childminders club; would you let your mindees

[babydales]

Would you let your mindees play with a bag of soggy compost? I only ask as I took a mindee to nursery yesterday to be confronted by a tray of wet compost for her to play in. Surely not!or am I being a little over protective?

hmmmm....dont see anything wrong in it myself ....as long as hygeine rules were obsevered...ie none in mouth and washed hands etc after playing .

Mud, compost and the like are great to play with....the texture the smell of earth ....its great.

When i went in yesterday the children were just flicking it out of the tray and poking it with sticks. I dont suppose I would have minded if it was screened top soil but surely you dont know whats in a bag of compost? Anyway when I went in this morning none of the children wanted to play in it so they have got rid of it. I just wasnt comfortable with it.

what;s wrong with that? we used to play with stuff like that all the time as kids!

Bagged compost is sterile and perfectly clean. I'd be quite happy for my child to be playing with it - at dd's old pre-school they did a lot of sensory play with trays of different things to get them thinking about feel and texture; she would come home having squidged jelly, mashed potatoes or baked beans in her hands, and yes - one of the things they had a tray of was compost.

Just wasnt sure if bagged compost was sterile, all the mums I spoke to yesterday just said they wouldnt let their kids play in it at home as they didnt know if it was safe, hygeinically speaking, but if it is then thats ok.

I presume they woould let them dig and make mud pies in the garden, or make sandcastles on the beach? Compost is a lot cleaner than both!

Seems a shame to stop them doing something that most children would enjoy.

sorry... but sterile mud? fgs... do your kids never go out in the garden and dig stuff up or anything?

Yesterday I had ds and mittle mindee digging up the grass in my garedn to find mud and they were loving it! I got the mindee changed by home time, I think a play in messy stuff now and then is good for kids!