue when you turn the page etc) as well as words, numbers, colours, shapes, sounds, and concepts. As they grow even older, children expand their chain of knowledge and become motivated to find out even more about certain things that they are interested in. Even as adults, there’s always something to learn by reading!

9. It helps build confidence as well as positive life habits
Reading at home every day teaches your children that this activity is fun and not a chore. It also gives your children the confidence to be able to read out loud in a classroom full of people. While these may not seem like incredibly important traits, this simple activity sets them up for life. When it comes to reading books to study for exams or presenting to a class full of teenagers when they are older, your child will have the confidence to go ahead full steam. Not to mention that reading will become a pleasurable (and healthier) habit for them too, to wind down when the day is done!

Dump the iPad and pick up a book. ❤️

07/03/2024

Hello from Poppy, Paddington, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Harry Potter, Angelina Ballerina, Chase, Rainbow Fairy Princess and Snow White! X x

06/03/2024

We have an artist in the house this afternoon!

03/02/2024

🥰 Friendships 🥰

There are so many benefits to mixing ages within a setting ❤️
Older children scaffold the play of younger ones, whilst learning patience and tolerance. Younger children can access peer support and gain opportunities for more sophisticated social skills.
One of the benefits of a childminding setting is that we don’t have a ‘baby room’ or ‘toddlers’ separated from others. We have our space, everyone’s space, where we are all together. Learning from each other, forming friendships and sharing experiences 🥰

Words borrowed from Daisy. X

02/02/2024

Please do your own research! And do not believe this man when he says Parents can access 30 hours of free childcare every week. It’s not true, it is in fact only 38 weeks a year, or term time only. Childcare for 3/4 year olds is still greatly underfunded and by offering funded, NOT Free childcare to parents who do not work, it’s making life impossible for working parents to find suitable Childcare.

There has been next to no investment in the sector for years, Champagne Nurseries Lemonade Funding has been highlighting the problem for years and for the last few years their page has been full of posts from Pre Schools and Nurseries closing their doors because of POOR Funded (NOT Free) childcare.

18/01/2024

It’s been a crazy week here at Dream Team HQ, but, these girls are simply amazing. ❤️

19/11/2023

When you read to your child….

24/10/2023

What is Cultural Capital in the Early Years?
Quote from Twinkl:
“Cultural capital is all about providing children with experiences and opportunities to help them progress and achieve success. By creating a rich and varied EYFS curriculum that offers diverse, engaging activities, all children can be supported to achieve their potential.
When children start in an early years setting, they already have a variety of different experiences. Cultural capital in EYFS is about celebrating and building on these early experiences and providing other new opportunities to be curious,
explore, try new things and experience awe and wonder.
The aim of cultural capital is to create possibilities for children's knowledge, understanding and abilities to be developed and extended through new opportunities and experiences. This gives children the best possible start to their education and promotes future success.”

We endeavour to give the children in our care a wide range of experiences they can learn from. Just like they were our own children. To learn to be adventurous, brave, inquisitive, silly, happy, kind, curious, little people that want to go out into the world and live their very best lives.

We are currently taking booking for places for next September. If you know anyone that will be looking for childcare next year please share our page with them.

Here are some of our recent learning experiences:

08/10/2023

Another brilliant trip to see Dippy this week. We also visited Coventry Cathedral. The children thought it was loud, quiet, big, scary, ghostly - because of the echoes and beautiful because of the stained glass windows. We went to see Dippy and explored other parts of the museum we didn’t manage to see last time. We dressed up like the portraits in the portrait gallery, sniffed an exhibit that smelled like a medieval toilet, (it was stinky and smelled like poo,) and interacted with an exhibit that blew wind when we stepped on a button; the kids really loved that! Thoroughly enjoyable day! X

04/10/2023

When children LEARN they can learn that learning is PLAY!

25/09/2023

🍁🍂❤️🥰

19/09/2023

We often take a walk past one of our lovely neighbours houses to see his wonderful Stickman creations. A few weeks ago he had a mishap and ended up in hospital. The children painted him a picture and sent him a card, we talked about trying to cheer him up and make him feel better and they were enthusiastic about sending something to make him happy.

Fast forward to this week and the Stickman has sent the children a card back! We’re so happy he is on the mend. 🦯 👨 💙

22/08/2023

Last week we said goodbye to three of our little ones.

It was a beautiful last day full of smiles, hugs and ice cream!

Thank you to their families who made us feel so very special. To have loved your babies has been our privilege and for you guys to appreciate us as much as we love your children is just a match made in heaven.

It’s taken me a few days to be able to write this, your heartfelt words left me completely broken but my heart full.

Oliver, Lily and Edward we have loved spending time with you but know you’ll fly at pre school! Have the best time and come back to see us soon.

Ruth, Natalie and I will miss you all so much. ###

11/08/2023

Today…..
We Rollercoaster!

04/08/2023

Wow! What a first couple of weeks of the summer holidays we have had! Thanks to all of the children’s parents for letting us take the kids on all these amazing adventures!

14/07/2023

Anyone for tennis? 🎾Ruth came today and coached the kids! They were awesome and enjoyed it so much. Thankyou for the coaching and the strawberries 🍓 Ruth. Xx

05/07/2023

What a lovely day we’ve had visiting our friend Ella and her horses Poppy and Jack. The children learned about the tack room, feeding, mucking out, electric fences, jumps, horseshoes, tractors and how much horses love carrots and apples!

It was such a joy to take them. I hope the memories stay with them for a long time.

A million thanks to Ella and Mel! ###