observations????

[chewy sweets]

I've oly been cminding 2 weeks so am still very new to all this. I'm stuck on observations! What sort of things should i be making notes of?
I mind a 2 year old and a 12 mnth old. Could someone give me an example of the type of things i should be making observatins for. That would be a great help!
Thanks Katie xx

[Annie_T]

ive not long started minding either hun so i also stuck but way i am going to do it is see where my mindee is to the charts in the eyfs booklet, see where i can improve something then make an ob on it (hope makes sense)

i know soemone did a ob on a mindee who crawled to a toy, she then moved the toy further away - to encourage the child.

not much help but im sure soemone will come along hun and answer you properly

[sarah707]

When I was writing my Welsh childminding book, I learned that the Foundation Phase is not yet statutory for childminders in Wales.

So while you need to meet with the requirements of the Standards, you do not need to 'educate' or 'plan' formally like we do in England.

However, having said that, the Standards do say that you must provide activities that interest and inform the children and you cannot do that without a certain amount of observation and planning.

Your observations, I would say, need to be based around checking what the children like to do, making sure you have opportunities for them to learn and develop, providing appropriate activities to meet their needs...

So if John has been to the zoo and arrives with a lion... that's your observation. Your planning might be to read 'Dear Zoo' with him and do some animal activities.

I have given lots of obs and planning examples in the Foundation Phase chapter of the e-book because, like a lot of my Welsh friends said to me, it's coming soon they expect... but while it's not statutory your obs etc can be much looser and less formal.

Does that sound right to other Welsh minders? That's how I read it

[manjay]

I agree Sarah. I have some new stuff on quality assurance since that became an added requirement ( you have just reminded me Katie and I will email it across to you). This gives the main example of self monitiring as planning, implementing and evaluating what you are doing with the children. To me that means it is good practice to observe the children and plan accordingly in order to provide a Quality service.

I would keep it very simple to start with. When I first started I would just make notes usually in my daily diary/post it notes and then use those to plan extension activies for the children. My inspector liked this and even said that I was doing more than legally required. I now do much more but I am going through the accreditation process to deliver Early Years Education and so am going into more detail.

Hth

amanda x

[uf353432]

My day to day observations are very loose. For example I noted on 2 different days that the same child on one day sang twinkle twinkle and another day baa baa black sheep. My planning for that child would be centred around singing more songs as its clear from the obs he loves to sing, backed up by a comment mum made when I told her about the songs.

Then every other week I will do a formal observation - which is detailed and specifically link to EYFS and next steps.

[nic76]

think i am slowly getting it

today i made nots that b was looking at fish tank with C so my obs was to see that thought they are funny. my next steps are to cut out fish and seaweed for them to colour in and stick to a piece of paper looking like a fish tank

its that about right

[sarah707]

think i am slowly getting it

today i made nots that b was looking at fish tank with C so my obs was to see that thought they are funny. my next steps are to cut out fish and seaweed for them to colour in and stick to a piece of paper looking like a fish tank

its that about right

That sounds great!

[nic76]

yeah getting the hang if it even if it is taking forever.