CM Club - Just wanted a quick moan

yeah, in our training we were told we don't have to do a certain amount every whatever, we were told to just note down things as and when relevant which seems fair.

I 'cheated' with my fridge and freezer thermometers, I have 2 freezers and have organised them so only one contains any food i might use for mindees, thereby saving myself the whopping sum of £3.50 for the third thermometer!

I have had my EYFS training and it all seemed ok-ish (lots of the things are common sense!) except the tutor could not really answer the 'how often do we need to do obs and how much should we write' questions....it seems to be up to us and as long as we do some and show Ofsted we do some then that's okay....

Thanks for the links! I will have a look at them in detail later (when dd isn't hanging off me )

I love childminding and I don't really mind doing paperwork (as yet given I hardly do any ) but I am worried that I really know nothing of all the new legislation coming and if I didn't come on here, I wonder if I ever would hear about it!!

Well after googleing at least I know I want to be a situational leader with forays into transformational leadsership

To quote you Doh!!!

doh

I know I was teasing

sorry those were for southernbelle!

i'll look at your homework later

eeekkkk - homework ..... run away!!!!!

i really have to go and have a shower with ds as he is nagging me and driving me crazy . . . sorry

but i'll be back - what you gotta do?

No neither of them will help my homework.....here?

or get it from DfES publications tel:0845 60 222 60

you can download it or order it online at: teachernet

Have you had B23 training - it is very similar

Can you both come & do my homework please?????

mmm. . . . perhaps!! can me ans SB have one

southernbelle- have you got the EYFS pack? it'll give you all the info you need[although to be honest i read it and read it but i doesn't seem to get absorbed into my brain

I have 4......big fridge little fridge, big freezer little freezer - do you think that's overkill?

Oh my goodness, I really need to start doing more paperwork!!

I do a daily diary and put photos in it occasionally, and do a photo pack at christmas, but seems I am going to get a shock in September too!

I need to do EYFS training but there isn't any around here for a while so I guess I will have to wait until I find out exactly what will be required!

note to self - buy a fridge thermomter!

oh my god - that made me laugh out loud

seriously though my mindees bring a packed lunch - cheese strings/frubes/etc YUCK - one of them was very puzzled when i was eating cucumber and asked what it was that mindee doesn't seem to like any F&V another eats all my fruit

so i did put a bag of oranges on my expeses this week

fruit & veg

in my town there are approx. 40 c/m's
i'm not a part of the network [scared of NVQ3] BUT I DO REGULAR TRAINING AND GO TO LOTS OF PLAYGROUPS I'D GUESS I'VE ONLY MET [oops sorry] a third of them - i always wonder what they do with no support/advice from other c/m's

what's a F&V?

Me neither - I have made nothing so far this tax year

as you can imagine i'm not exactly "rakeing it in"
another reason i'm not so hot on accounts i doubt i'll ever be paying tax!!

Of course you would IF you are good

But there are lots of childminders out there who are just in it for the money/while their children are home for whom child development is not an interest who stick them in front of the TV and feed them chicken nuggets of the factory floor with out a F&V from one week to the next

Persaonally I don't think legislation is the way to sti=op these people childminding - i think OFSTED should visit a minimum of every year and more often if there are concerns

I am in a network which keeps me up-to-date with best pratice and visits our setting every fortnight - BUT it would normally be every 8 week (we just have 3 network childminders[blush}

I think you can't get round people visiting - but some child minders see it as an intrusion

yep i can only have 2 under 5 and ds - i only have 2 mindees per day of any age - so when the schoolie is at school i just have one mindee

oh katymac you are so organized and efficient!

to be honest though surely if you are good with kids you would instinctively link activities to what the child likes/shows an interest in?

will anyone official ever really read these obsevations? apparenlty ofsted haven't even started their training on EYFS yet

OFSTED will ask for diaries I think - they are important for sharing photos/information & stuff

Using Diaries is considered good practice - best practise is diaries/scrapbooks/video/photos etc much more multi media

But I use exercise books about half a page a day (incl what they ate/where we went/what they played with/poos/particular interests)

I do write less with children over 4 and stop at 5(ish)

Surely 2 plus you DS would be all you were allowed?