A Day At Helping 
Hands 

WELCOME

At Helping Hands Childminding we understand how difficult mornings can be and we do our best to support a smooth transition from home to our setting. We provide nappies, wipes and food with the aim of making your morning as stress free as possible. 

When arriving at Helping Hands Childminding you and your little one will be greeted by one of our friendly and familiar educators. You have time to discuss anything important you'd like to share with us before your child hang up their coat and bag on their designated peg and gives you a big cuddle goodbye. 

Your little one will then either join breakfast or start playing, meanwhile you can go to work feeling assured your little one is happy. Part of our morning routine is going through photos from the children‘s weekends (you share these with us on our online learning journal) the children love showing each other their photos and talking about their weekends, we find this a helpful way for the children to transition!

Child-Led Play / In The Moment Planning

We see every child as unique individuals who all have their own interests and ideas. We set up our enviromment in a way that captures the children’s interests and engages them to learn. We have invitations to play and provocations (activities) which capitivate and create curiosity making our environment in itself another educator for your child. Our skilled, knowledgeable educators interact with each child in a way that nurtures and scaffolds their ideas whilst finding teachable moments during play to support the children's individual next steps.

Meals
We provide homemade, healthy and nutritious meals and snacks, we promote healthy eating and encourage children to have a healthy relationship with a variety of food. We believe it’s really important to get the children involved in cooking/baking. We have a bread maker and the children often help to make fresh bread, they also help to prepare meals and snacks e.g. by chopping their own fruit at snack time. 

During meal times children and our educators sit around the table together like a family and enjoy meals together.  We believe this is an important part of building relationships, modelling healthy eating and table manners. 

We allow the children to use real (not plastic) plates, bowls and cups (with the exception of our babies using silicone) because we believe part of being independent is learning how to move and how to care for things of value. By trusting a child to use real plates, cups and utensils, they internalize a deeper respect for material objects within their environment. We are also aware that plastic items contain chemicals that can leach into food which is another reason for us choosing alternatives to plastic. We are also consciously thinking about our environment (see our healthy living and sustainability page for more information).

 
Outdoor learning / Forest school

We believe outdoor learning is an essential part of a child’s development. We ensure every child has the freedom to play outside everyday! Being outdoors is proven to relieve stress and anxiety, reducing cortisol in the brain. Children can move with ease, shout, take risks and express themselves freely, resulting in the play becoming more open ended, therefore supporting the child to develop and use initiative. Learning opportunities are amazing in the outdoors, often more so than indoors.

Our outdoor space includes a mud kitchen, sand pit, water tray, outdoor easel, chalk board and a range of other garden toys. We offer a range of trips and have a regular forest school session. 

Nap time

We believe that good sleep/rest is essential for children’s well-being and development. We have a cosy sleep room, we have cots and floor beds available and we have a choice of calm music and white noise that we play during nap times. We follow children‘s home sleep routines, and then continue to support children to sleep at the time that suits them. Our routines are completely flexible to suit your child’s sleep needs.

As we have a separate sleep room this means any children that no longer nap can continue to play without disturbing our sleepers.

Goodbye

When collecting your child at the end of the day you will have a handover where one of our friendly educators will share important parts about your child’s day with you. 
We share information about your child’s day such as learning observations, meals, nap times and nappy changes on our online learning journal which you can download as an app on your phone. 

If you have something you’d like to discuss, we are always available for a quick chat or a longer meeting.

Each child is sent home with a snack pot to help the children to transition home at the end of the day. *Please note we do not advise children eating whilst in a moving vehicle*.