Snack Station Hack

Many of us have got to switch it up this week. The 22 week summer holidays starts now and although I love my children I also love them being in the routine of going to school and having the structured day which keeps them busy and engaged. But here we are AC (after corona) and…

How to home ed – 9 fun ideas to do at home.

Schools out for the foreseeable and lets face it, most of us are scared to death of the concept of entertaining our children for potentially months on end. Not only that, with job losses and scaled back working we’re living in fear of paying our bills never mind paying for extra resources, food and entertainment…

How to home ed – nature studies

I feel like this is going to crop up afew times on the blog over the coming weeks as we just absolutely love outdoor activities. But with the threat of self isolation and lockdown looming how can you use nature studies in your home education activities? Do I need to home school? It’s true to…

The Curiosity Approach – A childminders perspective

JENNIFER WOOLDRIDGE , CHILDMINDER AND INSTAGRAM INFLUENCER (Guest blog first published on PACEY AUGUST 2019) My childminding setting has changed a lot in the past few years. As a practitioner I’m always looking for ways of improving the quality of care that I provide and building on my own unique selling points. These will make…

Garden Makeover

Willow Den Making Back in June I attended a willow den building session offered by the local authority which became the start of agarden transformation at my setting.  Itoffered such a useful, engaging and different training session for local earlyyears settings. I was thrilled to participate and came home with lots of ideasof ways to…

Glow Writer Panel – Review

As part of my role as a childminder I have to follow the early years foundation stage and one element of this is using technology with the children to help them gain a wider understanding of the world that they live in and to provide learning opportunities that might be slightly different from the norm….

Mini Beast Blocks – Review

As anyone will see who follows my Instagram page @mamasden I love to use wooden toys in my childminding setting. I follow a curious approach with my children. I encourage them to get hands on with the toys, manipulating them, combining them in different ways and being inventive with games. Part of my approach is…

Top 10 Play Ideas – Holiday Addition

The summer holidays are here and many families will be jetting off or road tripping to their holiday destinations .. ever mindful of their little darlings and ways of keeping them entertained when the beach, holiday clubs or pool aren’t quite enough. I’ve jetted off to Turkey. I’m lucky to have access to our families…

Curious Play Outdoors – Winter

As a Childminder who is highly influenced by the Curiosity approach I like to spend lots of quality, educational yet largely child led time outdoors. I am lucky that I have a large garden and lots of green open spaces on my door step so I can give the children lots of free play opportunities…

A-Z of the Curiosity Approach

I recently attended a seminar and evening with The Curiosity approach and left with the realisation that this is pretty much the way that I run my childcare setting and am striving to create a calm, nurturing environment for the children in my care. As a childminder it is hard to balance work and home…