Childminder drop in centres ?

[Ruthierhyme]

Do you have a local center that runs themed or open Activity workshops that you can drop into with your mindees ?

[watgem]

We don't at the moment but are hoping to once the children's centre opens. I've been asked If I'll help to run it I have no experience of doing anything like this so any help would be appreciated! At present we drop round eachother's houses and have done cooking, picnics, painting, halloween stuff etc but we're limited on space so it would be great to have more room.

[Ruthierhyme]

Oh that's great news, keep us posted on what you do

The question was prompted by this information on The Isle of Wight's drop in service sounds really good - not sure what the implications are for paper work !!

[sarahnev707]

Ours has been closed since the summer for refurbishment... fingers crossed it's nearly ready. There will also be a surestart centre opening round the corner soon and I hope to get involved in doing something for local childminders there...

[Buzzybees]

My local one is opening in April I believe, currently we use a church hall once a week, but nothing planned, but if we get our own room, I know the NCMA co-ord has plans

In our area we have a childminding group every Friday morning where we all meet in the village hall and the children have a wide range of toys and equipment. On a Weds morning I run a childminding group with another childminder at our local Surestart children's centre, the staff are brilliant and allow us to use all of the facilities inside and out, we set up the room each week using the fantastic resources available and each week have a craft table and sensory play. I would highly recommend that other childminders approach their childminding development team or the Surestart staff with a view to running a weekly group. We provide refreshments for the group and childminders pay 50p which covers tea, coffee, squash and healthy snacks. We also donate a small fee of £1.00 per childminder to the centre for use of the facilities/resources.

[watgem]

We have had our second drop in session now and after an initial "snagging" feedback from childminders things seem to be going wellwe have greatsupportfromthe childrens centrestaff, lovely resources,kids love it and we are able to talk "shop" without alienating or intimidating anyone so I wouldhighly recommend gettinginvolvedwith the localchildrens centre also!

[Sue71mac]

In Liverpool we have drops in most days of the week based at children's centres throughout the city. Each is run by a childminding network co-ordinator but if she is not availble we run it ourselves. We have a planning meeting to discuss what activities we will do with the children and if we have enough money in the kitty, where we might take them (zoo etc). We also draw up a rota which indicates whose turn it will be to provide drinks, snacks for the kids, who will read a story, who will do the dishes and who will carry out the planned activity for the session. That way every childminding in the group gets involved. Some drop ins charge a small fee of 50p per child to cover the cost of drinks and snacks. All our activities and outings are funded by the local early years team throught the children's centres. Everything is evidenced and we can take copies of the planning sheets home for our own files.