Ilana Hill :: Welcome

AUTUMN 2021 NEWSLETTER

The year has definitely been taken over by this pandemic that has stopped the entire world. Thankfully I have been able to continue childminding all the way through and I am so grateful to all of my families for supporting me. It has been so lovely to have all of the children back.

I can’t believe the summer holidays are nearly over. We had lots of fun at Wisley, the pirate park, making soap, tie dye, walking along the canal, picking strawberries and blackberries, visiting the farm, baking, having a sports day and the bouncy castle was a big hit in the garden even though we couldn’t have our fun day this year. I have promised the children we will definitely have one next year.

Schools go back on Thursday 2 September 20211 and some of our children are starting in reception this year, others moving up to the next year and some moving from the infant school to the junior school, all very exciting. We also have children starting nursery for the first time and things look like they will more or less be back to normal for drop offs and pick ups.

We will begin going back to toddler groups, song time and in time soft plays as well as visit other childminders at their houses.

Our topic for the Autumn term is All About Me where we will find out lots of interesting things about ourselves, our families, friends and the people in our communities. And as usual we will also be learning about different celebrations throughout the year such as Remembrance Day, Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, Eid, Mothers and Fathers Days etc. If you would like me to include anything into our learning please let me know.

We will start working with the updated legislative documentation that comes into effect from September 2021 called The Early Years Foundation Stage. If you would like more info please take a look here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-handbook. There have been lots of changes to the old version which should help practitioners spend more time interacting with the children and less time doing paperwork. There is also a push on language development as there has been a significant decline especially during the pandemic. Oral hygiene is also a high priority so we will be talking about this a lot.

Every year the children and I talk about which charities we would like to send money to. This year we have decided to continue to support Wildlife Aid (www.wildlifeaid.org.uk) which is based in Leatherhead. They are an organisation who help wildlife such as foxes, swans, squirrels etc when they get injured. We get a quarterly magazine from them so if you would ever like to borrow it please just ask.

We have also decided to continue to support two dogs through The Dogs Trust. Sadly Ernie passed away last year so we have chosen to support Boris from now on and we will continue to support Cheeky. We get two personalised letters from them each year, usually around Christmas and Easter together with photographs. This year we have also decided to support children who can’t hear very well through a charity called The National Deaf Children's Society. They give support on childhood deafness, raise awareness and campaign for deaf children’s rights. We decided to support this charity because one of our mums has some loss of hearing and she was interested to know how we could incorporate Makaton or other sign language into our curriculum.

I have continued to improve my setting by having a new kitchen with open plan play area which the children absolutely love. We have moved the computer into the quiet room where we can do homework, watch information videos and do crafts. It's a quieter space than the open plan playroom so that children can take themselves away from the hustle and bustle whenever they would like to whilst I can still hear them and be in close contact. One of my lovely mums has also made us a beautiful busy board which all of the children love (even though it drives me nuts sometimes). We have also used the new covered area outside a lot. We now have a comfy sofa as well as the old dining room table and chairs out there which works really well for eating and doing crafts.

Zoe is home from university now and looking for a job. In the meantime she is working for our spare room doing beauty treatments. I have done a full risk assessment to make sure that this does not impact my childminding business at all.

So far I have not booked any holidays for the coming year but Zoe and I may book a week away towards the end of the year in England and I will communicate dates to you as soon as I know them.

Here's to another year of happy and fulfilling childminding xx