Losing the will?

[lorraine04]

I'm beginning to wonder if it will ever really click for me.
I cannot seem to get a grip of the whole eyfs for whatever reason.
I have 3 under 5's and plan activities around their interests but struggle with forward planning as everything seems so samey! :blush:
Ive been registered since june and feel like i'm drowning in it all.
I feel like a failure as reading some of these posts shows me how easy it comes to most people. I need heeeeelp but don't know where to start. :panic:
I don't want to leave a job that i love but the paperwork is beginning to depress me. In the beginning i thought i had it sussed but where the planning comes into it it all just falls apart for me.

Pah!

[boxtree7]

believe me its not easy ... take one thing at a time - I purchased a few ebooks from sarah and they really did make things easier as it gave me the flooring to start the process. I have always got a Learning journal in my hand if not my camera there is always something that needs to de done. I also purchased some planning ideas from the resource shop. :panic: :yawning: :confused: - one thing at a time from start to finish!!!

[lorraine04]

Thankyou for replying :) . Where do i get Sarah's books from?
I don't want to fall at the first inspection. I can't find any courses that focus on the Eyfs.

[jadavi]

How about asking your local coordinator from childminding matters to come out and help you? Mine is always offering!

[Maza]

A lot of my next steps are very 'samey' and that's fine. My mindee loves dropping objects into containers and so I set this up by the front door every day (so that he is happy to come in). Today it was dropping acorns into tall empty juice bottles, yesterday it was dropping balls into a cardboard box with holes cut into the top, another day dropping shells down cardboard tubes etc. etc. If it keeps them busy then it must be what they need!

[venus89]

I've been doing it for threee years and it doesn't come easily to me! No matter what I do I know there are always at least five more things I can do on top of that, paperwork wise. So I sat back and decided to reorder my priorities. I've relaxed about some of the paperwork - the planning is not as detailed as it could be, for instance, and I'm too slack at my accounts, but to take lots of photois and make notes of obs so I have memory joggers to return to if I don't get to them. At the end of the day it's long hours, often with no break, and trying to fit in all the paperwork too is bloomin' hard work. So work out what your priorities are, focus on those first, then find a way to slot the other bits in....

[chibault]

This is what I do. Planning in split into three areas.

1) calendar of events, festivals, seasons, special occasions (this is a rolling year, so if you start your calendar in nov11, fill it up until nov12, this helps with long term planning.
2)list of resources, this is everything you own or could borrow or find to use for eyfs. List your resources in their eyfs areas, this helps so you can plan to cover all areas. This is a big job so do it bit by bit.
3) child's interests, if Charlie likes baking cakes, expand it to piping icing, making pastry, now can you link these to any particular events? Make a Christmas cake, Easter cakes, etc.

How you record the planning is up to you if you want to put it in a chart weekly, monthly and yearly.
Hth,
Becky

[Bluebell]

I really like the idea of listing resources with the area of EYFS - can you give an example of how you do this please?
Would you just list the areas and then allocate each resource to an area or would you list each resource and then describe all the different ways it can be used to encourage different areas and how different ages would get different things out of it?

[lorraine04]

Thanks for your replies, some good ideas to help me here.
I think i fall down with my resources too which doesn't help in my planning i guess..
I'll give them a try and see if it helps me.
At the moment my planning is very basic week by week, its based around the childrens interests but again feels quite samey to me. Maybe i'm thinking about it too much. I just don't want the paperwork to let me down at my first inspection as i am good at my job just not the paperwork side :blush:

[lorraine04]

How about asking your local coordinator from childminding matters to come out and help you? Mine is always offering!

I didn't even know we had a local coordinator....how bad is that?! lol
I think i'm going to definately find out where this person is hiding.

[sarah707]

The Eyfs isn't too bad once you get systems in place that are manageable and do-able. A lot of people do too much I think and expect too much of themselves and it all gets on top of them.

Yes it's often samey as children don't do new things every day... if you are planning to their interests and needs you'll be fine at inspection.

Hth :D

[rosebud]

I might get told off by others here but I don't do any written planning except the children's next steps on their observations. The next steps are my planning. Each child has a learning journey with lots of photos, pieces of artwork and written observations - some linked to EYFS, some not. These include a note of next steps. I would say stick at it and eventually you will find ways to minimise the paperwork you do and make it work for you.

[JCrakers]

I dont do any written planning. I have a yearly plan which includes monthly themes so for October I have Divali and Halloween. I also incorporate the colour orange (pumpkins) into this and a shape being circle this month.

Tuesday we painted a pumpkin picture and a spider. Yesterday we did rangoli with chalks and today we have printed with veg because it popped into my head half an hour before we did it :D . I dont always do so much craft in one week but I have older kids this week too.

All I do is take a picture of the child in progress, write down what it covers and pop it in my folder.
If its going in the childs folder, I just write 'Here I am painting my pumpkin orange' and put CD,PD and whatever area it covers.

If its an observation I have a picture of Child A balancing on the equipment outside. I write a little about what they are doing and link it to the areas for their age. Then next steps would be 'Using the balance at the park as it is narrower' or 'using chalks to make a line on the patio for the child to walk along'
If they are roleplaying with another child in the play house with the food then next steps would be 'Make a menu and set a table to play cafe'

This works for me and Ofsted are due any day so we will see if they like it or not.

[loocyloo]

I might get told off by others here but I don't do any written planning except the children's next steps on their observations. The next steps are my planning. Each child has a learning journey with lots of photos, pieces of artwork and written observations - some linked to EYFS, some not. These include a note of next steps. I would say stick at it and eventually you will find ways to minimise the paperwork you do and make it work for you.

thats pretty much my planning too!

i do have a list of 'special events' for each month, and a weekly plan of what we might do, but its more ... tuesday drop in at childrens centre, wednesday feed ducks and walk in woods (autumn leaves), thursday make breadrolls (can we make autumn leaf shapes, or hedgehogs or ....), friday toddlers. i do also have a theme for each month and may plan to do an activity or 2 from that each week, but if the children are interested in something else, then i go with that! for example, last week ... the breadrolls turned into snakes & worms!
lots of photos & scribbled notes, and stuck in LJ with a quick next steps ... having made the bread snakes, we then looked at some snakes in a book and pretended to be snakes !!!!