activities

[katymason01]

Hello
I'm a nanny but training to become a childminder. I go to toddler groups 3/4 mornings a week as have afternoon sleeper/s. We regulary go to soft play centres and stay most of the day (between school runs). My question is do you find the children get bored playing with the same toys everyday, I try to mix them up/rotate them.
What activities do you do with babies/toddlers looking for ideas to keep them occupied/to help them learn.
Also so I can comply with childminder requirements for learning when i get round to doing that.
Thanks in advance.

You can still do the same things you do now ... playgroups, soft play etc. I did not rotate toys as they were all freely available but children do have their favourites. I cannot see any difference in providing learning opportunities between childminders and nannies. I used to childmind and now I nanny and still plan activities and do a simple learning journal for little ones.

Personally I wouldn't been keen on a CM who spent a long time at softplay centres. I wanted my dc to be outside in the fresh air and also, being out and about, talking about things, seeing different things everyday. I don't mean expensive trips, I mean things like going to the shops, the post office, etc., maybe to a toddler group once or twice, but also to the park, the pond to feed the ducks, the garden centre or local pet stall. Just a walk round the block, where they can stop and watch the builders using their digger, or wave to the bin lorry as it came past every week.
One of he BIG advantages of a CM over a Nursery is that they AREN'T stuck in the same, enclosed room every day. The idea of staying a dy at softplay is, to me, horrific!
The advantage of being at a CMs is that it was the next nearest thing to being at home (and of course out and about) with a parent.

Yes we go to the park on afternoon school run if its not raining, and we walk to school and bk twice a day so they are sat in a pushchair for 2 hrs as it is, I mix up the toddler groups we go to so its a change of scenery and cant wait til summer when we can get out and about to various places but for winter or a rainy day i think soft play is fine.

Dare I say you might need to become more inventive.

Soft play for a whole day, taking or not, is not fine and actually quite lazy. My mindees don't get bored with the same toys because there is so much choice and mixture in what we do. I plan adult led activities and give opportunity for child led play. I research the local area constantly and we add chores such as posting a letter into our learning.

I can't imagine spending 6 hours straight in a soft play hell hole and I guarantee the parents won't like it.

raining or not that should say.

I wouldn't be happy if our nanny couldn't entertain the children at home without thinking they would be bored, to be honest. I have one child at school and one toddler.

My DC enjoy craft type things at home like junk modelling, painting, wet clay, play doh, collages etc. They never get bored really with duplo or Lego, or construction related things like wooden railway, hexbugs track, marble run. Or putting on music and dancing. Or water play. Or read books. Or tea parties for the soft toys. Or we cook.

We just mix it up. No need to be out all day every day, especially in winter.

I do a lot of craft sensory play stuff at home..The children love it and the parents seem to be happy.

Another cm here. I do go to soft play but it's an end of term treat so infrequent. I also go to a couple of groups but that's because they do a craft, a story, songs etc so different every week. The rest of it is free stuff like the park, garden centre, woods where they can run round even in the rain.

For Chinese New Year we dyed rice, played with it in the home corner, played with it in trays with chop sticks etc, added animals and cars and today we are adding some shaving foam. Same rice different ways to play so they don't get bored. Kids do get fed up of toys but by adding something new it changes it. My box of cars has been largely ignored this week until I added some pieces of drain pipe! It's all about being inventive.

Maybe have a look here theimaginationtree.com or pinterest for ideas

We were at soft play for a whole day last week, but we only go about once a term. This time it was because the birthday boy asked if we could go. It's expensive apart from anything else. I don't think soft play is lazy - it's hard work if done properly .

We often go to toddler groups, because they're great for the children socialising with other local children and getting used to having other adults around. They're also a change of scene.

Our favourite places are forests, because there's loads to do and learn there. We also go to church once a week, but that obviously depends on you and the children you look after.