Because child minders have fewer children in their care than larger settings, such as nurseries and pre-schools, they should have more time to be able to tailor activities to suit individual children.
When I was a registered child minder I felt that I knew my children very well. As I was in receipt of the nursery education grant for some of the 3 and 4 year old children ;part of my role was to help them to learn through play.
One little boy was always talking about the film Madagascar, which he had seen at the cinema, so I devised some activities around the film ( the other children also took part). We made models of the main animal characters from play dough and junk models.
we then discussed them; what habitat. they lived in, what they ate and so on, We also went to the library to borrow books about this.
Another child struggled with learning the names of colours: As he enjoyed playing with the toy cars I used them to help him- I picked up a car told him what colour it was and asked him to find another in the same colour. He got the idea quite quickly so I then started to ask him to look for the same colours around the room. colour recognition here
A slightly older boy found counting and numbers difficult and as he was also interested in vehicles I made a vehicle counting chart on the computer and we sat on my front garden wall, which overlooked a road and logged what we saw on the chart. We marked down the number of different colour cars and the different types of vehicles we saw. When his mother came to collect him he was excited to tell her that he had been counting cars. number recognition here
I used a child’s love of dinosaurs to teach about size by comparing them to other items in the toy box. teaching about size here
A little girl who was obsessed with the colour pink loved spending time experimenting with mixing paint to make her perfect shade of pink.
With a bit of imagination it is relatively easy to come up with activities to suit individual children and then adapt them to move up to the next level. Ofsted are impressed by this way of planning too More.activities to suit everyone here
As always questions and comments are welcome.
Until next time.
Karen
x
These are truly some great ideas. I like using everyday things that are naturally a part of their life to help them learn new skill sets too.
Yes definitely a great idea to learn through play – with the toys that they are mos interested in! I love the sensory themed boxes and tables that some parents / care givers set up – very creative! #StayClassyMama
Great ideas. And best way to get kids engaged. #StayClassymama
Hi Karen, these are lovely ideas to help children learn using their interests as a way to help them engage more in something. It’s always a lot easier to grasp a concept when it involves a few of our favourite things. Thank you for joining us for the #DreamTeamLinky 🙂
Great ideas, and I’m sure having that level of personalisation really helped Thanks for sharing with #PoCoLo
It’s lovely to be able to tailor the learning activities to suit the individual children. These are some great ideas for helping with number and colour recognition – will have to remember them to try with my littlest one. #KidsandKreativity
I love these ideas Karen, and the whole concept of tapping into the individual child’s interests and needs etc, to help with their learning. It’s something I find most rewarding when it comes to our son’s learning and development, too x #KidsandKreativity
Some great ideas, and it’s lovely to be able to be able to tailor activities around individual childrens wants and needs. Thanks again for linking up with #KidsandKreativity.