Childminders Club: What do you think about this "baby curriculum" then?

[jojo76]

Hi all, I haven't posted on the childminders club before, so i hope no one minds me just jumping in!!
Im feeling pretty horrified at following a national curriculum from birth as part of my practice..............and I don't want ds to be following a curriculum till he starts school!!

anyone else feeling like this? I would be really interested to hear what you all think.....and also did you see that horrendous woman on breakfast on bbc this morning talking about childminders "you dont know if they are just sitting kids in front of the tv"

Who was the woman?

It's called birth to three matters - it is very childcentred and promopts things like changing a child's nappy when it needs changing rather than it's 11.30 , so it must be nappychanging time

It's 9.30 and this little one is hungry so lets have a snack rather than "we have snack time at 10 .30 - it's story time now so we can't do snacks

Most childminders have been doing this sort of childcentred care for years it's nurseries that need to catch up

If you do a ggogle and look at the site to B23 - you will see lovely "target" for the children about being valued and creating warm friendships/relationships with their carers

I really approve

jojo76 Is it the same that was in the Sun?

I've not done Birth to three matters yet still waiting for my course dates to come through so I don't know if it's the same as what the paper is saying which is-

"Childminders and nurseries will be forced to help them learn to read and write BEFORE they reach primary age."

"The babes will also be taught "Common sense" and "Child development"

"Under the plan, all three-year-olds in childcare will learn rudimentary maths, languauge and literacy"

I dont even know what rudimentary means!

I think they're actually trying to set up a curriculam for us to follow, i'm not entirely sure but thats how I read it.

I can't even get my mindees to sit and draw let alone try and write their names

Hi Guys, thanks for replying!
I do think it is what you read in the Sun, Karen, that all children in early years will be assessed from birth and that providers will be required to follow a national curriculum and that early maths, language literacy and so on will be introduced, hopefully with the outcome that the children will have met certain targets by a certain age. On the news today, they said that for example, babies should be looking around by a ceratain age, exploring by a certain age, standing by a certain age, interacting with others by a certain age. I just think its a bit prescriptive and i personally dont think it is necessary to be meeting accademic goals that are then assessed by the time they are 3 ( just my opinion!).
Katymac, unless ive totally misunderstood, i think this is different to Birth to 3 Matters, which I agree is brilliant. The thing that the government are proposing doesnt sound child centred at all, but seems to me like it just aims to put children in boxes, if you see what I mean.
As far as I understand, this has only just been in the news to day, so it's a new proposal?

Jellyjelly, I didn't catch the womans name as I was shoving nappies in washing machine frantically before kids arrived when she started the interview!! Have told ncma about it though, and their media dept is going to look at it and complain if necessary!!
sorry this is so long, everyone!!

Ive not listened to alot of news today BUT what i have listened to really just sounds like what good childminders do already. The 'goals' they want to set for children up to age 3 are the same things all good childminders strive for anyway ie exploring, playing, standing etc. I think it will mean more emthasis(sp?) on developmental records etc but i have those in place already and its also going to mean childminders keeping a log of what they are doing to help the child to progress BUT like i keep saying any good childminder already does this. When i had my OFSTED inspection it was actually highlighted in my report that i do developmental checks every 4 months on all children under 3 and that i prepare a target list for each child and that i also prepare specific activities to help the child reach these targets. Im not accredited but i also do basic writing skills with my over 3s and have a book where i record all the skills and work ie number recognition, pencil control, colour recognition etc. I do think its just another way of making sure that childminders are recognised as a valuable child care facility. Some nurseries will definatley struggle with this due to high demand for baby places etc and the low wage they pay their workers!

I still don't understand what's going on.

There's a couple more threads about it the one in the "IN THE NEWS" bit is dead long and confusing it's all getting a bit heated!

By reading what jojo76 has wrote about what was said in the news today it sound like they want us to do with our mindees what we would do with our own.

If my childminder wasn't doing all of this already then my DS wouldn't be there. The thought of a a childminder being tested against the abilities of a 2 year old is absolutely vile and this whole idea stinks. What our government should do is to let the NCMA take over as their checks are already far superior to Ofsted. They should be looking to make the NCMA guidelines standard procedure, not producing a whole load of rubbish. There you go - rant over. I feel very strongly about this and I am not a childminder but a mindees mum.