Home or nursery [Archive] - Childminding Forum

Mrs Argyle

28-09-2009, 01:33 PM

Just a short question, does your home look like a home or like a nursery. I have grown up children so I like my house back to 'normal' at the end of the day all toys inside and outside get put away I dont have loads of posters on the walls and garden fence. What do you guys do..... does this reflect on outcomes with ofsted ?

singlewiththree

28-09-2009, 01:41 PM

Blackhorse

28-09-2009, 01:58 PM

my home looks like a home where children live...

not an all grown up home but not a nursery either...

and to me that's what childminding is about... to have a childfriendly home but still a home.

Mouse

28-09-2009, 02:17 PM

Mine is a mix. In my front room now (my day off), there isn't any indication that I'm a childminder. Come tomorrow morning that'll all change when I bring in boxes of toys etc.

The dining room is more like a nursery - posters on the wall, boxes of craft stuff on the shelves, lots of toys, kiddy tables & chairs etc. But that is the room that my daughter uses to play in, so I'm happy with that.
The room wasn't set out like that though when I had my Ofsted insepction. We had out the toys that we were using that day, the children's photos that I stick on the radiator each morning etc. I only changed the use of the room so I could get rid of my daughter's clutter from the front room, but it works well for childminding.
As she gets older I am planning to have less & less toys & childminding stuff indoors. I'll store it all in the sheds & only bring it in as I need it.

marian

28-09-2009, 02:25 PM

During my working week there are toys in all the downstairs rooms.
At the end of the day everything gets put into my front room in a neat-ish stack - so I don't have to look at boxes of toys during the evening.
At the weekend 90% goes in to the storage under the stairs.:)
Then I am tripping over my Boys's wii's / laptops/ shoes etc !:laughing:

Marian x

amanda1309

28-09-2009, 02:28 PM

I need to put stuff away as well as i can as i can't stand sitting in my lounge on an evening surrounded by toys and stuff.

TheBTeam

28-09-2009, 03:00 PM

We are lucky in that we have a small entrance hall, which has posters, notices and artwork etc in so this doesnt intrude on our living.

In the living room we have our stairs and the toys are stored behind the sofa and out of site, so this stops it feeling like work all evening.

In the conservatory pens and paper and table stay up but my ds uses this anyway, and this is not intrusive or unsightly anyway.

My own childrens toys that they have are now in their bedrooms, but they are more into ds and psp type toys and these stay tidily downstairs, with them bringing anything bigger down as needed, some childminding toys and crafts are kept upstairs and these are brought down when needed.

When my own children were little we kept a trunk of toys out all the time, but i feel that it is different now that this is work, i like to shut off at night and not have to stare at it, we are very lucky that our house although not massive lends itself quite well to being able to transform!

FussyElmo

28-09-2009, 03:13 PM

It looks like a toy factory which people live in :laughing: :laughing: but thats not just from childminding my own children too. I have a corner of the dining room which is for displays but if the door is open you cant see it.

Mrs.L.C

28-09-2009, 03:24 PM

TheBTeam

28-09-2009, 03:29 PM

Not sure what ofsted think, i don't think they mind what you do with the stuff when you aren't working, it is how you are when you are that matters!

I do know though, that about 5 years ago when i had my first inspection, i only had my dd here who had just turned two, and i had a negative comment on my inspection report that i did not have my resources fully laid out for the children to self select them and even with my explanation that my dd was my child and she knew how to get what she wanted and if she needed help to select things out of her reach she could ask me when needed and i would help, and she laready had sufficient out for her needs! I then explained that there would be toys out for self selection when i am minding but as i wasnt her comments were irrelevant, she should have asked what i would do, not marked me down for what didn't need doing at the time!

Curly Quavers

28-09-2009, 04:54 PM

I have three children of my own 8,4,3 so yes my house looks like a nursery but as mine have grown up I've reduced the baby toys and put them away each day. I suppose as they get a lot older then I suppose If I had the space to put them away I would.

I'm the same at the moment my girls are 5 and 3 so I still have loads of toys all over the house at night and weekend and yes as they grow up I think I will try and make sure I have somewhere where I clear everything away to at the end of the day so it looks like grown ups do actually live here somewhere! :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Straws

28-09-2009, 05:36 PM

Mine looks like like a toy bomb as gone off during the day, then i just open the garage door and throw it all in there at the end of each day, and i have my house back in the evenings.

Straws xxx

Pipsqueak

28-09-2009, 05:42 PM

mine looks like a home!

little miss chatterbox

28-09-2009, 06:23 PM

my house looks like a home and my playroom looks like a nursery!

xxx

Madminder

28-09-2009, 06:37 PM

my house looks like a home and my playroom looks like a nursery!

xxx

Snap! I chose this house so that I could have a playroom. My front room only gets used by the older mindies in the holidays occasionally to watch DVDs, or occasionally to put a travel cot in at nap time, so you would never guess it was a childminders home. However the playroom looks like a nursery! As my mindies are getting older now (4 over 8s) I am converting the spare room upstairs to a room where they can go to get away from the little ones in the holidays and play with things that are not littleone friendly like lego and board games.

sweets

28-09-2009, 06:45 PM

my house looks llike a home. i have recently bought i big expedit storage unit for in my through lounge diner and have the toys in it in nice wicker baskets and plain boxes. things like the fireguard and travel cot all go away on a friday teatime so i dont have to look at them all weekend.

Pudding Girl

28-09-2009, 07:11 PM

My lounge doesn't have anything stored in it, toy boxes get brought in during the day and go back into the storage unit in hallway or dining room evenings/weekends.
My hallway is a largish one and all the under stairs area given over to storage units and the wall by that is a info board although am going to move that to behind my front door tomorrow as I can see it from where I sit on sofa in lounge grr!
My downstairs cloakroom has posters and name labels and steps and all that, but don't care, rarely use it myself out of hours.
My through kitchen/dining room is like a playroom although have not gone so OTT with pics and artwork on the walls now, stick a few to kitchen cupboards, the rest goes home.

All in all then, about half and half.

Lainey Lou

28-09-2009, 07:30 PM

Our conservatory does look abit like a nursery with posters on the wall and toys around the edge - but when we chose our house, this was the plan so we didnt have to have it in our lounge all the time. If we were'nt minding I dont think we would have gone for a house with a conservatory. The lounge is used whilst minding but any toys/games are put back into the conervatory at the end of the day so we have our own space - a god send compared to our old house

Me too, our conservatory has been converted to a playroom, we never used it as a conservatory anyway and hardly went in there. The lounge and dining room are relatively toy free, I really don't know where we would have put everything without the conservatory to be honest! :) x