Advice please

[child_friendly]

What does your daily diary and learning journal look like? I am trying to sort this out before i get my first prospective parents and am trying to find templates for them, but not having any luck. Can anyone help me?? What do you use for the daily diary and learning journal? How many pages does yours have etc?

[Jods]

ready .................. I dont do a daily diary!!!!

I do have LJ's and I send out newsletters and emails, daily I text and send photos to my parents, I text when they are asleep, when they wake, and even though I do a 4 weekly menu rotation which I emailed parents in Jan, I text what they are eating/have eaten for lunch x

and Mrs O gave me oustanding for my partnership with parents !!!

IMO and personaly I find this easier as it reduces the amount of parework I have to write, print and remember to hand out, I can instantly send or say something so it wont slip my mind, and all my written focus is in my LJ's x and I have a record on my phone of what I have sent for the last 2 months x

[mindingmummy]

I use a daily diary for my part timer, me and his Mum both use it to say what hes been up to. Juts the basics, nothing in there about learning and development.

Learning journals are tricky as there is NO set way to do them, I would put money on every single childminders being completely different.

[mindingmummy]

When I started up I put together a handout for parents with a brief description of the 6 areas of learning and said that there would be a learning journal based on these, it then left me room to decide exactly how to do them when I started without having to stick to a template...

[rosebud]

My LJ's are A4 looseleaf folders. Observations and next steps are recorded on daily diary sheets (as well as routine info) which go home and are returned the next day with any comments parents wish to make. These are then filed into the LJ along with photographs and pieces of artwork. Try not to double on paperwork, many people do far too much and its not necessary. Just try to decide on something to start you off, I can guarantee you'll change what you do over time anyway.

[EmmaReed84]

I have a scrapbook from WHSmiths it is in chronological order with pictures, observations, notes, assessments, next steps etc.

Some people prefer to have a scrapbook of just pictures for the parents and keep the "paperwork" seperate as some parents might not want all the other stuff in their scrapbook. For me personally I loved reading my sons assessments and looking at photos etc.

[Tatjana]

I do daily diaries and the parents always say how much they enjoy reading them.

I put meals, naps, nappies and a brief summary or key things they've enjoyed doing that day, places we've been to, activities.