A Man in Child Care

I started this morning at PP1 – litter picking the front, jumping in the bin to compress the overflow and greeting children and parents  as they arrived. J-R showed me a piece of volcanic rock, picked up during a beach walk on the Isle of Wight with her dad. We role played volcanoes (me being in one), somehow this changed to elephants by the time several others had joined us. I morphed into a rhino which had to chase children round the room, fall asleep, wake up and eat buns. 

Later we got a box of musical instruments out and became the Paint Pots marching band. It was an absolute racket but actually quite rythmical. This went on for some time. Several groups appeared - one playing twinkle twinkle, another competing with Jingle Bells and some boys shouting Bob the Builder. A group of drummers assembled round a table, grasping various sicks and rods. They decided to use the farm buildings as a full drum kit. What a fantastic din.

Once this had subsided, we cleared up and someone remided us of We’re going on a bear hunt. I decided to teall a new bear story, where the bear was up a tree looking for hungry children to eat, as they came through the forest. A boy and a girl approached carrying a basket of honey sandwiches for grandma (can you see the source of this story yet?).

The bear was so overcome with passion for honey that he fell out of the tree landed on his bottom (this was really funny!) and started to cry. The boy and the girl took pity and fed him all the sandwiches. They all became friends and the boy and girl hopped on the bear’s back all the way to grandmas, who was terrified and screamed. Eventually she calmed down.

 The fact there were no sandwiches was not a problem as grandma had made an online Tesco food order and they all went in for a slap up feast. The end.

Dropped in at PP4 yesterday afternoon. It was sunny and the new Nomow covered garden was alive with children from 6 month olds up to 8 years. They were all enjoying themselves hugely. Children were whizzing round the new path on scooters; some of the older ones were playing the board game Operation. Children were throwing and catching balls. Some of them showed me their drawings, others, on the climbing frame, were pretending to be in space and throwing bombs at each other. Two younger girsl were being pricesses. Several boys emerged from a tunnel while a member of staff chased an after-school child round the play-house. A group of little ones were sat down sharing a story book with another member of staff.

I thought it was absolutely brilliant and epitomised what Paint Pots stands for – our family feel. I left feeling really up!

There are any number of new strategies being proposed, implemented, imposed. It can become quite confusing - Every Child Matters, Every Child a Talker, Early Years Foundation Stage, Social and Emotional Aspects of Development, Healthy Early Years Award, Flying High Quality Accreditation, Early Years Professional Status, Progress Matters etc. All with their own acronyms, methodologies and paperwork.

Yes, there are invariably hardcopy forms to complete, physical evidence to collect and store.  There are also a lot of publications becoming available from National Strategies in support of all of these. Some are dreadful – unhelpful, patronising and bureaucratic. Others are actually sensible, practical and useful.

One such, I discovered today, is Learning, Playing and Interacting – a guide to good practice in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

It makes sense, it talks to you as if you are an adult and as if you have some idea about what you are doing. It gives useful, supportive guidance with practical examples. Hurrah!

I would like to order a copy for all staff. Such a shame then, that it is download only :0(

And why, as we are expected to print it off ourselves, does it contain so many full colour pictures? 

Maybe we all need to invest in an ipad ro read these publications on?