Death by Handouts.

Monday the childminding course began, and by the end of Monday I felt like I'd been knocked down by a ten ton truck, not to mention contributed to the cutting down of a small tree! Definitely death by handouts! I do find it a tad crazy that childminders are assessed via the Early Years Framework and have to work towards that too, so my job will be to ensure the children in my care develop and observe those developments and write them down, including taking photos, to assess the child's development and plan appropriate play sessions.

I suppose its the language that has got me a little mind muggled at the moment, after all, I have already been thinking about activities etc to do once I am registered and have little darlings to look after - and obviously they will be age appropriate activities and outings. In essence that is all the Early Years Framework means for me too - although it makes a little nervous that I am expected to write down a child's development and this may be given to the school when the child becomes of school age. Yet I receive virtually no training on child development. Very scary.

Despite information overload, it is incredibly interesting and I am very excited at the prospect of my new career in April :-)))

The little 'un is coming along in leaps and bounds too, he is particularly enjoying completing his jigsaw puzzles at the moment, although only if I'm involved too, otherwise he just tends to throw the pieces around. He has decided that while he can walk down the stairs like us "big people", he prefers to shuttle down on his bum, which I prefer too as its safer - bless him, he figured that out all by himself. When I remember not to rush in and "protect him" he does quite often amaze me with his self awareness and own sense of danger.

He still isn't saying much. This morning he lined up his teddies and kept saying "Hiya", which was very cute. He does say "ta, da, ma, eeeeeeeeeeeeee, no, yeah and oh dear" and he sometimes repeats what is said to him. I am conscious though that with my hearing difficulty he could be saying more and I'm just not "hearing" it. (I unconsciously lip read, and because he's unable to form many words properly at the moment I just haven't got clue - and it sounds goobly gook to me - I'm not very deaf but I find accents difficult and I can't understand what is said to me if a person is stood behind me). This worries me a little, I do wonder if I'm holding him back in that I'm not recognising what he's saying and not encouraging enough. Not sure what I can do about that tho, I guess all I can do is trust he will get there verbally soon enough.

I'm aware that I find babbling on about what I'm doing very difficult - it just isn't natural for me. My friend J, can babble along to my son explaining what she's doing etc... I'm terrible at it. I'm trying to get better, and as she keeps saying - the aim is to be "good enough".

We do seem to have an almost telepathic link, I seem to know what he wants before he even indicates it - I suspect, I just know my son very very well :-)