would you believe ds (5) or the childminder? childminer took ds and the children elsewhere

[user1469643462]

It is the summer holidays so ds has to be with a childminer, for 3 days a week. I pay her for the actual care she provides, then i pay for any visits to places on top of that, they were supposed to be going to the zoo today and i had paid £21 for ds's zoo ticket and i know that isnt loads but tbh with the cost i had already paid for her to look after him it was almost today's wages! ds goes there with 2 boys and a little girl aswell all around the same age give or take. Ds got home and was telling me all about his trip to the local museum (which was free) i did not have a problem with that he seemed to have had a great time. I phoned up the childminder and asked if she could just paypal the money back over and she said that she had no idea what i was going on about and that she took them to the zoo I know children do love to use their imagination, so i was a bit undecided, ds kept going on about the objects he had seen and told me a story about a man showing them the kids bit. ds has never been to this museum and it was just odd how well he was explaining it. I would love to phone the other parents but tbh i dont actually know them! it's all very odd...

Lucielucie while many childminders will do lots of evidencing, written records and photos, very little is an actual requirement.
Lack of it does not necessarily mean that the childminder is lying.

I thought under 8's had to have documented stuff or is it under 5's

What age are the other children the cm has?

Eyfs is under fives. Lots of stuff to be done for that. Over that age there's isn't anything you HAVE to do with every child. At least when I worked in holiday childcare ( a few years now), there wasn't. Best practice to do it but you don't have to.

I've just been reading through the thread for the first time and I have to say I don't find the mention of the coins to represent a whole day's activities at the zoo at all suspicious as this is exactly what the experience meant to my son when he was the same age as the OP's. We took our son and his cousin - a year younger - to Edinburgh zoo when we were on holiday and for my son, the coin machine that produced a souvenir of the day was most definitely the high point! The only reason I even remember that machine was because it was the thing he liked best. If ever we mentioned that trip to anyone, it was certainly not the animals he waxed lyrical about ( he hardly gave them a glance!) but the coin he got from the machine. I think it was because, to him, a coin being produced in front of his eyes was magical in a way the animals weren't. My niece, on the other hand spoke only about the animals although she too was given a coin.

Children are very selective - they will hardly take in things that they have little interest in, but focus completely on something which seizes their imagination. And this is faithfully reflected in what they remember - my son could not have told you which animals he "saw" that day because they barely impinged on his consciousness whereas my niece would have reeled off a whole list plus lots of facts she'd learned about them because she found them fascinating.

argh the suspense.....

You didn't see the certificate? It has to be on display.

I am unaccountably enthralled by this thread. It's a bit like the Serial podcast. I keep changing my mind about who is telling the true story.

Sorry if my previous post sounded a bit flippant. I don't mean to make light of the situation, and I would be very concerned about whether to trust the childminder again. I hope you are able to get to the bottom of things, OP.

Tho surely if the coins were the best thing ever - then why didn't cm give each child a coin and make their own /imprint or whatever they do there so has a momento and proof they went there

Place marking for Monday's update

Possibly they only made one coin between them all, or perhaps there was a queue of people waiting to make them and the CM and children just stopped to watch it being done. If the OP's son was really interested -possibly lingering to watch while several were being made and talking excitedly about it - it would have been natural for the CM to mention the coins to jog the child's memory of their day out. Obviously coins don't immediately spell "zoo" to most people - which is why the OP couldn't make sense of it - but the CM would have remembered that this was the high point of the day for the child and so this was the fact she mentioned.

I therefore would not see the emphasis on the coins - or the absence of a coin - as being suspicious in itself. It struck me as deja vu of our own trip to the zoo with our son as soon as I read it!

Yes blondes- why would he be excited by the coins if he and the others didn't even get one.

Because it would have been the process of the coins being made that captured his imagination - actually seeing them appear. He would probably have liked to have had one too but it was the experience of seeing them made that really enthralled him.

Im not placemarking i promise...

So strange. Will see what she gives you tomorrow. V Odd not to take pics but as a PP said, it is not a requirement for over 5s to have learning journeys etc.

You have to put a pound coin into the penny press for it to press your penny - not at all surprised that they didn't get one each.

When my ds was 5 he would stand for 45 minutes playing with the wheel of a penny press if I let him. If the weather was wet and none of the animals wanted to be out in the rain that could well have been the most interesting thing that happened.

I took my daughter on safari when she was 3 (part of a trip to visit family). She shouted animal regularly but was as excited by a goat as a giraffe. She's more sophisticated now and wants the big cats.

My point is it quite possible to not be excited by zoo animals.

I went to Orlando as a kid. I remember more random stuff like being amazed by ice machines than I do actual Disney stuff.

When mine went to a cm or a nursery for that matter, around 5 years ago, none did photos for any days out.

And the coins could be those in the Roman gardens fountain, as pictured above.

A £1 coin each is cheap compared to all the tat stuff in the gift shop

4 children = £4 which would be a taxable exspense anyway

Even if did one coin to take back to cm and have in shop /play corner - if it was something that excited her mindee so much surely she would have got one

Me, Placemarking? Oh no....

OP have you been to the childminders yet???

I just keep thinking though that even if the coins were the stand out highlight of the whole day he would still have some memory of seeing an animal,he wouldn't have a complete memory wipe out! As time goes on those memories would fade but the very same day he'd surely remember something else-they've got massive animatronic dinosaurs there at the moment,they're amazing-they squirt water and roar at you. Even if all the other animals were difficult to see (which isn't likely at Chester zoo) then surely a 20ft replica t-Rex might linger in the mind longer than a day!

DotForShort that sums up my feelings exactly! I honestly don't know what I believe anymore but am fascinated.

OP good luck and please don't feel pressured just because a bunch of nosy strangers are on tenterhooks over-invested in the outcome!

Though unfortunately it's a distinct possibility that no one will ever know for sure, unless she really does produce the receipt.

a receipt of at least equal offishulness as fastday*'s