CALLING CHILDMINDERS ...what do you do with mindees of 1?

[Mosschops30]

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I love arts & crafts and its easy to adapt most of these to suit a wide age range. But not all childminders are keen to do messy stuff and also not all children are enthusiastic about taking part!

There's plenty more to do in the day, but these things don't always produce an end result, so ask your childminder to keep a diary, take photos or take time to talk to you about what they've been doing.

Oh, what a busy morning!
I've been playing with the dough,
And with a little help,
On a card I've learned to sew.
I've helped my friend 'Nurse Sarah',
To perform an operation,
Then fixed the track together,
And built a little station.
I popped inside the home corner,
To make a cup of tea,
And stood beside the cooker,
Making lunch for 23.
I completed 3 whole jigsaws,
And played a brand new game,
And had a ride on all the bikes,
The slide and climbing frame.
I handed round the biscuits,
At milk and biscuit time,
Then listened to a story,
And sang a Nursery Rhyme.
But now the mornings over,
And the mummies are all waiting,
I hope my Mother doesn't say,
"I wish you'd done a painting"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DEFFO BRILL poem

Thats really good - did you write it? there seems to be a few little poems popping up and there all really good.

I try to do at least one creative/messy activity a week with my mindees (2yrs and 3yrs) but to tell you the truth they don't really enjoy it and they don't seem to have a very long concentration span they get bored after 5 minutes and then want the toys out.

I would love to more messy play with them but it's the cost aswell (I'm not a penny pincher, I only have 2 mindees part time) and at the moment - before having to replace paints, glue, bits for sticking etc I only see 2/3 (at the most) of my fees which is not alot.

Sorry went off the topic

mosschops have you asked her to write a daily diary? If you ask her I'm sure she will do one for you and then after reading what your ds has been doing you will feel better about it

When ds was just one, I had a mindee of just one. I didn't do a huge amount of creative stuff with them as I was still learning - I didn't even know what ds could do. I had her two mornings a week, one morning we went to playgroup, the other we stayed in, they played together, and I got out toys, arty bits, etc.

I started minding twins just then of one and a half.. so three one year olds kept my hands full. I've not done a lot of painting with them, as they gang up on me and then start painting the walls etc.. at the end of the day it's my house. It is a little different in a nursery because if something stains, noone minds.

I do a creative activity a day, whether it's just scribbling on paper, magic maize, painting.. even magic painting, writing letters etc (they're 2 and a half now) also do small play activity every day, physical play... etc.

Used to take them to playgroup twice a week (have them three days) but it closed down. I dont' think they miss out though because I meet up with other childminders every day, so there's always other kids. No other playgroups are friendly though.

They don't have something to take home every day.. usually once or twice a week they'll have something, a picture, cakes, photos, decorated something.... I'm happy with what I do with them. I give mum a daily diary (it's recommended for under 3s) and she knows what they've been up to.

I look after a I yr old for one day a week and two 3 year olds for four days. Its much harder with little one cos he just wants the others stuff to destroy I usually put him in high chair and do crafty stuff with him while the others are at the play table next to us Do drawing painting soft dough most days but don't always send stuff home, have it on display for a while.
We do more dressing up story telling singing and dancing, pretending etc
I made a pro forma with all the information I want to give parents/carers, takes about 5 mins to complete
Its hard when you are going to nursery school in am with one child, Cwlch Meithrin in pm with the other. Some days I feel as tho I've really let them down re organized stuff but we do sing walking down the road and look at trees birds the sea etc

I have two 1 year old mindees. I think it really depends on the child - my 14 month old loves to do crafty stuff but the 16 month old is just not interested and has the attention span of about 10 seconds! I take 16 month old to playgroup and she will have opportunities to join in playing with sand, water, a craft activity, cooking or generally free play type of stuff - she usually chooses playing with kitchen utensils and dolls which she loves. The 14 month old loves glueing, sticking and scribbling with crayons (closely supervised as he also likes to try to eat them). He loves to just go around the room looking at posters and loves construction type of things. I don't have both these 1 years olds on the same day so I will always have a four month old, a one year old and a 3 year old - I generally try to involve the 1 year olds in whatever we are doing - singing, dancing, stories, puppetry or whatever, even the four month old sits on my lap while we do our arts and craft!

My current mindees are all one year old, which includes two 12-month olds - we go out somewhere each morning (toddler group, soft play, music group). We also do lots of singing, sharing books and emptying out of toy boxes!

I don't feel too guilty about not sending home artistic works of art for the littlies, but do send home daily diaries which show just how much we have achieved in our day (built the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower, crawled the length the the Great Wall of China, counted to ten at least a million times, and generally put the world to rights).