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mumofone
05-06-2015, 07:09 PM
I was just wondering how often you all do outings, where to and do you charge extra for these?

loocyloo
05-06-2015, 08:04 PM
it depends what you call an outing!

I go to assorted parks, assorted woods, duck ponds/rivers, bus trips, market, coffee shops, library, childrens centre, toddler groups; these are all localish to me ( max 20 min drive )

and then we go to Forestry Commission Forest, assorted beaches, assorted castles and abbeys, soft play, local theme park/zoo, farms, aquarium, butterfly world, random walks in the countryside and more - which can be anything from 15 minutes to an hours drive away. I try not to go anywhere that it more than an hours drive! ( although in the holidays, may push it a bit! )

It sounds a lot, but we go to these places on a regular basis, and all my parents know and are happy with it. I usually manage to tell the parents in the morning where we are going if not the day before. sometimes though, its spur of the moment outings! but I have permission to take the children out & about and get out & about we do!

I don't charge anything extra for outings, as the majority are free for my EY children, and I tend not to go anywhere I have to pay for older ones in the holidays. IF I did choose to go somewhere that charged, I would generally cover the cost, as its my choice to go.

I have an English Heritage Annual pass, a season ticket for the theme park/zoo and aquarium & annual pass for forestry commission. Most of these I have got at a cheaper rate for renewals, or a special price for local residents.

mumofone
05-06-2015, 08:09 PM
it depends what you call an outing!

I go to assorted parks, assorted woods, duck ponds/rivers, bus trips, market, coffee shops, library, childrens centre, toddler groups; these are all localish to me ( max 20 min drive )

and then we go to Forestry Commission Forest, assorted beaches, assorted castles and abbeys, soft play, local theme park/zoo, farms, aquarium, butterfly world, random walks in the countryside and more - which can be anything from 15 minutes to an hours drive away. I try not to go anywhere that it more than an hours drive! ( although in the holidays, may push it a bit! )

It sounds a lot, but we go to these places on a regular basis, and all my parents know and are happy with it. I usually manage to tell the parents in the morning where we are going if not the day before. sometimes though, its spur of the moment outings! but I have permission to take the children out & about and get out & about we do!

I don't charge anything extra for outings, as the majority are free for my EY children, and I tend not to go anywhere I have to pay for older ones in the holidays. IF I did choose to go somewhere that charged, I would generally cover the cost, as its my choice to go.

I have an English Heritage Annual pass, a season ticket for the theme park/zoo and aquarium & annual pass for forestry commission. Most of these I have got at a cheaper rate for renewals, or a special price for local residents.


wow thats really impressive :-)

Maza
05-06-2015, 08:13 PM
I'm a big meanie and don't do outings. I'm lucky enough to have lots of free stuff on my doorstep and so I can give them a wide variety of local experiences both indoor and outdoor all year round. I've become an expert at finding out about free local events too! We've done some fabulous stuff over the years! I know that all my children are very lucky and do lots with their parents when they are not with me - if I had a child who didn't then I would consider taking them on the occasional trip. It's just one way of me keeping my outgoings down. I only childmind three days a week and so I do more costly trips on my day off just with my daughter - so the two of us would go somewhere every week before she started school and now every Thursday in the holidays is our 'day out' day.

clareelizabeth1
05-06-2015, 08:43 PM
I do go paid places and pay for the children but I am going because I want to take my son there. And normally they don't charge for under 3's most places so it's only me I am paying for I don't do schoolies.

Every week we go to baby groups, walks normally visit a farm(one that my friend owns so it's free) we go to the park and as I live in the middle of an 8 acre wood we spend most of our time in there which is totally free and within reach of a clean toilet so it's not really out but the children think we are.

FloraDora
05-06-2015, 08:46 PM
I was just wondering how often you all do outings, where to and do you charge extra for these?

Mumofone -You are amazing - you are so good at thinking about all the practical important aspects of our business!!
Outings??
Personally I don't do huge 'outings'. Most of my LO's are part time- parents or grandparents look after them on the days they are not with me.
I find that the parents or grandparents tend to do the outings and the LO's don't have a day at home just playing.
When my children were growing up I was part of a social group of parents ( all teachers - sad!) who felt good parenting was about taking your children out to groups or places every day and later joining them up to endless groups and lessons....As a working mum I used to love the holidays where we just stayed at home every day and played...my CM did the same, but she was a deacon at our church so they visited old folk regularly, attended church groups etc.. We just played...took our play to other levels, explored our local environment ( which had a nature reserve on the doorstep and a big field and a canal and some small wooded areas) built dens, ramps...big train tracks, big art, bike rides, kicking a ball, skateboarding later, nothing etc... I really think it is important that children do this - just playing- no time scale- taking play to the next level on their own, enjoying playing on their own ...not needing groups, teams, adults to have fun. I went on holiday with my social group - 5/6 families - we used to hire abig house in France or a a small complex of cottages...mine were the only children that didn't constantly require my input, support...they created games for the others, were happy with the few toys we took...my friends used to wonder why their children weren't as self sufficient...because they did not know how to entertain themselves as they were constantly being taken to places/ groups for entertainment!!!
So..my role is the same for my LO's I teach them how to play, with toys, loose materials, at home or in the garden or out and about locally. I teach them how to occupy themselves..take their learning forward via their characteristics of learning.
I do occasional 'outings' ...to the local a RsPB centre, on a local train, a national trust or English heritage experience as we are members of both...but all my parents are members of zoos, ball play, tumble tots, snowdome, playcentres, etc... places where you can just take them but don't need to do a lot when you are there...someone else takes over...I have a LO who's parents are members of the local zoo but actually just use the ball pool play!! The last time she looked at the animals was last September ! My parents are rarely in.
So, you have probably guessed what I am going to say:
If children do not get the 'outings' experience elsewhere then probably this is a good idea, but since children now rarely get the experience of playing for long periods of time and therefore taking their play to higher levels I think we are in a unique situation that we can facilitate this. Research shows that children who can play independently aswell as socially achieve higher levels in their education as they live and breathe characteristics of learning .
If I see that a parent wants a CM to take their children out and about on childcare. Com then I would not be interested. I sell my business, care, support as home based nursery education, not home based but every day I attend a group.
I may be on my own in this thought, supporting children to take their play higher is a lot more 100% hands on than attending a local group..I do know CM's who couldn't cope if they didn't go to a group every day...they then flounder a little at the thought of staying in when inspected.
You need a nice medium and so do the children..so it depends on what is going on in the children's lives when not in your care as to whether they need 'outings'........in my opinion!

kellib
05-06-2015, 09:04 PM
I don't do big outings much but that's mainly because we don't have time due to nursery/school runs and I only work term time. We do try to get out most days though, the LO's current favourite place is the fairy woods in our local Botanic gardens, they like to take you fairies from here too :) it's free so massive bonus!

We do go to toddlers at our local soft play a lot, the kids love it and it's only £1.50 for an hour or £2.50 for 2 hours. I pay for it myself.

On the odd occasion I've had kids in the holidays they tend to just fit in with the plans I have with my son, I've taken mindees to the zoo before but we have memberships and LO was free so no extra cost, I've taken them bowling but only when I had a free voucher lol, we go to the cinema but we go to the kids am showing which is much cheaper. Parents have offered cash before but I've never taken it because I've usually got some sort of deal and we're usually only going because of my son!

We've got a beach pretty local so we go there a bit too, not as much as we should though given how close it is!

hectors house
05-06-2015, 09:35 PM
I take the mindees on a Tuesday to a toddler group that costs me £2.50, I sometimes go to a Country park that has a small charity farm attached that normally costs about £7 for me and 3 mindees, I have a Longleat annual pass that cost about £80 - the mindees go free if they are under 3 (and those who are older are only 2 if asked!), we mostly go for walks in the woods near Longleat and exercise the children and my dogs at the same time.

I do put a donation box on inside of my front door "Holiday donations" and parents (and grandparents) last year I had to go on extra trips to use it all up. I live about 20 miles away from a big car museum and it only costs about £11 for me, mindees under 3 go free and if you gift aid your entrance money you can use your receipt to go free for the year. I don't very often go to Soft play as i'm not happy to just leave them too it and find I'm getting a little too old to be climbing through tunnels and going down death slides, may only go once or twice a year, normally for a mindees birthday if it's a wet day.

Maza
06-06-2015, 07:17 AM
I take the mindees on a Tuesday to a toddler group that costs me £2.50, I sometimes go to a Country park that has a small charity farm attached that normally costs about £7 for me and 3 mindees, I have a Longleat annual pass that cost about £80 - the mindees go free if they are under 3 (and those who are older are only 2 if asked!), we mostly go for walks in the woods near Longleat and exercise the children and my dogs at the same time.

I do put a donation box on inside of my front door "Holiday donations" and parents (and grandparents) last year I had to go on extra trips to use it all up. I live about 20 miles away from a big car museum and it only costs about £11 for me, mindees under 3 go free and if you gift aid your entrance money you can use your receipt to go free for the year. I don't very often go to Soft play as i'm not happy to just leave them too it and find I'm getting a little too old to be climbing through tunnels and going down death slides, may only go once or twice a year, normally for a mindees birthday if it's a wet day.

You made me laugh about the death slides! Don't you just hate it when you have to go and rescue one of them and the only way off the equipment is down a death slide?!

Simona
06-06-2015, 07:56 AM
I was just wondering how often you all do outings, where to and do you charge extra for these?

It depends on how you interpret 'outings'...for me it means an excursion, pleasure trip or simply learning in the outdoors but a bit further out and not just limited to playing in the garden, although that is very good too.

Many places now are so very expensive so you could ask the parents for a contribution or choose places that are free to the children but you could have a membership of...such as Kew Gardens or such like as an example...free to the children but membership is paid by the business.

In the summer many cms do outings very often...a trip to the park, a picnic and play...play and more play.
Outings are more of a military exercise for nurseries who have to adhere to strict ratio rules...for Cms is everyday life.

loocyloo
06-06-2015, 08:54 AM
It depends on how you interpret 'outings'...for me it means an excursion, pleasure trip or simply learning in the outdoors but a bit further out and not just limited to playing in the garden, although that is very good too.

Many places now are so very expensive so you could ask the parents for a contribution or choose places that are free to the children but you could have a membership of...such as Kew Gardens or such like as an example...free to the children but membership is paid by the business.

In the summer many cms do outings very often...a trip to the park, a picnic and play...play and more play.
Outings are more of a military exercise for nurseries who have to adhere to strict ratio rules...for Cms is everyday life.

I agree. I go out and about alot, but alot of the time it's only for an hour or so, and apart from membership cards I rarely pay to go anywhere!

mumofone
26-07-2015, 10:30 AM
Are you all doing outings over the summer? Other than the park and maybe a picnic I can't really afford to do outings for the children and would have to charge parents extra which I don't want to do but I can't help but feeling some parents and children may be expecting outings just because it's their summer holidays.

alex__17
26-07-2015, 11:03 AM
We have a local park with big paddling pool, playground and duck pond we go to over summer, all free, also have membership for wisley, it's about £30 for the year and we go at least once a week and it's free for under 5's, also we go to a couple of lovely big playgrounds, which are in big parks so we do picnic and walk through the park/woods after. Nothing specifically for summer, as we do these all year around, but I try to do free outdoor things more over summer and avoid softplay places as much as poss, much prefer to spend a day outside running around in nice weather while we can :-)

loocyloo
26-07-2015, 11:18 AM
I do go out and about more in the summer as I'm not restricted by school runs.
However ... I don't do anything that costs me more than maybe parking and an ice cream!
This past week we went to a local ruined abbey and a geocache walk, the local forestry commission forest, building dens in woods across road and park and a day at the seaside. I'm not usually out all day though.
We do also have days at home filled with playing inside and out and craft activities. I'm totally child led in the holidays and apart from having sorted out a box full of craft activities/kits (using up everything in my cupboards from goodness knows when! ) haven't really planned!

lollipop kid
26-07-2015, 02:15 PM
I have a policy of NOT taking the children on expensive outings, as I feel that I am robbing the families of these memories with their children.

(This is based on my own experience of being a parent using childcare - I could never see what my then 9 month old daughter got out of going on the London Eye asleep - even though her childminder charged me about £25 for this 'experience'. I'm sure it was much more relevant to the older children who were with her at the time. Plus, having paid for my child to have gone on it once, I felt that we just couldn't justify paying to go on it twice, so we didn't actually do a family trip on The London Eye for this reason.)

Instead, I find things in my local area for the children to enjoy. Plus, if one has been to the zoo with parents for example, I might get out lots of books on animals, and then set up a trip to the zoo in the garden, using a few chairs, some paper plate steering wheels and our imaginations. We've whiled away hours of excited play this way.

It starts:
"Where shall we go today?"
"The Zoo."
"OK, let's go."
"Are we there yet?"
" Look out for the ...... (child supplies obstacle)."
"What can you see?"
"I can see the xxxxxxx" - we all make the noises.
"What are they doing?"
and a whole story develops while we all drive in our 'cars' and 'look' at all of the sights around us.

We're only limited by our imaginations, and it's great fun. Try it! Then we can spend as much time researching about the animals we saw on our visit. I then tell the parents how interested little Johnny was about our imaginary zoo trip, and before you know it, his family are off to the zoo as well.

I hope it helps,

LK

FussyElmo
26-07-2015, 02:28 PM
Are you all doing outings over the summer? Other than the park and maybe a picnic I can't really afford to do outings for the children and would have to charge parents extra which I don't want to do but I can't help but feeling some parents and children may be expecting outings just because it's their summer holidays.

This might make intestine reading and supports what FloraDora says.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9480785/Children-prefer-simple-pleasures-to-organised-trips-research-finds.html

But no plans to do big trips. The 2 I have part time do so much with their mum they need to learn the simple things too