childminders - is it necessary to have a specific playroom in your home?

[mindingmum]

I have been childminding for 3 years now and have given up a room downstairs in our home to the mindees

during the 3 years i've changed my mind 3 or 4 times as to which room i use as their playroom shifting everything out of our front room into the conservatory because i don't like how it looks from outside and then moving it all back because the conservatory is too nice to be spoilt with toys,highchairs, pushchairs etc

I am thinking of doing away with the playroom all together because:

1. I don't have the space in my house with 5 children of my own to lose a room to the mindees

2. the mindees don't play in that room anyway, prefering to spread toys all over the house

3. I find myself setting up activities in more than one room anyway because of different aged children

I'd be interested to hear what other cm's think?

I don't have a seperate playroom! Our house is open plan so it's not an option!!

I have never had a separate playroom (open plan living/dining downstairs) and have always found it fine. I suppose it depends on whether you like being able to shut the door on the room evenings/weekends and not have to look at 'work' stuff?

where doyou store your toys belle?

Well with a young dd of our own we have toys around anyway! We have a toy corner which is pretty much out the way and a sideboard which we use too. The top of the fridge has also become a haven for arts and crafts stuff too

That's true london,

I'm thinking of buying a huge storage unit of some discription and fitting it with shelves then the children could choose what to bring in and i could choose for the babies - that way i could change the selection weekly and chuck everything out on a fri (only work Tues,wed,thurs)

I know the feeling belle, if you saw my house you'd think that only children lived there!

I would love a playroom for the cminding! Now that we've paid our mortgage and ground rent we can afford to stretch out a bit, was thinking of a conservatory cum 'kids room' have planned it in my head and we've a wide enough garden to have one.

I would probably still store quite a few toys in the playhouse as I do now but rotate them more. I would have shelves up for files and children's books, ikea boxes for toys with labels and a notice board for my EYFS planning - that should impress the vampires from OFSTED when they come and nose -I mean inspect in June! Better get quotes soon so we can get it built and ready hadn't I? I'll be able to shut it off at night when the mindees go home (yay!)and not have cminding toys all over my lounge!