Is it ok to stop planning themes/topics?

[Bexboo1]

I am finding that because i only have 1 3 year old mindee in the hols I am wasting time planning as when it's term time there is no time after school to get doing the themes/topics I have spent hours planning for.

My other full time mindee is only 1 so, I only plan for his interests so that's fine, but is it ok to just stop?

I would rather spend time with actually doing stuff the children want to do, ie follow their interest then spending loads of my own time planning for the whole year, when I find that we haven't covered half of it!!!

Also, should this be put on my SEF. That I've made a change and how it's benefiting the child??

Sorry for all the questions today. I seem to be having an overhaul of my whole business and I am determined I am going to make things easier for me and my family. I am spending way too much time doing things and I am now questioning who they have benefited

[jadavi]

I do very little of the planning you describe for exactly the reasons you give. I follow their interests totally and go with the flow and I often retrospectively add what we did to the 'planning' which I call an activities log and which the parents see. (this is only filled in once or twice as long as each child is included)
What this means is having oodles of resources at my finger tips so my planning tends to be car boots and recycle stores.
Ofsted loved it and I got outstanding. I don't tend to do themes unless they crop up naturally.
Yes I included this on my sef as it shows reflective thinking and flexibility.

[debh]

I have stopped doing detail planning for themes, total waste of time although it looks good on paper I found that we weren't doing half of it as too busy following children's interests. We are doing things for the olympic games this week and we plan for festivals and seasons but not alot of written theme planning. We do a timetable of activities so parents and pfsted can see what we have been doing.

[blue bear]

I stopped when the eyfs came in (2008)

[Bexboo1]

Thanks for the replies, I'm glad it isn't just me who saw it as a waste of time.

When you say that you fill in an activities log, is this done weekly, describing each day what the children have been doing.

eg, Monday AM Playgroup PM Painting

Tuesday AM Outing to Park PM Free play etc

[Dragonfly]

I'd be interested in the activity log also.At the moment I put down what we do all week on a sheet I have called 'continuous planning' (don't ask me where I got the sheet from, back when the EYFS started) its headed Mon to Friday at the top and groups down the side ie mark making. creative,cooking and along the bottom visits to the home,visits outside the home, outdoor etc.Before I got this i used a book with w/c and noted what we done through out the week, alot easier maybe after 3 years i should go back to this way?.

[Rubybubbles]

I use this which I got from the Penny T book but put my own spin on it, I put my weely planned activities on then anything I know we will do then pop what else we have been doing (it looks very messy by friday)

I have also popped my weekly activity plan thingy me bob on too (I do this each Friday following childs next steps from obs/ previous weeks activities)

hope this helps!

[debh]

I have a timetable for days am and pm then just fill in outings, planned activities sometimes following a theme eg. olympics , I can add to it as the week goes on and not worryg if we don't do everything we planned. This has saved me alot of time planning at the weekends. I try to limit the amount of paperwork we do as I got fed up of doing it at the weekends and would rater spend my time playing with mindees during the week.

[sarah707]

We love our themes here - we are taking a plane to Spain this week and it's great fun, they are all involved even the little ones have been eating paella and wraps today!

I do basic planning with the children - what they want to do etc so I can buy / find resources etc.

It depends on how you work... if it doesn't work for you then don't do it!