Diary - New childminder

[Lola10]

I have just started minding and I was wondering about the daily diary.

Do I need to have a separate diary for each child or only one diary for all of them.

Many thanks

Daily diaries are one for each child, I gave up after about 6 months after they got lost and ignored, they are best for babies IMO as they can't tell mum/dad how they've been what they've eaten/done/slept.

Daily notes here. If parents want to tell me something they email or text

You don't have to have a daily diary at all - it's whatever works for you.

Some people have one book per child that goes home with the child at the end of the day and never comes back. Some people have one diary in which they keep a basic log of activities, visitors, significant events - effectively a normal diary which is just for their use. Others email parents with a quick round up of the day or week. Some don't do any of these things and have a quick chat with parents at the end of the day. Some people use a program like NobleMinder or BabysDays which is online and parents can access it via a password, all observations and photos are put on there as well.

I use a pound shop A5 notebook for under 5's. Some parents write comments in them. Others don't bother. For the 18m old I have, I write down what she's eaten, nappies, activities etc.

You must have some record of when each child arrives and departs for Ofsted purposes (and your own insurance) but other than that your record-keeping is up to you. I have a normal day-to-page appointments diary that I use for what they've eaten, when they've slept, when their nappies were changed (and what was in them) arrival and departure times and a bit of detail about what they've been doing during the day. It is one for each child though, as you can't show a parent another child's details, it breaches data protection.

Each child has thier own. I get the parents to provide them. A book is better than an actual diary as less pages are wasted.

I used to do paper ones but mums would either lose it or put a ? in if I hadn't had time to do it. I found using a online version better. It can't get lost and you can add photo's to it. They love it.

mumo3g is there an online app, you mean, or do you just send emails? I suppose a private blog (passworded) would be another way to do it.

i do a password protected one on my website

Each day I put a photo on an a few details about what the children have eaten and what we have done during the day along with any "wow" moments. At the end of the week, I put up a picture and call it "what I did at home with my family........." The parents then fill that bit in and let us now what they have been up to.

The diary is part of one of these online packages which you can put diary's, times children are in, observations etc. It's all confidential as the children have a logo each. ie mary could be a butterfly.

Thanks mumo3g, that's really handy, I hadn't thought of an online thing - I'll have a look around.

I do a daily sheet rather than a diary, I'm happy to email you a copy if you'd like. It has a section for food, sleeps, drinks / bottles, activities, outings and a bit for reminders / forms to sign (things like if I need more nappies or an outings form to be signed).

I fill in a daily diary for my little ones (i.e. under the age of 3) I call it a diary but it is just a notepad really - one per child. My parents love them and I offer that parents can put any notes in that would like to I.e. we've been sitting Johnny on the potty at home, so that I can continue what they are doing at home in my setting. Most of my parents don't write in it but a couple do. Only one of my parents didn't send the book back out of 9 and for them I now just send an A5 piece of paper home each day with my notes on (I won't replace the books if they are lost as too expensive to keep replacing). It works for me on the whole!

My diaries go into the little ones bags. I sometimes keep to look through etc.

Its great to look back on what we have done through the years.