What advice would you give mothers going back to work and leaving their child with a childmind-er?
The most important thing is to try not to feel guilty about going back to work and leaving your child. This guilt can sometimes be detrimental to the child, as the parent tries to overcompensate and instead of encouraging the child to become a confident, independant child, they try to do everything for them, and allow the child to overstep boundaries. This makes it harder for the child to establish in-dependence. In the long run, it makes parenting even harder.
Take us through a typical day
We start the day with breakfast, as a childminder, I do pre plan activities, although these are very flexi-ble and very much child led. Breakfast is followed by freeplay, whilst I tidy away the breakfast items. Normally after freeplay we have a music session, before going out. We go to soft play and playgroups, but mainly we are outdoors (Virginia Water and Savill Garden are highly recommended by Mimi). There is so much they can learn from being outdoors. In the afternoon we have activities such as playdough, painting, sensory play and crafts, which may include using the various things we have found whilst outdoors, e.g. conkers, leaves etc. Some of the children will sleep in the afternoon - we tend not to go out in the afternoon - but the children love playing in the well equipped garden.
“Children learn everything through play”
Being outdoors is something I really encourage. Children love playing in the woods. They can talk about the colours of the leaves, I point out the various trees and what they produce, such as, conkers, acorns and pine cones. When it comes to the berries growing on bushes, I tell the children which ones are edible and which ones we leave for the birds.
In the summer I take the children blackberry and strawberry picking, this helps them to be aware that food is grown, we then come home and prepare the fruit and eat them!
The children can then paint pictures of the produce.
I have various props to encourage the children’s learning, including individual colour bags, that have lots of small items of the same colour in, they learn shapes through stencils, playdough cutters and post-ers on the wall, I have one, two year old little girl who recognises the alphabet, just by seeing the post-ers daily.
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Experienced childminder Mimi shares her secrets: “Mums need to relax”
Mimi Tenorio has been a Childminder in Staines for over 25 years. She usually takes care of up to 3 children, from the age of 3 months to 2 and a half years.
As she lives close by, I was really keen to chat to her about her tips for looking after children..
It didn't take long to discover why she is such a well respected childminder in Staines. I was astonished with the spectrum of positive tactics she uses with children - all very simple and based on pure love, smiles and politeness.
I was really pleased she agreed to pass on some of her secrets...
by Lenka Lawrie