first mindee settling in

[misskft]

Tomorrow my sibling mindees are coming for a settling in visit eeek! Just 3 hours. I don't feel prepared but I guess ill just go with it. Help!

[k-tots]

Have lot of fun x

[lisbet]

Eek! :jump for joy: I can remember having butterflies on my first day with mindees! I felt like I was just 'pretending' to be a childminder, lol! (Well, to be honest I am still waiting to feel like a 'proper' childminder. :blush:) Hope you all have lots of fun xx

[misskft]

Thank you! Wondering how my own (18mnth old) will take it. Exciting!

[Mrs Scrubbit]

You'll be fine, just relax and take the lead from whatever the children seem interested in. I bet you find the time will whizz by ,don't go overboard with resources and activities, just use the time to allow everyone to get to know each other. I always found these sessions were good for stories and puzzle sharing - as both are 'close' activities but also have a focus for the children to concentrate on ( easing their seperation worries- if they display any) Mind you I don't know what ages they are but I'm sure everything will go fine, let us know how the session goes xx

[gef918]

Good luck. Try to relax and go with the flow. I find that mindees on their first few days with me tend to want to play with ALL the toys! Get into good habits now and get them to help tidy!

[misskft]

Phew! All went well. 3yo talked non stop and played with everything in sight! Thankfully I didn't put loads out or it would have been carnage! 1yo good as gold ate her tea and came to sit with me for a story.

Another session (most of the day) tomorrow. Should I brave toddler group or is that too soon?

[lisbet]

Sounds like you're off to a flying start! :clapping:


Should I brave toddler group or is that too soon?

Could do; you can always come back home if they seem a bit unsure there x

[misskft]

Thank you! Have been lots with my own child so im familiar with it. Might try...do I start planning for them now? How many planned activities for under 5s do you do a week? I have them 3 days x

[alex__17]

I could of written this myself last week, first settling session with sibling mindees, 3 year old girl and 1 year old boy with my 18 month old boy!

First session last week little boy cried about an hour and a half, my son also wailed trying to get into my arms/onto my lap, 3 year old chattered non stop and played with every toy!

Second session today, little boy cried as soon as my door opened, girl didn't want to come in but within abut 10 seconds couldn't stop herself from showing me her princess ring, which I obviously thought was amazing, and from that moment on she was literally kicking her dad out the door! We went straight in the car and off to toddler group, little boy cried for about the first 10 minutes then joined in with us all playing cars and trains and we had a lovely time, so pleased I braved it with the 3 of them, was very nerve wracking as I felt I needed 3 pairs of arms for them all but they were all amazing, even my little boy who is going through a very clingy phase but he coped much better than I expected, and I had so much fun, time whizzed by, lunch was tricky, all pre-prepared but I'm learning things that need to be organised in advance to make life easier!

At picking up time the 3 year old asked if she could come back tomorrow, made my day, love my new job so much! Although I'm well aware there will be hard days, but I was so nervous about my first mindees and its going so much better than I expected!

They're coming for their first full day wed so fingers crossed all goes as well :-)

[misskft]

Hiya thats so nice to read! Spookily similar! I think ill brave toddlers tomorrow. Have you started any obs or planning?

[alex__17]

I will only be having them one day a week for now, so haven't starts obs yet, but I did read the guides on planning on here, so have started a little individual planning based on their interests so far, thought I'd try and get into the habit of it early!
I've basically got a notebook where I write a few notes about the day, what we did, what they liked etc, then for each child noted 3 or things down they liked doing, wrote a next step idea and what the learning outcomes would be, linking it to eyfs
Eg for the 3 year old I had
Liked playing with musical instruments box and singing, next time I will play nursery rhymes and they can guess the tune, or all sing songs and then drum or rattle along. Learning outcomes follow her interests (psed), music and songs (C&L, A&D)
Liked bouncing on space hopper (in living room as it was pouring with rain!), next time take it outside, have races. Learning outcomes PD (large muscles), following her interests (psed).
Asked every 2 minutes when mummy would be coming back! Next time make a visual timetable with pictures of meals and activities and mummy at the end, and let her choose the order or activities and stick them to the wall. Learning outcomes reassuring her and building confidence (psed), learning about time (maths)

It took me 10 minutes in the evening and gives me ideas for activities for next time, not sure if its the right sort of thing to do but since they're only here 1 day a week it is a good starting point for me until I know better!
I'm also planning on taking them out each morning to some sort of group, then doing a planned activity in the afternoon, whether its messy play, walk to duck pond, collecting twigs from the garden to make a picture etc, and I'll probably do obs on those type of activities as ill plan in advance and have learning outcomes etc, but want to be guided by their interests so if they were interested in birds for example would theme it around that, as well as things like Mother's Day, Easter etc.

[misskft]

Hiya that's really helpful thanks. Mine are coming 3 days a week and after easter the 3yr old will be going to nursery in the morning so can focus on the 1yr old and my 18m old in the mornings and 3yo in the afternoons. They are coming to visit again today.

[tess1981]

sounds a bit like me at the moment... i mind a lo who is nearly 2 and from November she has been my only mindee.
fast forward to now ans i have siblings 3 and 1 attending 1 day a week from last week.
3 yo no bother 1 yo crying a lot but settles by afternoon... my 2 yo mindee is going spare.... screaming hitting pulling toys not letting anyone touch anything generally to put it nicely has been a nightmare fro they arrive until she goes home...:panic::panic::panic:
but i know things will settle but the 2yo mindee will always be hard work but i set her up on the sofa or in the high chair when she behaves like this hoping she will soon realise i wont accept this behaviour....

[misskft]

Woah tess you have your handsfull! Next week on 3 days when they start properly ill have my 18m the 3yo and 1yo then my 6yo bfore and after school eeek! Youngest had a v short nap after lunch and we had been in all day so thought id attempt the short walk to the swings to gauge 3yo crossing rd etc. All fine but on way back suddenly I WANT MY MUMMY think the whole village heard. Manage to appease him with promise of trains and juice when we got back. Was fine then. Didn't relish thought of carrying him back to the house plus pushing double buggy lol