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View Full Version : Does anyone NOT do topics / organised crafts etc?



buzzy bee
18-04-2012, 06:23 AM
I take the children to groups and outings, but when we're at home I tend to let them do what they want - if they want to play they just play (which is most of the time we're at home). If they ask to do playdoh / colouring / sticking we do that.

I will sometimes suggest we do painting / colouring etc, and occasionally I do an organised craft for easter / chinese new year etc but on the whole I don't tend to organise a lot.

Mindees are all 2 and under.

I also don't send much home - I put their work on my wall and then it goes home in their scrapbooks.

Should I be doing "more"?

jadavi
18-04-2012, 06:45 AM
Me too! I make a big deal in retrospective planning to show what we did and I do more l j than is nec to compensate but basically am the same. I find if you out a lot of energy into topics themes etc then you are (sometimes) pushing the child to do it - even if you don't mean to and they may oblige for your benefit - which happens so much at school and preschool and IMO isn't necessary at a child minders. All the do's and visiting officials have been fine with this. Eyfs is based on free play which is still (thankfully) recognised as the best way for a child to learn. No one knows more what they wanna do than them.... Which is not to say I don't spend a long time and resources looking for great toys and equipment and activities.
Thanks for your post ; it was a relief.

primula
18-04-2012, 06:49 AM
I kind of follow themes etc at the groups and a bit like you follow the kids lead, at the moment both( under 2) they dont seem to be interested in sticking etc, its buggies and babies at the moment and putting things in things!! I dont really get to worried about it as I find their interests change and grow over time anyway.

Hayley102
18-04-2012, 06:56 AM
I do have themes but it is more for me than them. I too am out a lot and when we are at home I will leave them to play. Some months loads goes home and some months hardly anything.

Helen Dempster
18-04-2012, 07:10 AM
I'm glad you posted this, as I thought I was the only childminder not to do themes/topics, but just to let the children take the lead. I do the 'big' things like St Georges Day, Chinese New Year, Christmas etc, but in general I don't really do a theme/topic. I've been beating myself up a bit lately about not doing them, as I feel I need to be doing more, but the children are happy, and therefore so am I. I do have a planning sheet for each month, and sometimes we do things from it, but I've found in the past that I plan and get it all ready (which takes ages) and then none of the children are interested and it was just a big waste of time!

I just go with the flow a lot more now and it works for us :)

rickysmiths
18-04-2012, 07:31 AM
I have done pretty much the same over the last year because I have had all under 2yr olds and all boys who I have found have little interest in sitting at a table doing crafts.

They do love messy play,sand, going in the garden using the climbing cube and the rockers and ride ons. Running around in the park and playing hide and seek around the trees and watching the geese, ducks and swans. We go to a satilight Natural History Museum that is not far from us and they love all the animals.

Ofsted did have a go at me in my inspection last Sept because I didn't do a planned Craft activity while they were with me. I had two boys one 13mths and one 18mths who had a fantastic two hours in the garden, it was the first really good day weather wise we had had for over a week, they were using all the rockers etc, one showed beautifully hoe a toddler works out how to sit on a chair by climbing on it, turning around and sitting down! They were playing in the sand mark making in a number of ways. It was, I thought an excellent example of child lead play and learning but no she wanted them sitting at a table inside doing adult lead craft :rolleyes: She didn't put anything in my report about it though!

Although I don't have rigid plans written down with this age group, I do tend to write down what we have done through a week so I have a record of the activities we ahve covered and I link them to the areas of learning so it shows where there may be areas we need to cover a bit more.

When they are 3 or older I do use topics and themes and over the years I have gathered a lot of information and resources to support these.

I have two folders.

One themes and one with templates.


I do this because I don't do a Sef and this is part of my Reflective practice in place of completing the Sef. Its just me, I refuse to spend hours on a document when I am already showing reflective practice in bucket loads through my everyday practice, why duplicate it to enable Ofsted to not have to do quite as much when they inspect me! Schools are no longer required to complete a Sef so why us? It is one big chunk of paperwork cut out. :thumbsup: I was graded Good with Outstandings without it so I was very happy. I don't really want outstanding because if you don't maintain it and it is so often dependent on the inspector you get and my last two have been monsters, you can only go down. I have got the same grade twice and have never got less than good so i am very happy and doing less paperwork than others.

buzzy bee
18-04-2012, 08:00 AM
Thanks for the replies. I'm glad I'm not the only one. I wonder sometimes if my parents expect more.

Rickysmiths that's a good idea about doing a weekly list and ticking it off against learning. I used to do this in my diary - e.g. if I'd put in my diary we'd been to toddlers / done some painting I'd put underneath the areas of learning covered. Maybe I'll start doing that again and also do a list to go in their daily diary / LJ so their parents can see that even though they're "just playing" they are still learning a lot. :thumbsup:

Oh and can't believe that about Ofsted - that's crazy!!

watgem
18-04-2012, 08:09 AM
me too most of mine are under 3 and themed topics just don't mean anything to them. We do the obvious ones but if they don't want to join in or they want to paint santa blue and green for example I just follow their lead:)

loocyloo
18-04-2012, 08:13 AM
I do have themes but it is more for me than them. I too am out a lot and when we are at home I will leave them to play. Some months loads goes home and some months hardly anything.

same here! i usually have a little display board and big dish with objects related to whatever theme i am doing ( this month is numbers ) but 99% of the time we do what the children want to do! the only time i suggest an activity is if they are not settling to anything.
i do very little directed craft, the most i normally do is perhaps a cut out shape to colour/paint/stick on!

singingcactus
18-04-2012, 08:52 AM
I have all under 2's too, and I don't do any kind of themes at the moment. I think themes are good for kids of about 3.5 years on, but not really for toddlers and babes.
Crafts are a big hate of mine anyway, so don't really do a huge amount of them ever, but we do have loads and loads of art opportunities which evolve as the child develops.

mindingmummy
18-04-2012, 09:09 AM
What a relief!!

I try to go to a different group every day when possible, and do a lot of crafty bits at home after school(to stop 6 kids being in EVERY room of the house :blush:) So when we are home during the day I tend to let the kids pick and choose what they play. I think that seen as they get told which group we are going to then home time should be their choice. I like to think of it as a secure base where they can be themselves rather than a school environment.

I do give them lots of crafty things to do, we also do messy play in the summer, and lots of play dough, moonsand etc. but not based on specific themes other than talking about textures, numbers colours etc as we go along.

Ripeberry
18-04-2012, 10:06 AM
I follow the child's lead and just facilitate their play...not much else to say about that.
But we go to lots of groups and craft is a regular activity there and at least my house stays clean :D Most of my mindees are still under 2yrs old.
I used to help out at a pre-school a few years ago before EYFS and they used to MAKE the kids do the craft. I always remember one poor little boy being made to sit at the table until he had scribbled something.
Talk about putting you off organised craft for life :eek:

Heaven Scent
18-04-2012, 03:47 PM
Like everyone else I don't see the point in thematic planning but do it to tick a box so it is very very basic - I do long term plans (yearly) which is a list of months with topics next to them - some topics can last more than one month - then I do a spidergram (spelling??) with the topic in a box in the centre and 6 areas of learning around the edges with what aspects I feel will be covered by that topic (will have to change to 7 when I get my head round it - I really resent the waste involved in that - I think I'll just use tipex and write a note on the back.

This is all just a rough guide then when I do some thing I take a photo of the children involved in the activity and put it in a plastic wallet behind the planning rarely I may comment if something didn't go well or to plan to remind me not to do it again or to remind me to change it.

Some things are done annually others such as Olympics are done as they crop up others are done when the children show an interest then the planning is done retrospectively and if the children will let me I'll keep the odd sample of something they've made. I don't want loads of paperwork in my home so its all kept to a minimum and the photos are small - about 8 to an A4 sheet of paper.

I keep the ideas and activities very simple and if I have older children during the holidays I expand and adapt the activities for them or Do something different and topical with them to suit their intersts.

jumping j
18-04-2012, 04:00 PM
I do plan trips, where I can, to fit in with a theme, but I keep it very informal. Spring was a trip to see the lambs on the farm, people that help us is a visit to the fire station, vehicles was a trip on a bus.
I have a list of months with suggested themes and events, saints days, queens jubilee, hannukah, chinese new year etc and try to do a craft around the time of the event.
I have spider diagrams to cover the areas of learning
(I'm glad you mentioned the 6 areas changing to 7 coz I'd have forgotten to alter my planning!!:laughing::laughing:)
I also have spider diagrams to cover areas of learning for some favourite books that we sometimes do crafts from but I don't plan when we're doing them, they just get done if one of the children picks up the book.
All the planning and spider diagrams are kept in a folder, I scribble a comment on the back if something doesn't work with a suggestion on how to change/adapt it.
The rest is purely down to what the children get out on the day, I've tried planning and getting set things out but the lo's just push them to the side and get out what they want :laughing::laughing:

jumping j
18-04-2012, 04:05 PM
[QUOTE=rickysmiths;1085895]
Ofsted did have a go at me in my inspection last Sept because I didn't do a planned Craft activity while they were with me. I had two boys one 13mths and one 18mths who had a fantastic two hours in the garden, it was the first really good day weather wise we had had for over a week, they were using all the rockers etc, one showed beautifully hoe a toddler works out how to sit on a chair by climbing on it, turning around and sitting down! They were playing in the sand mark making in a number of ways. It was, I thought an excellent example of child lead play and learning but no she wanted them sitting at a table inside doing adult lead craft :rolleyes: She didn't put anything in my report about it though!
IQUOTE]

Funny that, they had a go at me for doing a planned craft activity with a 2 year old, she said it was too structured for his age:panic:,
we did finger painting on hedgehogs, we'd been reading about hedgehogs the day before and I thought it would link in nicely but she didn't like it. I even had the lo mixing the colours with his fingers
just goes to show not one of them wants the same thing :laughing:

rickysmiths
18-04-2012, 04:11 PM
[QUOTE=rickysmiths;1085895]
Ofsted did have a go at me in my inspection last Sept because I didn't do a planned Craft activity while they were with me. I had two boys one 13mths and one 18mths who had a fantastic two hours in the garden, it was the first really good day weather wise we had had for over a week, they were using all the rockers etc, one showed beautifully hoe a toddler works out how to sit on a chair by climbing on it, turning around and sitting down! They were playing in the sand mark making in a number of ways. It was, I thought an excellent example of child lead play and learning but no she wanted them sitting at a table inside doing adult lead craft :rolleyes: She didn't put anything in my report about it though!
IQUOTE]

Funny that, they had a go at me for doing a planned craft activity with a 2 year old, she said it was too structured for his age:panic:,
we did finger painting on hedgehogs, we'd been reading about hedgehogs the day before and I thought it would link in nicely but she didn't like it. I even had the lo mixing the colours with his fingers
just goes to show not one of them wants the same thing :laughing:

Perhaps we need to introduce the two of them to each other :idea:

Demonjill
18-04-2012, 04:44 PM
I dont do themes - where you follow everything on like read about hedgehogs, make hedgehogs, watch hedgehog film, dress like a hedgehog, talk like a hedgehog -that would annoy the :censored: out of me ha ha:laughing::laughing:

I do crafts for special occasions such as easter, xmas, mothers/fathers day etc

most is child led play and i will plan outings depending usually on the weather:thumbsup:

jumpinjen
18-04-2012, 06:14 PM
I don't do monthly themes but I do do activity days and I have it down to a fine art now and I plan a craft, a book, something to eat and often a visit somewhere to tie in together and we do a busy day of activities all linked, I have done Vaisakhi, Easter, Australia Day, etc in this way and it works well, it's fun, the children enjoy it, but the rest of the time I follow their leads.

When the children were too little to know what it was about, i didn't even do Mother's Day or Easter cards - I always maintain that we will make something when the child understands about it and wants to do it...

Jen x

Wendybird
18-04-2012, 07:40 PM
I do very loose themes and I change the resources available depending on what the kids are interested in / where they are developmentally. I have different kids nearly every day, so 'themes' don't really work for 'teaching'. But I do change what is up on our playroom tree, in the sensory bin, etc. Then I just let the kids get on with it. I don't often do sit at the table crafts, but I do change what is on the 'art' shelves so they have a variety of materials available to them if they feel like being artistic. For example sometimes I'll have the easel set up in the kitchen with paints and paper and the kids can just go paint if they feel like it. Last month I had 'cutting and sticking' materials out on the art shelves, so they could just do it if the fancied it. Paper, crayons and coloured pencils are always out and felt tips and water colours are available on request ;)

loocyloo
18-04-2012, 08:38 PM
I dont do themes - where you follow everything on like read about hedgehogs, make hedgehogs, watch hedgehog film, dress like a hedgehog, talk like a hedgehog -that would annoy the :censored: out of me ha ha:laughing::laughing:

:

not hedgehogs, but childled, we had a day devoted to frogs recently! ...

i have some toy frogs in the animal box and the children found them and were playing with them, so i introduced hopping, and we all hopped around. one child then saw a book in the book box about the life cycle of a frog. we looked at the book and talked about it. i got out the frog hopping game ( bit like tiddly wink, great for find motor skills ) and we played that for a while, ended up singing 5 little speckled frogs and hopping around. one child then found another book with frogs in which we read. we ended up painting frog pictures and looking at frogs on the pc!

some were my suggestions, but just following the childrens lead. this was 2 children ; aged 2yr 2mth and 2 yr 5mth. this lasted pretty much all morning and they were still talking about frogs when one child went home at school run time.

jumping j
19-04-2012, 07:09 AM
not hedgehogs, but childled, we had a day devoted to frogs recently! ...

i have some toy frogs in the animal box and the children found them and were playing with them, so i introduced hopping, and we all hopped around. one child then saw a book in the book box about the life cycle of a frog. we looked at the book and talked about it. i got out the frog hopping game ( bit like tiddly wink, great for find motor skills ) and we played that for a while, ended up singing 5 little speckled frogs and hopping around. one child then found another book with frogs in which we read. we ended up painting frog pictures and looking at frogs on the pc!

some were my suggestions, but just following the childrens lead. this was 2 children ; aged 2yr 2mth and 2 yr 5mth. this lasted pretty much all morning and they were still talking about frogs when one child went home at school run time.

This is what regularly happens with me and it ends up lasting weeks, on and off, anything they see to do with one thing, at the moment it's horses :laughing: no idea why but every horse toy and book I have is out, I've been drawing horses all week, making horse jumps from wooden blocks and we've had to gallop everwhere, one lo even refered to the reins as a lead rein and a I had to say giddy up horsey to get him to walk!:laughing::laughing:

Heaven Scent
19-04-2012, 09:28 AM
This is what regularly happens with me and it ends up lasting weeks, on and off, anything they see to do with one thing, at the moment it's horses :laughing: no idea why but every horse toy and book I have is out, I've been drawing horses all week, making horse jumps from wooden blocks and we've had to gallop everwhere, one lo even refered to the reins as a lead rein and a I had to say giddy up horsey to get him to walk!:laughing::laughing:

LOL and this is how it should be - planning is only a guide to what might happen if nothing evolves naturally - its not set in stone but its good to have on the back burner and know that you are covering all angles and be able to prove it when Mrs O comes knocking - now you can do retrospective Horse planning with photos and samples and hey how another box ticked.

clairelou
22-04-2012, 07:47 PM
I tend not to plan but am panicking a bit as I am due ofsted inspection
Mine tend to be loosely around seasons bringing in a few festivals and celebrations.