Melanie has suggested this weeks topic. One of my favourite messy play activities is what I call gloop (cornflour and water experiment) as this also covers science in the early years. Basically you mix lots of cornflour with water in a large vessel. I used to mix it in my grill pan as this allowed…
Today’s post is a suggestion from an Instagram follower. Sensory play is what it says on the tin: Play that stimulates a child’s senses: touch, smell,taste, sight and hearing. Messy play is just a small part of sensory play. When I was a registered child minder one of the games I would play with the children…
As a former early years practitioner I know that children learn a great deal through play, I don’t really agree with the idea of having a curriculum for children under the age of 3; I don’t think it is necessary. When I was a child minder all my under 5’s learnt to tell the time…
The concept of children having a bedroom to themselves in a relativity new idea; years ago when families were bigger children had to share a room. When I was a girl, I was lucky enough to have my own bedroom: I was the eldest of 3 girls. My younger sisters shared a larger bedroom, which…
Over the 14 years that I worked as a registered child minder a few of the children I cared for had special needs: My first experience of caring for a special needs child( which was funded through social services, as respite for the parents) was a little girl, who was 2 years old as she…
After watching a child have a major temper tantrum in a supermarket, a customer ( who was not the parent) told him to “Shut up!” Is it okay to discipline someone else’s child? I used to work as a registered child minder and therefore I had to manage the behaviour of the children in my…
As a child minder I was always looking for ways of entertaining the children that would be fun and educational at the same time. Sometimes, these activities meant that the children in my care would get a bit messy. One of these children would always arrive looking like she was wearing her ‘Sunday best’ and…