toys & equipment i should have?

[child_friendly]

I am in the process of becoming a childminder. I am wondering what toys and equipment you should have when starting out as a childminder and what Ofsted like to see you have?? I have a 9 month old boy so have some baby toys already, but don't have any toddler, young children or older children toys, books, equipment. I know i don't know what age i am going to be minding yet but want to be prepared and know what i need to have to start out. Things that are cheap to get tho as have no money at mo.

Has anyone got any ideas and advice on toys and equipment i should have.

[Jiorjiina]

Someone put a list on here once of some of the equipment and documents they were recommended to have. The gist of it was:

Hygiene Policy in relation to pets (if you have pets, that is!)
Emergency evacuation policy
Illness policy
First Aid certificate
No smoking policy
Medication policy
Safeguarding children policy
Anti bullying policy
Behaviour management policy
Equalities policies
Inclusion policy
Working in partnership policy
Confidentiality policy
Missing/lost child policy
Uncollected children policy

Consent to record observations of children
Transport consent

(These three below only if you're going to be providing meals)
Fridge thermometer
Food Probe
Sample menu

Medication book
Emergency evacuation map
Map/plan displayed
Evidence of dates/names for practise drills
Documented risk assessments

Safe guarding children certificate
Safeguarding children booklet/leaflet
Notebook to record suspected abuse
Enhanced CRB
Visitor book

Has EYFS pack
Has attended EYFS training
Behaviour management training
" training


Public liability insurance certificate
Registration cert on display
Complaints book


I copied and pasted the list, and I have been ticking it off as I go through it.

I would also add to this:

Stair gates (or some way of controlling children's access to rooms or areas of the house that aren't registered)
Some books (my own personal rule was that books either had to be really nicely illustrated, or have a really nice story. And the ones I liked from when my brother and I were little!)
Some toys (again personal rule was that toys encouraged open play. I have a load of Brio, Lego, Duplo saved from when we were kids, so I cleaned that up and added it in)
Some boardgames/jigsaws (er, I couldn't use some of the jigsaws from when I was little, since I don't think Ofsted would approve of mindees making jigsaws that feature the USSR across half of Europe. Although, it would help their KUW!!;) )
Somewhere to display your paperwork (like reg cert, pub liability cert, rules, newsletter, etc)
Somewhere to display children's work

I don't have any children, so I had to buy everything (except the bits we have from when we were children), so I bought a lot of stuff second hand (charity shops or internet), I had a load of donations from family and friends, and also joined the local toy library, which is a godsend.

HTH!

[Maza]

Break it down into categories, such as safety (stair gates, plug socket covers, corner guards, door jam 'things', etc. You will want to buy some of this soon for your own child anyway. Think about sleeping arrangements - you would probably want a travel cot for your own child's occasional use so again a good investment. Where will you feed a mindee - would you want to buy another high chair/booster seat/small table and chairs? You will need some toys but as you don't know which age group you will get you don't want to spend a lot of money on these just yet. Think about hygiene - a mindee will need their own flannels/hand towels (primark/£1 shop), where will you change nappies - you will need disposable gloves, if they are potty training you would need a potty or a toilet seat/step but you don't have to buy all of these yet. Think about travel - car seat, double buggy, reins...

[The Juggler]

def. look at the safety equipment but on top of that, I'd check e-bay, netmums, freecycle, gumtree and the charity shops for the following:

sand/water table (for outdoors)
some diff. smallworld sets (castle/trainset/zoo - start with one and build up)
some dolls, cots etc maybe an old toy kitchen, buggies
construction (blocks/lego/octons)
jigsaws
lots of paper, card, pva glue and sticks, scissors, paint
a homemade treasure basket for the babies and under 3's.

:thumbsup: