New Childminder

[sarah555]

Hi everyone, I'm in the process of becoming a childminder, so thought I would say hello! I'm hoping for some friendly advice and support along the way as it seems like a mine field of information that I have to learn! I have 2 children of my own ( Jake- 3 and Sophie- 22 months) so am able to Child mind one other child, so I can offer the Parent very flexible childcare arrangements. I live just outside of Guildford with my Husband, 2 children and our tropical fish! and am looking to be registered by the middle of Aug so if anyone is looking for childcare for then please bear me in mind!

Thought id drop in and welcome you to the wonderful world of childminding. It can be a very rewarding and satisfying career although, like most jobs, you do have your ups and downs and will no doubt come across good and not so good parents at some time. Its all worth it though (even all the ridiculous paperwork we have to do)

Could you have school aged children as well? Caring for just one child will not give you much income.

I'm lucky as my husband earns more than enough to cover the bills so my money would be extra money; I?m not looking at doing it to earn a fantastic wage. Right now to me looking after my children full time till they are at school and then being there for them after school is my main aim. I would just like to earn a bit of extra money while offering a parent a high level of childcare, as a parent I know how hard it is leaving a child that means everything to you, I just want to be able to offer that to somebody else and they have the peace of mind that their child is being cared for in the best possible way. I think once my son starts school I will look at doing after school care too but I feel at the moment I would like a 0-5 year old as I know I have all day to go on outings etc without having to return at 3 to pick up a school child, this way I feel the 0-5 year old will benefit more
Sorry that turned into a very long post

welcome, am sure you will find some very interesting information here however, although you are not doing this for the money as such, I hope you find that the hoops you need to jump through for ofsted arent too much for the income

that is meant with the very best of intentions by the way, from a new childminder

Hi SillyMillysMummy, I completely understand what you mean as from what I can gather there is a lot you have to do to make Ofsted happy but I?m looking forward to a bit of a challenge! And in some ways I look at it as though Ofsted are there to protect and help children develop, so I guess I would rather they were there as goodness knows what the childcare standards would be like

Hi and welcome to the profession.

I have 15 children on role, do nurseries, school runs and after school pickups and have still been graded as 'outstanding' by ofsted both before and after the introduction of the EYFS. So I don't think how many children you look after is the deciding factor as to whether you offer fantastic care or not. It's more to do with the care you offer.

All day outings are great, but there are only so many you can go on, it is more important that the children learn day to day things like dressing themselves, using a potty, feeding themselves, joining their peers in activities, learning behaviour rules, learning about the local community etc. and you will want to join other childminders for support and socialising (for you and the children) and most childminders will be looking after more than one child and have pick ups to do.

Be careful not to get to hung up on the paperwork - what you get down on paper doesn't always make you a fantastic minder and it isn't always the deciding factor when you get your ofsted grading. Ofsted haven't given any definite guidelines on what they are expecting and every inspector has their own agenda. I have two very good childminding friends who have both recently gone through their inspections. They both had identical paperwork, they got their policies and procedures from the same place as me and they do the same observations and plans and the same safety checks etc. More often than not we get together for activities so no difference there and we all look after the same amount of children. One of the minders got good and the other outstanding, neither got recommendations - the only difference was they had different inspectors.

The bar has definitely been raised and childminders have access to many courses and support than ever. When i started out there was nothing. However, I do think if you are going to be an excellent childminder it has to be something from inside as well as on paper. No-one can teach you how to love children, how to show empathy, how to respect and like difficult parents (and you will get some).

As for childcare standards in the past, I have been in the profession for 17 years and the children I have minded over that period still come back to visit, and I am now looking after 2 sets of siblings whose older brothers and sisters came to me many years ago, so they all survived and thrived.

Best of luck for the future and again welcome. Keep us all posted as to how you get on.