Tuesday 21 September 2021

I have space four or five days a week, for an early years child, from January 2023.  More spaces will become available in September 2023. Please contact me if you would like information about how to secure a place for your child. 

Visit my Facebook page for an insight into the activities provided for children in my care.

Monday 10 February 2020

Our day today.....



I asked the children what they wanted for lunch, one replied "cupcakes" and another asked for "green onions" (I need to ask his mum what he means).

We walked to Morrisons as we needed sugar if we were to make a cake for after lunch. One child spotted pizzas and decided that was what he wanted, another complained, "I want hot dogs", so we bought both!
Baking cakes gave us an opportunity to talk about shapes in the environment. Would we make a square, round/circle or heart shaped cake? We used mathematical language such as full, empty, big and small. We weighed ingredients, looking at the numbers on the scales and used measuring spoons too.

For the children, baking a cake was a fun activity but they were learning so many early maths skills at the same time.

Thursday 3 January 2019

Update


Apologises, this website tends to be a little neglected.  To keep up to date with my current vacancies or to find out about the service I offer, please visit my Facebook page.

I am returning to childminding on 14th January 2019 after a short break.  In June I became level 6 qualified when I completed the ‘Integrated Working with Children and their Families in the Early Year’s course with Pen Green/Hertfordshire University, gaining a First Class BA Hons degree. 

I have both full and part time vacancies for children aged 0 - 5 years.  I do daily drop off/collection from Corby Old Village Primary School for older children.

Tuesday 28 February 2017

Shrove Tuesday




Since it was Shrove Tuesday I had promised the children that we would make pancakes once we returned home from Rhyme Time.   Personally, I’m not keen on the type of pancakes that you toss and thought the children might prefer the thicker Scotch type pancakes.  Here is the recipe that we used:

Recipe for thick Scotch type pancakes
100g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
50g sugar (the original recipe says caster sugar but I use unrefined granulated or caster)
4 tbsp milk
1 egg
lemon essence (optional)

Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl before adding the egg and milk then beating to form a thick batter.  Add the essence if using. I sometimes also add some blueberries or sultanas at this point.

Lightly grease a thick bottomed frying pan with some butter and allow it to become moderately hot.  Cook two  or three at a time by dropping spoonfuls of the batter into the pan and leave them to cook until they start to bubble slightly.  Check the underside is brown then turn them over to cook the reverse side.  

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the meals which I provide for children are all vegetarian and home cooked.

In recent months I  have become vegan myself, this means that I don’t eat any animal products (eggs, dairy, honey, etc.) although I do still serve these to the children.  I am now used to checking ingredient labels on food and have a range of dairy and egg free recipes up my sleeves, this will be beneficial if I ever care for children who have allergies.   

I’ve found this recipe for pancakes, it uses different ingredients but the same method as the one above:

Ingredients for Egg/Dairy Free version of Scotch pancakes
One cup of self-raising flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
1 cup of plant based milk e.g soya or almond milk
Oil or dairy-free butter to grease the pan.








Friday 12 February 2016

Gong Hey Fat Choy!





Happy Chinese New Year 2016! The children celebrated the start of the Year of the Monkey at playgroup today.  Snacks included fried rice and prawn crackers which the children loved.  I must add rice to the lunch time menu.

There was materials laid out to make a monkey picture, aren't they fab? I tried to ensure the activity was a child-led as possible.  I'm very impressed that all the eyes are in the right place!