"I was spending almost all my earnings on the latest toys and trends to keep the children happy."

Aug 17, 2021

Mini Explorers Childcare – Keira Gilbert

I started my childminding journey in January 2020 just before the first lockdown. While I absolutely love working with children, I decided that becoming my own boss meant I had the power to implement changes to my practice I had been wanting to do for years but was always met with criticism. I needed to slow down for myself and for the children, especially during the most challenging obstacle we had ever faced: a worldwide pandemic. I wanted to have the facts and skills to be able to implement this new vision and respond to criticism in an informed and positive way. I compared myself too much to nurseries I had previously worked on and was stuck in a loop of trying to churn out huge activities one after another through the day to appease what I thought parents would be looking for. As well as this I was spending almost all my earnings on the latest toys and trends to keep the children happy.

The vision I had for my setting was one that valued the simplicity of outdoor time and had emphasis on the journey not the destination. Rather than rushing children from the house to the park, I wanted to slow it down and allow the children to learn and explore on the way. After long, immersive walks, I then wanted to implement an environment where it was okay to relax. Children can access pre-set up provocations and accessible resources themselves if they wanted to, but if they wanted to lay on the sofa with a book, that is okay too. I wanted to come away from background noise tv and instead have the radio where they were introduced to older, gentler music that created a happier and content vibe. I wanted to come away from plastic resources and use recycled, pre-loved or wooden resources. I wanted to have a setting that seemed welcoming and loved the idea of achieving that through nature and lighting, although I am a notorious plant killer myself!

The biggest change I made to my personal life first of all was allowing myself to be human. Understanding that we cannot all be 100% all the time and that it was not benefitting the children or myself to be over-worked and stressed. Instead, on these days I was not feeling myself, we went straight out for a walk. It gave me time to breathe, and the fresh air always made me feel better. The children became very independent outdoors as well and was able to work out any pent-up feelings so that when we returned to my house, they were relaxed and so was I. I then started to focus my time more effectively to ensure work related jobs were completed during work hours, meaning I had reclaimed time for myself and my family during the evenings and no longer felt continuously burnt out. I took up hobbies in my free time during the pandemic, and as restrictions lessened, I ensured I found time to visit with friends and family. I hired an assistant, and we shared the workload, the highs and the lows. We added wax melt burners (safely away from children of course) to fill the setting with seasonal smells that made us feel homely and comforted when returning from works. We started incorporating forest school sessions into our weekly routines and weekly baking with more of a focus on actually eating the baked goods together. We used natural resources from our outings to decorate the setting and in our tuff trays, and found ourselves saving money by doing this. This money was then spent on special fleeced lined wetsuits for the children to ensure we could go out in all weather. We engaged in baby wearing training to help support the settling in of our lockdown babies and decided that were other settings felt children needed to “be taught that they had to be put down”, we wanted to continue that bond they have had at home for their entire lives and let them choose to explore when they was ready.

We are lucky that we have such a fantastic relationship with all of our current families but are always looking for new ways to involve them in the setting. Each term we have two weeks, one of which is giving back to the community where we visit with elderly residents, provide food parcels for the homeless, donate toys and clothes to women’s aid shelters and do community litter picks. The other week is based on a country where we immerse ourselves into that culture and where possible it may be a culture of one of families to learn about! Parents love being a part of these two weeks and then especially autumn term we end with a big Christmas event for all the parents to meet each other and see their child's friends.

We took out traditional methods of observations and planning and instead used our knowledge of the child to progress from their current interests and schemas. This has worked a lot better for us than using a ticklist and post it notes, and more time is spent with the child than writing about them.

The children have become much happier in themselves and more confident in engaging with the world around them. Our lockdown babies that started caught up to “normal milestones” and are now all happy, healthy, knowledgeable explorers. Myself and my assistant feel so much better for all the changes and receive a lot of praise and encouragement from service users. We even have college students come to us on placements and say they never want to leave because they get to enjoy all the best bits of working with children and don’t feel the pressures and stress they do in other settings. I was invited into my local university to be a guest lecturer to inform students what being a childminder and running my own childcare business is really like. I spoke in depth about the Hygge in the Early Years accreditation and the effects it has had on my practice and happiness. There was overwhelming support from the audience both times. When I started my journey, I didn’t have faith in myself, but now I do.

We are hoping to move to a larger setting in the near future and with this will come many challenges and obstacles. My target is to ensure my ethos doesn’t get lost in this and to remind myself there is no rush, do it at my own pace, and that happiness comes before all else.