Cm club: What do you do with mindees?

[HiccupHaddockHorrendous]

I'm feeling a little uninspired at the moment.

For a long time, I had mindees who came 2 or 3 days a week so managed a good balance of outings without repeating the same things every week. However, since September, 2 of my mindees are now with me 4 days a week and I am struggling to find different things to do out of the house.

My list at the moment:
Toddler group
Soft play (3 different ones)
Park
Walk by the river
Library

I have a nursery run at lunchtime, everyday so have to stay fairly close to home.

Both fulltimers will have turned 4 by Christmas and I don't want them to get bored otherwise the next 9 months are going to be painful for us all

It feels like all we do is go to toddlers and softplay.

What do you do in the house?

Do you have farms close by? Canals?

Last week I asked the children to draw a shopping list, they are 3.5yrs, and then we went to local green grocers, brought food and made simple pizzas. It was a great activity.

We also do a lot of planting (local pound store sells seeds, tiny garden equipment, and plastic plant pots), shaving foam play, and sand play.

What are the children interested in at the moment? We took some magnifying glasses down to the park this morning and the children searched for mini beasts.

Thanks, cullercoats.

At home, we play with the toys, dress up, puzzles, read books, play games etc. However, I have a very lively (crawling) baby, 2 of the days and we're all a bit demented if we spend the whole morning indoors

Do you do the planting in the garden or indoors?

Do you mean normal working farms? Or petting farms? There are a couple of petting farms...will add that to the list.

Magnifying glasses at the park sounds fabulous!! I'm off to raid ds' bedroom for his stash. I had planned to take them to a different park tomorrow for a bit of an adventure...just hope the weather isn't too horrendous!!

I don't have much of a garden, so we do it in the kitchen (just pop down an old shower curtain) and then kiddies take them home or round my front door.

Yes just petting farms, we go to our local ones perhaps once a month.

Museums? It's hard with different ages... Could you pair up with another local CM or nanny and go out together? It's variety for us, but also an extra eyes and ears! Xx

I think I really need to improve my planning. I just seem to be drifting from one day to the next and whilst the children seem happy with this, especially the babies, I am worried the 4 year olds need more.

I do buddy up with a couple of other cms but most spend the mornings at the local toddler group or softplay and it just gets so tedious!! A good friend is a cm but it's not often that we have the right ages at the same time.

Will definitely add the farm to my list...they'll hopefully be super-quiet at this time of year, too

I know!! I use pinterest for inspiration!! This time of yr is always harder to plan for I think.

I also have a nanny friend who is like mary poppins, she keeps me on my toes haha

I am a nanny so different but we go for walks - mainly to see the dogs being walked, to the library, to the train station to see the trains, to the petshop to see the animals

When I had 2 x 4yr olds they loved going on the bus or train (destination irrelevant ) , to the local garden centre (small animals, fish, cafe & a small outdoor play area), gruffalo /bear hunts (aka woodland walks) and making dens. My favourite time just having older pre-schoolers

Thanks for the replies!! We've just returned from a very soggy trip to the park

A few times this morning, I was on the verge of changing plans and taking them to softplay because the weather is so pants but so glad we went. They had a great time and we were the only ones there so had the place to ourselves.

Thanks for the Pinterest tip...I'd have never thought to look there.

Having a Mary poppins-like friend will definitely keep you on your toes

Deargirl and phoebe - we were watching the trains whilst stuck in a queue of traffic earlier and thought it might be nice to have a trip somewhere. They're opening a new station early next year, within walking distance of my house so might wait until then otherwise it means getting in the car and driving to the town centre.

Had to use the bus in the summer when my car broke...the children loved it but it made me realise how much I rely on my car and how much more time you have to allow to get anywhere

Nursery this afternoon so will make a plan for the next few weeks.

Thanks for all the suggestion!!

Museums - can go in am, then do craft/ read books based on it in afternoon

Tennis/ football/ ball games - can get baby all in one rain suit so can crawl on grass in park even when wet. Play with elder ones half hour

Baking - one savoury actually meal prep, one cake bake a week. My own children are 3 and 4 and love chopping mushrooms etc, and can virtually make banana muffins alone now just I do hot oven part

Writing stories/ drawing - make a book. At 4 they can begin to write letters and words and read.

Clay/ paints/ watercolours/ craft

Thanks, artandco. They both go to nursery in the afternoon so I try to do something physical/energy burning in the mornings. They do lots of craft/baking after school.

Museums are generally saved for the holidays because of the distance.

I think I will look into getting a few sets of waterproof coats/dungarees so we can go out whatever the weather. Can you get all-in-ones that cover babies's feet? Or would you put tiny wellies on them? The two I have aren't walking yet so don't wear anything but soft, pram shoes. I'll do some googling this afternoon