Planning for littler ones

[hollyberry]

Hi all

I've got an 11mo and a 14 month old. The former nearly ready to crawl but hasn't sorted his legs out yet, the latter standing and just starting to cruise on occasions. Their interests are throwing things, dropping things, rolling things, handing me things, moving to music, playing with rattles, trains, toys, stacking things.

At the mo I do a weekly plan of what I'm going to be doing but I have to say that I struggle to put things in the boxes for each day a.m. or p.m. based on their ages. Apart from the two days where we go to playgroups or if we go to a diy shop to have a good feel of all the different textures on offer, we are based at home and just playing with toys, meeting need for sleep, getting the younger one used to being with the older one - there doesn't seem to be anything I can put in other than always writing 'free play'. I just put a different range of resources out each day and we just play, with lots of interaction from me, as and how we feel. I ensure that the activities are meeting the things they like to do and helping them progress. For eg, with the older one who's standing, I use my toys r us sand tables minus the sand and put things in there and he really has to stretch and go onto tippy toes to get things out.

Is an Ofsted inspector going to consider these activities sufficient and will he/she see my not very full weekly timetable as 'planning'??

[Carol M]

You know where they are, you know what they like, you know how to move them on.
Perfect :thumbsup:
I don't do weekly written plans anymore. I write in my diary what general things we are going to do like visits/baking/groups etc and have things added to CP which link to theme and a list of ideas for childrens next steps and introduce them as and when it seems appropriate.
I can't see how an Ofsted inspector will not be happy with what you are doing.
Carol xx

[annabee]

I agree with Carol - what you are doing sounds perfect! Don't doubt yourself and keep up the good work!

Anna x

[Velleity]

I didn't write a thing down for weekly or monthly or any sort of planning really and got an Outstanding from Ofsted. What I do is just observe whatever they are doing and then write under the observation the next steps, or ways of extending that activity. I don't actually write on what date or week that will happen .. usually they just end up back at that activity by themselves at some point over the following few sessions and then I make a new observation and see if anything new occurs or how I might intervene just a little to guide them onto the next steps. Sometimes I look through my planning to see if there are any parts of the six areas they are not currently meeting for their age group and then put out extra resources to meet that criteria. Hope it makes sense. I could plan for weeks different things but likely they wouldn't want to do it when it came to it!

[Sunflowers]

planning? eh? nah don't bother myself, generally see what mood the kids are in and go from there! far easier, less stress and no time spent planning going to waste.

Sounds like you're doing a fab job already IMHO

[sarah707]

What you are doing sounds perfect to me.

My inspector wanted to see that I knew where children were 'at' and what they might enjoy doing next through my planning.

However she agreed that much of what we do with little ones should be based securely round their routines :D

[PixiePetal]

I didn't write a thing down for weekly or monthly or any sort of planning really and got an Outstanding from Ofsted. What I do is just observe whatever they are doing and then write under the observation the next steps, or ways of extending that activity. I don't actually write on what date or week that will happen .. usually they just end up back at that activity by themselves at some point over the following few sessions and then I make a new observation and see if anything new occurs or how I might intervene just a little to guide them onto the next steps. Sometimes I look through my planning to see if there are any parts of the six areas they are not currently meeting for their age group and then put out extra resources to meet that criteria. Hope it makes sense. I could plan for weeks different things but likely they wouldn't want to do it when it came to it!

same as me. :thumbsup:

[toddlers896]

I didn't write a thing down for weekly or monthly or any sort of planning really and got an Outstanding from Ofsted. What I do is just observe whatever they are doing and then write under the observation the next steps, or ways of extending that activity. I don't actually write on what date or week that will happen .. usually they just end up back at that activity by themselves at some point over the following few sessions and then I make a new observation and see if anything new occurs or how I might intervene just a little to guide them onto the next steps. Sometimes I look through my planning to see if there are any parts of the six areas they are not currently meeting for their age group and then put out extra resources to meet that criteria. Hope it makes sense. I could plan for weeks different things but likely they wouldn't want to do it when it came to it!

You make it sound so easy, but then it probably is when you know how. I am probably looking too much into it and trying to do too much when its not necessarry, like a lot of people I can imagine. It does seem crazy planning for different things when children just want to do their own thing and we can still observe and get the same outcome. I probably dont even know what ime talking about as havent had enough experiencr to comment but I liked your comment.
Tracy

[jumping j]

on the first of each month i write in my diary ideas for activities, nothing about when they will get done. Then on each day I make a note of any plagroups/outings we're doing. Other than that I tend to see what the lo's want to do, most of the time if I set something up they ignore it and get what they want out anyway!!!

[toddlers896]

planning? eh? nah don't bother myself, generally see what mood the kids are in and go from there! far easier, less stress and no time spent planning going to waste.

Sounds like you're doing a fab job already IMHO

I like your attitude. I think i will follow in your footsteps.:clapping: