How can i improve my inclusive practice (childminder)?

[topoftheladder]

I live in a very white middle class area and whilst reflecting on my setting realised i don't include much in the way of multi cultural or disabilities and so on. We did celebrate Chinese New Year with crafts and food tasting, but day to day i do very little. Any ideas would be really helpful.

My mindees have been fascinated by the book i got out of the library about disability.

What else do you do with them? I'm thinking about a multicultural treasure basket but not sure where to start.

I use the bbc website of festivals for clues. I also have lots of fun with food - mild curries, noodles with chopsticks, etc. but most of my children are middle class white Christians. I concentrate more on celebrating their own culture and see anything else as extra (ie one Muslim, so I mark festivals relevant to him too).

I was asked about dressing up clothes and pointed out that a range of scarfs and brightly coloured materials can be made to represent almost any culture, as well as super heroes and TV characters.

On the me lines.... Ofsted picked me up on not promoting disability enough. I was basically told that books have quite a lot of multi cultural pictures and stories in, but settings aren't putting enough emphasis on disability. I have the happy land disability set of people for small world play, but struggle to find books that have pictures in. It wasn't enough for ofsted that I have a disabled relative who we see often and visit an elderly, housebound friend regularly. Any ideas on how I can show disability around the house on a permenant basis? Or any books that show positive images of disability?

Should read, on the same lines.....

I have managed to get some fab books including disability from the library. My favourite was about a severely disabled child demonstrating all the special things she could do.

I hated this when ofsted came round. I explained that I mix in the local community where we see people of different shapes and sizes, colours and religions, disabled and able bodied. I didn't know how to talk about our differences without pointing out that someone is different. The ofsted inspector just said books and pictures. I have a look each month what different festivals are coming up for each religion and do fun things relating to them. recently we have had the Jewish festival of shavuos so we made cheesecake. the children love crushing the digestive biscuits.
I wear glasses so we talk about what I can and can't see which leads to talking about people with impaired vision and on to guide dogs. you could even try to visit a puppy handler who trains guide dogs.

I also find walking with a buggy can generate a conversation about wheelchair users - how hard it is to get up and down kerbs, in and out buildings etc.
crossing the road and pressing the button - you can explain about listening to the beeps and tge red and green men - also the bumps at the edge of the pavement.
a sensory garden is a good one - ooh I'm on a roll!
a friend of mine was told her house was too white and middle class by ofsted. I think that's quite insulting. I am Jewish and I wouldn't have different religious symbols around my house (the minded children do have pictures of other religious festivals in the playroom ) and I wouldn't expect my Catholic and Muslim friends to have Jewish items in their homes either.

My inspector (who was quite harsh) said it was not good enough to have books from the library, as they wouldn't be here all the time for the children to see. Again, the same as borrowing toys from a library, she wasn't impressed by that as the resources weren't here when she came. I wonder if my inspector was just overly harsh... Although a cm I know was told it was good that her dh was in a wheelchair as it meant the children got to see a positive role model in a wheelchair. She was too shocked to complain.

Hsmmacm do you have the name of that book, I might try to get a copy.

I do think it depends so much on your inspector. I had a good chat with one yesterday about ensuring you are not paying lip service, only rolling out 'chinese' in February and ensuring that whatever you do reflects the backgrounds of your children in an ongoing way. She also said that it was vital to understand about the background to a particular festival/tradition e.g. knowing the religious context of say shrove Tuesday and not just 'making pancakes'. Perhaps try and find out about their extended families background too (Grandma who is Greek for example) and bringing that into everyday experiences. With the recent Paralympics I would have thought there would be more resources available. x

Brownowlahi - sorry I can't remember the name of the book, I just remember it had a picture of a little girl on the front. I once had an inspector moan about me using the library, but I convinced her that the fact that my mindees have access to thousands of well cared for books and can choose their own as well as being guided by me was better than having 20 books of my own on a shelf, falling apart and getting boring. She came round to the idea that we could use the library books to follow their interests (ie we have a pile of books about building at the moment).

Sometimes you just have to fight your corner, if you really believe what you're doing is right.