religious festivals ,do you, dont you ?

[nikim]

a chilminder friend of mine ,who got outstanding in july was told by the inspector that there was no need to celebrate religious festivals unless it was part of the childrens own customs/ beleifs (sp), i wondered if anyone else has been told this , and what does everyone else think ,i can see her point with so many different customs and religions it can become quite time consuming ,

[LeeAnn]

I owuld be interested to see what you all think. There are so many to include!

[rickysmiths]

I always celebrate Christmas and Easter because all the mindees I have at present come from Christian homes or homes that celebrate these festivals and so does my family.

As I look after 4 under 4s I haven't done wider religions yet as I don't think it will mean very much to them. As the oldest approaches 4 I may introduce some but it will depend on the mindee.

In the past I have looked after children from different cultures and we have celebrated their festivals with them, I think it means more to very little ones this way. They are not so good when you take things out of context.

[sarah707]

I pick and choose and celebrate things that mean something to the children.

So if a child's sibling is taking Harvest food into school we will look at that; if a child is aware of Chinese New Year we do that; if nursery or playgroup are celebrating Diwali to meet the needs of other children in the group then I include that in my group planning...

I do try to look at something most months because it's great to consider the global community in which all the children live and if, for example, you live in a city centre or you have children from different backgrounds, I am sure you would find much more relevance.

I do not celebrate every festival, that would be daft. It's a matter of choosing relevant ones that the children will understand.

Hth :D

[LeeAnn]

That's good to know, sorry for hijacking :blush: but I was thinking about sending a celebrations questionaire home with my mindees to find out what festivals etc they all celebrate. Also to find out parents/siblings birthdays so they can make a card to take home, if this is something they celebrate.

Is this appropriate? Is this what you all do?

As it is I only know one festival that a mindee celebrates, which is chinese new year. However she wont be here at that time as they celebrate in China, but it would be great to have some info from mum into how I could celebrate it with the mindees and my own children.

sorry again for taking this off track but I was going to start a new thread about it anyway :blush: :blush:

[Twinkle]

I choose the main festival from each religion, mainly for the children from reception upwards.

I have made a little poster for each festival with the basic information on it that comes out each year. I then plan simple activities based on each child's abilities and understanding, just to raise their awareness. It's surprising how interested they become and how much they remember the next year (they always remember far more than I do, hence the posters :) )

[nikim]

thanks for your replies , all of the children i look after are christian and we live in an area that is predominantley (sp) white/british/christian i know of only one family at primary school (of about 120 kids) who dont fit into this catergory and they are chinese, all of my eyfs kids are under 2 and i look after 3 after schoolers who only attend term time for an hour a day which is mainly taken up with t-time etc, my reason for asking is that i feel its of no benefit to the kids i look after to celebrate things like dwali, ramadan,hannuka etc but i am worried that ofsted will not agree ,even though another minder has been told this by her inspector but we all know they are all different in what they say is right, i feel that my time can be used to do things that they have an intrest in and understand