Exciting and challenging planned activities

[LauraMidd]

I'm a newly registered childminder so please be kind!
I took myself off to some training last night about planning, observation and assessment - it was all types of childcare provider. At the training there was lots of talk about activities, and I was left feeling a bit daunted! How do childminders provide new and exciting activities without the resources of a nursery?
I mean they were talking about construction corner with pipes and diggers, and lots more I just can't see how I can provide within my house.
I'm starting to feel like finger painting, play doh and baking won't cut it with Ofsted.

How do you keep it fresh, challenging and exciting?

Thanks in advance ��

[LauraMidd]

Should add, I don't have a separate room and everything goes away each night.
Thanks

[Mouse]

So nursery sets up a construction corner. How does that benefit the children who aren't in the slightest bit interested in pipes & diggers? It might look and sound impressive, but what do the children really get out of it? Is it really following the next steps and interests of all the children in the nursery? I bet there would be a number of children who never even went near it. And others who spent all their time there, but actually gained very little from it.

As childminders we are in a much better position to provide activities that are totally relevant to the children we look after. If you do have a child who is showing an interest in construction, save some cardboard boxes and let them build with those. Take them on a walk to a local building site (if you had one nearby) so they can see the real thing in action - how many nurseries would do that?

Then at the same time you can be providing activities for the child who is interested in dinosaurs and the child who needs to be helped with their personal care skills. You don't need fancy equipment - children are more than happy with play dough, painting and digging in sand.

We may provide resources and activities on a much smaller scale, but they can be a great deal more purposeful than simply setting up an activity corner. Don't think you have to compete with a nursery. If that was what parents wanted they would have chosen a nursery. Rather than look at won't you don't do, focus on what you do provide

[Maza]

Excellent words from Mouse.

Be realistic, we don't have the space or money that nurseries have, so don't stress about what you can't change. You can also make the most of local playgroups or sure start centres which might have more expensive equipment on offer.

Yes, a nursery might have a lovely area with pipes and diggers etc. The children are pretty much stuck there all day long in that environment. You have more flexibility to take your children past real construction sites on a daily basis and stand around watching workmen, and then the next day maybe visit a Science museum and then snuggle up on a comfy sofa while you read a book that the child chose from the library about diggers, oh hang on a minute, you have just observed that the child isn't into pipes and diggers anymore - they are now interested in the ladybird they saw on a leaf on the way to the library and you can follow that up with interesting, challenging, low cost activities. If that child was in a nursery (no offence to nurseries at all, I've worked in them myself) then the teacher might not have noticed that they were into ladybirds and they would still be promoting their pipes and diggers area because hey, it's always busy so it must be what ALL the children need. Later, you all chat around the table whilst you tuck into macaroni cheese which you made because it is a firm favourite with the children in your care - the children in nursery have to eat what is on the menu designed by someone who has never met them and it might be a meal that they really don't like.

Focus on what you CAN offer - a home from home learning environment tailored to each child's needs. I think maybe that course wasn't suitable for childminders. There are so many threads on here about how children love playing/learning with stones, sticks, pinecones, shells, leaves etc. Many of us on here don't have playrooms. x

[LauraMidd]

Thanks everyone, you've made me feel much better.
The course was actually very good in terms of making observations and then using them to inform your planning. I suppose because the majority of people there were from nurseries, that's what examples came up.
Thanks again

[FloraDora]

It can be done and I did it, I do not usually boast but I need to remind you Laura that you can achieve outstanding in a living room! Like you, I put everything away daily ( I do use an upstairs room to store and sometimes play, but the main activities seen were in the living room and average size garden) as I do not have children who are young I don't really want to sit in a playroom at night or a playground in my garden.

I long sometimes for my old nursery / reception classroom and the resources I had but I am quite good now at making resources out of recycled material and it makes me think out of the box as to how I can provide an activity that I want to without it costing anything.
Like Maza said you can do a lot more personalised things around say for example, construction than a nursery can. Last year we watched and took weekly pictures of a house being built and so in the garden I left out some wood and hammers and we make our own paper bricks to burn in the winter so we used those and made some more - because we can only have max 3 you don't need much equipment. The only thing I bought was a couple more helmets. One LO was fascinated one week by the pulley system he had seen so I made a rope on a bucket... You can tailor things to suit each individual better, another LO wasn't as interested and rarely role played so was happier playing in the water...until a house shape appeared and she would fetch cushions and books and sit in the den/ house. The fascination of the house lasted until it was built " let's go to the building house " was often said ..and we did, because we could ...but the role play lasted 2 weeks max. Incidentally DH purchased a small pulley system on the strenghth of this interest ( and his own) and he had great fun setting it up from the shed to the other side of the garden, the children took little notice!
I tend to resource for an activity or short focus in the light of the next steps so I am gradually building up equipment, my neighbours and friends are a great source of recycled things, one neighbour gave me his new washing machine hose as he was using his old one and then when he went to the skip he found some more for me! I do intend to have more resources for water play in the garden this year, but I haven't bought anything, using cut off squash and milk containers fashioned into funnels or collecting pots and my neighbours finds....plus some scavenged half piping from a skip. It won't be permanant like these colourful water walls I keep seeing on other sites as I don't want my garden to look like a playground and I know half the fun is in the making and changing things and I don't want to spend any money on it.

Ofsted are looking at how you are addressing the next learning areas of your children and you can do this with minimal equipment. The knack is when you are purchasing anything new think about how you can store it first, how it addresses your children's immediate needs and then how you can use it for lots of different things. I read on other sites of CM who put out a special offer from a company and loads of people rush out and buy it, because it is cheaper than usual, but do they actually need it, have they thought about what child would benefit?

It's how you teach with the equipment not the equipment itself.

[LauraMidd]

I think creativity is key, maybe that's what I'm afraid I'm lacking!