This Week and Inspection Day.

Charity shop finds on Monday.  Monday mornings involve a trip to the bank to deposit a cheque, pop in the coop and pick up any supplies (quite often bananas - I go through sooooo many!).  Picked up Rye some more books too. 

The hat he's wearing I did buy for me, but its a tad too small, and looks a bit daft - still it came in handy today - that sun was blazing this afternoon.

Playing with geometic shapes, after C has gone home.  Rye really does love these - I confess though I cannot remember, for the life in me, how they all go in the box properly. I must go back to the website and look at the photo so I can figure it out.

Photos taken today.  Gosh, today has been beautiful, and for me, began at 6:30am this morning.  Quick tidy of the bathroom and Rye's bedroom, (he's prefering to sleep in with me, and I confess it is rather nice to have his warm little body next to mine.), then downstairs to have a quick tidy round and disinfect the floor - with my vinegar and mint solution, in attempt to keep the ants down.  It does work a bit, not as bad - although I'd forgotten to put a pear core in the bin, that Rye had last night, and of course it was swarming in the little things. Sigh.

I just found myself wandering around the house constantly, wondering to myself whether to move this or that.  Formulating possible to answers for any questions she might have etc.  As the morning progressed, I really thought the OFSTED inspector wasn't coming, she arrived about 11pm.  She is one of these lovely people who is able to put you at ease immediately.  We sat in the garden, watched the children play, chatted, she observed while the children and I played with a punch balloon I've tied to the washing line.  Then we came in for lunch and the children had pasta with tomatoe and mascapone sauce and salad.  The inspector appeared very happy that the children were offered salad. 

Then once lunch was eaten, I took C upstairs for her nap, the inspector came up briefly just to check the upstairs areas were safe, then she went back downstairs while I settled C.  Much to my utter relief, she thought my observtions, planning, risk assessments, policies, permission slips, etc were really good and she said that while I need to look at how to develop the observation, assessment and planning folder - I'd made a really good start.  So very chuffed with that.  In fact, she made 3 recommendations:

1. Look to develop the observation folder.
2. Link with other childminders and childminding groups and share good practice.
3. Cover the gravel in the garden.

So, she's given me the grading, "Good", which is excellent and what I was hoping for.  (The gradings are: Unsatisfactory, Satisfactory, Good, Outstanding).  I won't have another inspection now for 2-3 years.

After she left, I fallopped and enjoyed a well earned cup of nettle tea and Rye enjoyed colouring in some the sheets I'd printed for him, off the internet.  Today, has been really good, just really nice to know that what I've been doing is good, the inspector is happy, C is happy, mum is happy.  Oh, bless C's mum, she wrote me a lovely letter for the inspector, raving about how happy she was with my service, how well C has come on etc. :-)  A wonderfully positive and affirming day.

And, to boot, we had a lovely afternoon, once I woke C at 3pm, in the garden playing.

Trying to hide in the box, followed by the exclamation, "Oh, I'm too big, darling".   I love this habit Rye has of calling me, "darling".  Very funny.

Oh incidently the punch balloons, I bought a pack of 5 from the Works for 99p and to my utter joy they are biodegradable balloons too!

OFSTED.

Ok - I'm not hyperventilating, or panicking, or going over my paperwork with a toothpick.  Really, I'm not.. well, ok, maybe a little.

Nervous because I temper EYFS with waldorf philosophy - and in some ways the two approaches are not that compatiable.  EYFS is much more hands on, adult led and pushing a child to reach goals and using play as a tool to achieve those goals.  In Waldorf there is less pressure and play is celebrated for it's own sake and not just as a tool for education.  I haven't read all the steiner books, direct or inspired that exist -but so far I've not come across the phrase "purposeful play", which is discussed in EYFS.   And regardless of my personal feelings toward EYFS, it is statutory that I deliver it.

Time will tell, as to what she thinks of the childcare and what recommendations she makes for improvements.
Oh, and that reminds me, I need to look into this self assessment tool now too - blah.
Right, off I go.

Waldorf inspirations.

I've been intrigued by Steiner / Waldorf philosophies since deciding to home educate Rye but so far not really looked into it; information I gleaned was mostly picked up from blogs I follow, and discussions on the Green Parent Forum.  Lately I've decided to research Waldorf a bit more as much of what I've heard seems to compliment my own opinions, my spirituality and my own ideas on education of young children.

Presently I am reading Heaven on Earth; A handbook for Parents of Young Children, by sharifa Oppenheimer, loaned to me by Sarah from Carried Family, (thank you !), which I am enjoying and is giving me quite a lot of ideas, I have no doubt that what I will end up with will be my own spin on Waldorf because I simply cannot resist tweaking things; be it a pattern, a recipe or a method.  And of course there are some aspects of Waldorf that are not compatible with EYFS, and as a childminder I am required to observe and rate, basically, my charge against the goals and developments that she is expected to reach.  I've noticed that guidance has been written on providing a waldorf environment against the EYFS so I shall be picking that up at some point.

In the meantime I'm looking forward to reading further and seeing what develops from it..... and I'm looking forward to the Myriad order, I made this morning, arriving with the beautiful waldorf paint box and crayons - cough and a few other bits, I'm poor now lol.

Inspection.

Yeah it was fine.
I spent most of yesterday sorting through the boxes in my room and she didn't even look in there; when she saw Rye's room she suggested I use that for children to nap in and it being a nice size to double as a play room too. Thinking about it too it is a good idea as minded children will become Rye's friends and they will probably want to play in his room sometimes and if I'd stated that minded children wouldn't be using his room they would not have been able to go in there.

She liked the wood toys and said there was no problem minded children using the toys I make solong they are safe and I use materials that are specifically for toymaking and are washable. She did ask about Rye going to preschool and I explained I plan to homeschool. She told me I'd have to see how it fit around childminding and said that I would need to make sure I was fullfiling the Early Years Foundstage Stage for him as well as minded children. I didn't say anything to that lol, I just explained that childminding would fit in well as I planned to do autonmous learning and that it would be very organic and include lots of play, arts and crafts, fun science experiments etc as appropriate for age. So, I guess that will have been noted, but I didn't want to obsfucate and besides it would come apparent as years went by lol.

Rye's verbal skills, incidently, are coming along beautifully; new words lately are "more", "ready", "puddle", "one", "two", "four" and "nine". He is also telling me when his nappy needs changing "Poooooooo", said very emphatically is used for either body function and he's started pulling the changing mat out from under the sofa too. Apart from "Yes, please", "more, please" and "Oh, Dear", he's not really saying any sentences. Or rather it sounds like he is saying a very definite sentence when he points to something; but as yet I've not worked out what it is he's saying. Very frustrating; not so much for him, but definitely for me as I can't help feeling I should understand better and maybe he's more fluent than I realise I'm just rubbish at figuring it out???

Have to say he's fab at his animal sounds "oh, ohhh, oh, oh" for elephant, "roar" including hand action for a lion, "baa" for sheep, "clu" for hen (he can't seem to say "K" at the moment), "nay" for horse, "meow" and hand actions again for cat, "on" for "oink" of a pig, oh and "moooooo" for a cow. :)

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 :-)