During the last week (months) there has been lots of articles in the press regarding pre-school children and the level of care they are receiving and what the children are actually learning - the news reports have mainly come from Elizabeth Truss and they have not been very favourable.
I am not a political person; I am very easy going, I have certain beliefs (mainly concerning everyone taking care of each other and our surroundings, and showing respect to each other) which I believe lead to happy harmonious people. However the bad press surrounding childcare is starting to make me feel despondent, and actually quite angry.
Childminding is my passion. I discovered this 3 and a half years ago, and I cannot imagine doing anything else now. But when I feel constantly put down by the Government, it is making me question what is my future long term.
I would love Elizabeth Truss to come and spend a day with us - she may actually realise that the children in my care are happy, thriving, and learning lots and lots. And maybe she would like to concede that some childcare providers are doing a good job? I hope so.
Anyway, for anyone caring to read this I would like to take you through our day so you can judge for yourself the level of care I provide.....
Today I have A (28 months) and O (33 months) in my care. Both children arrive during the school run in the morning. O was a little unsettled this morning as his Mummy is poorly, so we came home and I got out the craft things and we all made cards - the children painted a picture of their Mummy on the card and O had a very good attempt at writing his name inside the card copying his name that I had written on a piece of paper. During this activity we talked about the colours we used, we talked about what our mummies look like, we looked at our names and sounded out the letters in our names, and we had lots of fun!
After this we washed our hands and the children had a snack whilst sat at the table. After snack they had free play for about half an hour. The children chose the toys they wanted to play with out of the toy cupboard. During their free play they built towers of wooden bricks, played with the cars and the post box.
We then walked to our regular Friday morning group. We met up with another childminder and her children - the children all see each other every week and are forming friendships. O walked all of the way there, A walked part of the way there and was in the pram for some of the way. During our journey the children were reminded about the road and road safety.
At the group the children each pay for themselves, this involves talking to Vicky who runs the group, counting, and using our manners. We sit down and listen to a story. After the story we sing and dance along to various action songs - some of the songs involve counting, some involve parts of the body, they all involve listening and following instructions. At the end of the group we sit in a circle and each child chooses a song they would like us all to sing. This involves the children sitting quietly and listening to the other children, taking it in turns to choose a song, to think about their song choice, and to speak in front of everyone else.
When the group finished we walked home, A walked a lot longer on the way home than on the way there, the children had lots of fun climbing on a gate partway home. When we got home the children asked to play out in the back garden so they did. They had free access to the play house, slides, swing, see-saw, trampoline, easel with chalks and magnetic letters, mud kitchen, sand pit, cars, scooters, bats and balls and various other outside toys. During their play time outside the boys spent quite a bit of time in the play house chattering to each other and laughing. They discovered a snail on the grass and we all spent a lot of time watching it before I moved it to safety. They also followed each other on the scooters. The children choose to eat their lunch outside in the sunshine.
After a couple of hours playing outside the children chose to come inside (the door is open for all of the time that they are outside so they can come and go as they please). I read the children a story and we had (another) look at the caterpillars that we are looking after - I got out the caterpillar/butterfly life cycle figures and we all looked at and talked about them, comparing them to the caterpillars we have.
The children then continued their free play.
During this day there have been many learning opportunities for the children - many of which I hadn't planned, they just happened and I extended these learning opportunities that arose. I consider that today has been a lovely day - both the children and myself have enjoyed ourselves and I feel that the children have learnt things along the way.
How lovely would it be if the Government took some time to actually think about the positives in many childcare settings.
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