Planning - I hate it

[BuggsieMoo]

As the title says, I hate planning. I have all these ideas going around in my head - but putting them into some form of plan is driving me made.

Is there a simple way of doing planning?

Any advice or help is very greatly appreciated before I sink under paperwork and planning diaries, topic webs etc.

Also - would you plan for a 17 month old? I have been but struggle as clearly her development is behind my other mindees who are all 4(nearly 5) and over.

Lisa x

[Cammie Doodle]

I think we plan too much, a lot of the time we are best to have some ideas activities in mind incase Child led activity does not work or last very long.
As for 17 month old I go with how the child is on the day

[blue bear]

My planning is very general and activities are more child led.

I have a grid with days of the week down the side and areas of learning across the top.


So on Monday my planning said toddlers under pse and space to crawl under physical. I then write in what children actually did and put relevant childrens initials next to each activity.

I keep it really simple and I find I can maintain that rather than having fancy planning and end up doing none

[sandy64]

hi i do a basic yrly plan which includes festivals and then a topic ie this month were doing summer and under the sea. then mthly plan is 2 or 3 things in each area ie c.l.l make post cards and send to each other psrn sort fish into sizes count how many. this then helps me no roughly what im doing each week for my under 3 if activity is suitable or modifyed they join in but i do individual planning as well which is better for the younger children just follow there interests and add to it you can pick a development and find activity/etc to do keep it simple it really isnt that hard.

[Penny1959]

I don't plan any more - in the writting it done and linking to EYFS sense - most of it is a waste of time.

Yes I still have ideas - but my planning is limited to thinking what I need to put out in the morning to provide an enabling environment.
I consider the stage of development of the children - and therefore the suitability of the resources

I consider each child's interest / things they have enjoyed recently and may like to repeat - I also introduce new(to these children) things to provide extended opportunities.

I then record who plays with what, any mini obs and wow moments and i take photo's

I have a chart that I fill in during quiet moments.

Somedays I only do photo's, some days only the written info on the chart

and some days (dare I say it ) NOTHING AT ALL

EYFS comes into in child's profile - and more importantly in my head wqhen ensuring opportunities in all areas are ofterred over a period of time.

It is such a relief - no idea if Ofsted will like it - but once I have explained and shown evidence thy will not be able to mark me down as I am covering everything in EYFS.

Nowhere does it say you have to have written plans linked to EYFS - it just says you must provide opportunities in all areas and 'know' where each child is developmentally and have planned next steps (which by the way is what I am doing every morning!)

If you are interested pm me and I will send a couple of completed sheets for you to look at - and they may provide inspiration to revamp your paperwork.

Penny

[Andrea08]

LTP is my continual provision, and routines and a monthly quick view of events etc
MTP is what im doing each week, drop-in's etc
STP is any crafts each day, which small world is set up and IEP or planning for each child's needs in learning and develoopment (inc each child's routine)

i have x4 files for seasons to give me ideas on planning sheets but it depends who i have on role what we might do (ages interests etc) and these are repeated every yr so ive only added to rather than done a new one every yr

[BuggsieMoo]

LTP is my continual provision, and routines and a monthly quick view of events etc
MTP is what im doing each week, drop-in's etc
STP is any crafts each day, which small world is set up and IEP or planning for each child's needs in learning and develoopment (inc each child's routine)

i have x4 files for seasons to give me ideas on planning sheets but it depends who i have on role what we might do (ages interests etc) and these are repeated every yr so ive only added to rather than done a new one every yr

I like that idea re the files. Might have to copy that and do a 5th one for misc as I have ideas and things to do that are not seasonal.
Thanks

[Optimalstar]

Penny I'd say you had it about right.

In nursery I used to have a weekly grid(showing diff. areas of learning) which I recorded what we did - indicating child or adult led.

I had weekly interest sheets to record where each child spent time, with a box for how to extend their interest. - this informed what resources/shopping I was going to need for the next week.

Then there was the longer term planning - which was basically where I recorded the previous info(resources for following week) and indicated how it linked to each child - as in an initial of the child(ren) who's interest had led to it's provision.

At a glance you can see which areas of learning are being covered and where you might need to think a little more.

Topics have disappeared from a lot of nurseries - or at least in the north east. There are themes, which are somewhat similar but they're based on the child(ren)'s interest.

For example one child was fascinated with some tissue paper floating in the wind. We gave her some other paper and then more children got involved. It led to a theme the following week --- anything airbourne, kites, bubbles, airplanes .... including books and small world.

Sam x

www.samanthachildminder.co.uk

[JCrakers]

I dont write planning down and never have...I really dont find time to sit and write down what we are going to do each day. A lot of the time the children dont want to do it, they would rather do something else and I offer a lot of crafts that are spur of the moment ideas.
If we have been talking about a bee we saw in the garden then I can adapt that into pictures, painting etc in the afternoon. Or an idea may pop into my head an hour before.
My week is more or less the same each week with toddler groups and libaray on certain days with Weds being my main day for craft.

I have a folder full of pics with all the activities we do and how they are linked to the 6 areas. Also the childrens individual folders are all linked to each area so Ofsted can see im working with it.

Ive no idea what Ofsted are going to say, but i just dont write it down..its all in my head (which is rather a full place)
I would struggle to write it down
Becky x

[bluebell3]

Hmm I'm new to this so I'm not sure if I should comment as what I do might not be right but I have an A4 bit of paper which I have printed out grids on the top I write the date and the childs name and age and then just list what I plan to do in the day - I don't write sentances I just list the activities so if its child-led play but I've selected certain toys to lay out that I think may be of interest then I put what they are and if there is a certain activity I want to do I write that - I may make a comment about a specific thing I want to observe say I want to 'observe M's interaction with others' and then on the right hand side of the table I write my observations so I might say 'M uncomfortable with joining in' or 'had a great time with older children confident and happy child' I would then initial that this is PSED and I have a box at the bottom saying 'additional' which I can put anything else that I think is noteworthy and then on the right a box saying next steps where I can write something like 'play some sharing games to encourage interaction.' The the next plan I do will show a game that I plan to play that will encourage sharing or interaction. It takes less than a minute in the morning and a couple of minutes in the afternoon and I just write what I recall from the day. Because I'm new to this I feel I will get more confident with what I write the more I use it. I also have a sheet with the specifics as in the EYFS guidance but haven't found this so easy to get to grips with!!!

[littlegremlins]

I don't do writing pre-plans as such. I have a folder with some themes and how different activities link to the 6 areas and this is a reference file for me. I may have ideas as to what I will do at some point during time with me, like a craft activity and have a template or what I need for that ready (I keep a craft file) but this is based on the fact a mindee enjoys craft activities. I write up post-play, a daily diary for the child/parent to look at any time and use that as my reference when writing up the learning journal where I add photos. This works best for me, it strikes the right balance for me between child-led and adult-led and an activity can often encompass nearly all areas of the EYFS. Planning or next steps is a more spontaneous affair. My mindee likes water play so each time she plays I may vary the utensils or add different things to the mix like ice cubes, stones and shells. I think the writing element of being a childminder is excessive enough and I need the fun factor for both the child and myself.