Is there a particular LJ that you struggle with?

[JCrakers]

I have 5 LJ's to do but 1 in particular is always more difficult than the others and I feel quite bad sending it home sometimes as its quite sparse with pictures.

The problem I have is I just don't get time to see the child in different scenarios especially PD (physical side of things). Every Thursday we have the same routine so catching her doing something different is quite hard. I found her 2yr check quite difficult in PD. I can see that she is developing well so don't have any worries.

Mindee is now 29m and attends 8am-6pm on Thursdays only. She arrives at 8am with two older siblings, they usually sit with pens/scissors or sometimes finish off toast or muffin that she's bought with her. I'm quite busy in this half an hour. We leave the house at 8.30am, go to school and then onto town. We arrive at coffee shop at 9.20am where we have a drink/rest for 15-20mins before heading off to toddler group.
Toddler group 10-11am, where we sing, instruments, listen to a book, drinks, crafts. So a good range of things to do. I've got pictures of her doing various things here. (when I remember to take my camera :rolleyes:)

Then we arrive back at 12pm, have lunch (she is quite slow at eating). After lunch is sleep time until 2.30/45. Then onto school at 3pm-3.45pm, then snack/drink. As it's been cold the children have been inside so lots of role play, pretend schools, colouring. When they go outside I'm usually making tea, watching from the window with half an eye...quite busy so are watching if she's safe rather than what she's actually achieving.

I came to do her 2yr check and realised I don't know if she can walk up/downstairs or catch a ball, I don't know if she can stand on one leg momentarily etc, etc. Her next steps have shown I need to look at these things but without going to find some stairs and say 'Climb these' I don't get enough opportunities to observe.

All the other 4 children I have longer/more days so I seem to know them better. It seems that 1 day a week just isn't quite enough time to find out everything.

Does anyone else find this or should I have spent more time changing my Thurs routine? (Problem is, my 3yr old mindee loves his Thursday mornings which is why I've never changed the routine. He attends mon-thurs so has a good range of park visits so he likes his toddler group and warm milk etc.)

[loocyloo]

I have the same at times ... I find that in the end I have to spend a few minutes saying 'can you do this? Can you do that?' Or setting up activities purely to observe.

Maybe you could miss toddlers every now and again to do something else or even for this mindee to play at home.

We've now got a routine where there is a group we could go to every morning, but we now go every other week or even every 3rd week (apart from Friday toddlers! All Friday children attend other days and love it, so currently we go most weeks. As it gets better weather I'll be out and about more and at toddlers less. Plus I do try and spend one whole day (except school runs) at home once a week.

[BallyH]

Do you have stairs in your home? I have a lo who attends only on a Thursday. I've had to think how can I make situations occur. So when she use to sleep during the day I would have her walking up/down my stairs first holding my hand then with me behind/in front of her. This is how I tested her on steps. We also practised numbers and counting. Plus I've got a soft fabric ikea football which we keep indoors. This would be good to play 'catch' in a safe area. Maybe start with all sitting down and roll it to one another then progress to sitting. Beware this game can get boisterous!

[Mouse]

Don't forget you can ask parents if the children do these things at home. You haven't got to have observed everything yourself.

Of my 7 mindees, 4 of them only come one day a week. At first I was trying to fit everything in that I would have done with a child who was here 4 days a week. It was impossible unless I had them on a production line of activities from the minute they arrived until the minute they left!

I had to train myself to be more selective on the areas I was going to work on and observe. I also started sending questionnaires home asking about things like climbing stairs - when the children were still in nappies they never went upstairs, so I didn't ever observe their stair climbing skills )although I had seen them climbing the steps on the slide at the park). I explained to parents that I couldn't observe everything in 1 day a week, so I would ask if the children were doing certain things at home. Not only does it fill in some gaps in my obs, but it shows working in partnership with parents :thumbsup:

[Maza]

It's inevitable that children who do fewer hours will have smaller learning journeys for their time spent with us.

You could ask her parents if she can climb stairs - good working in partnership. That example did make me chuckle, because I live in a flat and so remember taking my DD out to the communal area to specifically practise her climbing skills.

I think it's a really positive thing that because you are so methodical with your LJs that you have identified gaps in your observations, definitely don't feel bad about it. I also have to often quickly ask a child to show me x,y,z.

Like BallyH, I've built up a collection of indoor throwing things (probably again linked to me not living on the ground floor with direct access to my garden). We seem to spend a few spare seconds or minutes everyday throwing and catching things indoors and the children soon pick up the boundaries necessary for this type of play indoors. x

[k1rstie]

It was the stairs for me too!

[mumofone]

All of them?! Ha! ;-0

Im finding the babies the hardest over my older mindee but thats to do with age range rather than the child themselves x

[blue bear]

Three times a year I send home,a parents guide what to expect when and get parents to highlight what they know the child can do. I then use that and my observations to do assessments, two year checks etc.
It's impossible to observe everything on very part time children.

[FloraDora]

Could you play somewhere outdoors enroute to the toddler group - instead of the coffee shop? As a child my youngest would find every opportunity to go up and down stairs so going up and down the steps from the car park underpass used to be something he loved as we went into town And a place we could kill time in before a meet up with someone.