Where do you let the children eat snacks?

[kmc13]

Hi,

Sorry if this is a stupid question but if your at home during snack time do you make the children sit at the table? Or does it depend on the age?

Thanks

[mama2three]

either sitting at the table , or occasionally picnic style , sitting together in a circle on the floor. But always sitting , never wandering round with food or drinks. If they don't sit they don't get , they soon learn even the under ones.

[natlou82]

Yes, they always sit at the table for all meals and snacks. It's in my house rules and all of the children are happy with it. I feel there's lots to be gained and learned through sitting together at these times. The children learn the house rules and boundaries, good table manners, it's an excellent opportunity to socialise together and chat, and of course there's a few less crumbs trampled into the carpet or finger marks smeared everywhere.

[natlou82]

either sitting at the table , or occasionally picnic style , sitting together in a circle on the floor. But always sitting , never wandering round with food or drinks. If they don't sit they don't get , they soon learn even the under ones.

Yes sometimes I do picnic style too but agree they never wander around with the food.

[Mouse]

Same as the others. Usually at the table, although at least a couple of times a week we get the picnic blanket out and sit on the floor for a drink and snack. It's a nice alternative to sitting at the table and tends to be a very sociable time.

Meals are virtually always at the table, although again we will sometimes have a teddy bears picnic if the children are having finger food. In the summer we sit outside either on a mat or at a table.

Whatever, eating and drinking is always done sitting down, never while walking around.

[sweets]

Shoot me down! Lol I let mine have a biscuit while wandering around the garden this morning.

Generally tho we all sit down especially when inside

[lollipop kid]

Shoot me down! Lol I let mine have a biscuit while wandering around the garden this morning.

Generally tho we all sit down especially when inside

Don't ever let Ofsted see you do that! My inspector used my letting an almost 3 year old child eat a soft waffle snack on the sofa (he'd asked to sit there, informing me that he was a big boy so I didn't want to crush his little self-esteem), while his one year old co-mindee sat at the table next to the sofa with me, as a reason to mark me down a grade. Apparently, "I did not always make the children sit together at mealtimes, which made mealtimes difficult to supervise and could compromise a child's safety". I got an action making me add 'children eating' to my Risk Assessment.

(Thinking about it, if I had insisted on his sitting at the table, no doubt the same inspector would have written something along the lines of: "The Childminder does not always promote children's independence, therefore not ensuring their school readiness" or similar. I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't. )

Just saying!

All the best,

L

[mumofone]

Don't ever let Ofsted see you do that! My inspector used my letting an almost 3 year old child eat a soft waffle snack on the sofa (he'd asked to sit there, informing me that he was a big boy so I didn't want to crush his little self-esteem), while his one year old co-mindee sat at the table next to the sofa with me, as a reason to mark me down a grade. Apparently, "I did not always make the children sit together at mealtimes, which made mealtimes difficult to supervise and could compromise a child's safety". I got an action making me add 'children eating' to my Risk Assessment. (Thinking about it, if I had insisted on his sitting at the table, no doubt the same inspector would have written something along the lines of: "The Childminder does not always promote children's independence, therefore not ensuring their school readiness" or similar. I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't. ) Just saying! All the best, L

Oh gosh, some of the OFSTED reports just look desperate to find any excuse to mark people down. I swear sometimes the reasons between reports contradict one another too!

[loocyloo]

we eat and drink at the table sitting down inside, or sitting on a picnic rug outside.

I can't be doing with drink dribbles and food mess all over the house and its habit to eat/drink sitting down outside!

[lollipop kid]

Oh gosh, some of the OFSTED reports just look desperate to find any excuse to mark people down. I swear sometimes the reasons between reports contradict one another too!

I can laugh about it now, but at the time, it was a bit horrible.

(However, I am a highly reflective practitioner, so I've addressed every negative - with bells on! - and have worked hard to develop the positives. What else can you do?)

I showed my Ofsted report to my Childminding Development Officer the other week. She looked around my setting and was flabbergasted about how I could be marked so poorly. Reading my report, she seemed to think it had been written by Jekyll & Hyde! She also said it didn't read like a 'Satisfactory' report at all, but I am where I am.

Anyway, a great thing came out of that visit for me. My CDO has signed me up for the Local Authority Quality Assurance scheme for Childminders, so I am delighted. And I nearly forgot - she ran the LA training course that I did to register as a Childminder many years ago, so my association with her goes back a long way. Her good opinion and support counts for such a lot!)

I try to be ready every day for an inspection, so that should I get the call any time soon, I really hope I can show how I've improved my practice, and the outcomes for the children that I look after. I am so grateful to the Forum - it really challenges how you think about what you do, and there are always ideas for how to do something better!

Here's hoping that I can complete the Quality Assurance work quickly (and well) and add that as another string to my bow to show my commitment to Childminding.

L

[FloraDora]

I can laugh about it now, but at the time, it was a bit horrible.

(However, I am a highly reflective practitioner, so I've addressed every negative - with bells on! - and have worked hard to develop the positives. What else can you do?)

I showed my Ofsted report to my Childminding Development Officer the other week. She looked around my setting and was flabbergasted about how I could be marked so poorly. Reading my report, she seemed to think it had been written by Jekyll & Hyde! She also said it didn't read like a 'Satisfactory' report at all, but I am where I am.

Anyway, a great thing came out of that visit for me. My CDO has signed me up for the Local Authority Quality Assurance scheme for Childminders, so I am delighted. And I nearly forgot - she ran the LA training course that I did to register as a Childminder many years ago, so my association with her goes back a long way. Her good opinion and support counts for such a lot!)

I try to be ready every day for an inspection, so that should I get the call any time soon, I really hope I can show how I've improved my practice, and the outcomes for the children that I look after. I am so grateful to the Forum - it really challenges how you think about what you do, and there are always ideas for how to do something better!

Here's hoping that I can complete the Quality Assurance work quickly (and well) and add that as another string to my bow to show my commitment to Childminding.

L

Your enthusiasm is wonderful, your LO's are very lucky to have such a reflective person to care for them.
You won't need luck, your practise will shine through I am sure.

[lollipop kid]

Your enthusiasm is wonderful, your LO's are very lucky to have such a reflective person to care for them.
You won't need luck, your practise will shine through I am sure.

Thanks a million! That means a lot to me.

Here's hoping!



L

[blue bear]

Well I was going to say we eat at the table or picnic style on occasions but that's. Not strictly true, we sometimes mock up a drive through and the children eat in their little tikes cars (lo went to costa with daddy and he needed to re enact it to make sense of it all) and there was that time during a inspection where all the children were painting and lo was hungry so had their snack sat in the middle of the paper while the other two painted around her, the inspector wrote something like 'the childminder is very flexible with the children's choices including snack time when one child chose to eat and the others continued to paint'

[lollipop kid]

Well I was going to say we eat at the table or picnic style on occasions but that's. Not strictly true, we sometimes mock up a drive through and the children eat in their little tikes cars (lo went to costa with daddy and he needed to re enact it to make sense of it all) and there was that time during a inspection where all the children were painting and lo was hungry so had their snack sat in the middle of the paper while the other two painted around her, the inspector wrote something like 'the childminder is very flexible with the children's choices including snack time when one child chose to eat and the others continued to paint'

What a lovely inspector!

Love the drive-through. I used to do that - it was loads of fun!

I had to get rid of my cars though, as a little girl managed to step on the cill (below the door) and tip one over as she was getting out of it. Just be careful. They tip really easily if a child happens to stand on the cill rather than step out. Even if you teach the child and watch them like a hawk (as in my case), it can still happen!

All the best,

L

[keohane1]

Always at the table. I can't stand food getting trampled into the carpets plus for safety reasons they don't leave the table until food is finished