Does a Childminder do structured play?

[Tinkerisdead]

Excuse me if thats a stupid question! This is the only place I feel comfortable enough to ask!
I only found out today that childminders follow the early years foundation like a nursery would through a discussion with my friend who was debating her childcare needs.

So if you are bound by an educational frame work, do you plan the days activities in advance to ensure this is met with your little mindies?

I have a 9 month old DD and it made me wonder whether a childminder goes into each day with a plan of action rather than the fire fighting/fly by the seat of my pants I seem to do as a SAHM?

that should be Mindees shouldnt it!

A good CM will be a combination of both planned activities and free play/child led.

I'm in Scotland though so not doing EYFS (yet eek!!)

Umm yes & no

A lot of flying by the seat of my pants in a planned environment

No point planning playdough if everyone wants to go outside

We are very child led here & meeting the EYFS is for us as practioners to do rather than for the children to meet targets etc

Some of my planning over the summer has been:

Continue to support C as she settles in
Encourage the other children to include C when they play
Use treasure baskets for new textures
B enjoys cutting and sticking:Provide more opportunities to do this
Continue to provide B with opportunities to cut
She plays alongside her friends; let her choose who to sit next to
When B remembers to be gentle; praise her lots
Let B help the younger children as she grows older
B can understand abstract concepts, remember to explain things not just give instructions
Let B take more (managed) risks

So although it is detailed planning I don't think that is quite what you meant is it?

Isn't the current EYFS that it should all be child led anyway??????

Blinking EYFS!

Thats what I was confused about I suppose, out of interest I looked at the EYFS to see what my DD would be "taught" in a pre-school/childminder environment and saw that lots of things were covered in terms of can the child X,Y and Z? and wondered how you ensure its covered if its child led and not structured play.

The child led activities here consist of walk around the footstool 90 times, touch the tv, push the sky set up box off the tv stand

Very interesting to see what form the planning takes katymac thank you.

So just more nosiness then, if you have to provide feedback to parents, do you have to do some kind of school report?? feel free to ignore me I just didnt really appreciate what childminders have to adhere to do

And do all childminders houses look like the colouful explosion that is Granny Murrays house?? [grin}

Not a report but you are asked to contribute to the children's folder which we share with you whenever you want plus at least once a term

Colourful explosion.....hmmmm....it depends who you ask?

Yes my home is like Granny Murray's. And I don't even have little ones of my own. Constant source of consternation for DH though, I can see his point though I have yet to work out a way to hide it all fast come 5pm Saturdays - then again hardly worth the trouble for just the one day of freedom!

You get different things from different minders:
diaries
termly reports
parents evenings
newsletters
quick note on a post it note
chat at the door

We are all different, but somehow you should find out what your DC is up to.

With young mindees (under 2yrs), we should have 'starting points', basically we ask the parents what the child enjoys doing, what they can do, what nursery rhymes they enjoy...that kind of thing.
They you have a 4 week settling in period to get to know each other (mindee and CM) and from then on you can start making observations and then plan your resourses to enable the child to 'progress' with their interests.
Most children under 2yrs old won't follow a craft activity for very long, but you can still get them to at least do some finger painting or even just 'paint' the garden fence with water.
I do a daily diary and have it open at the table each day and I write in it as I go along and record what the child has been playing with, where we have been, what and how much he or she ate and how long the nap was for and what kind of mood they were in.
When the mindee has a nap, I tidy up and print up a couple of photos from that AM and stick it in the diary.
Also, starting to do a 'Learning Journey' which will include the photos and maybe some pictures that the mindee makes.
EYFS is a good thing as even in Reception the children are mainly learning through play and it's much better than it used to be in Pre-Schools where kids were 'made' to sit at the table and make something for the parents.