Our learning this month has been totally a-MAY-zing! It’s been full to the brim with lots of hands-on activities and bucket loads of fun. To sprinkle even more magic into the month of May, we’re pleased to have added a few gold stars of our own to our activities! You see, every minute of every day we’re making sure we’re delivering on our pledge to live up to our Practically Family name. When we started out, we made three promises that underpin our “Family” approach to childcare. We make sure we tie these “promises” into our curriculum to make it as rich as it can be for every child and family we work with. Here’s how we did it in May!

 

Eco and Green Commitment - Our Promise to the Planet and the Little People We Care For

Getting kids immersed in nature and caring for our environment is a key part of our curriculum. We know that when kids fall in love with the natural world, they’ll want to protect it. Understanding about our planet and how to look after it, caring for animals and insects and learning about their habitats are all fun ways we can bring eco-awareness into everyday life.

This May has seen us busy in the garden with Kim, our Practically Wild coordinator, and planting lots of lovely stuff in our allotment. We’ve been looking at creative ways we can reuse, reduce and recycle as well as celebrating some super national awareness days! We were buzzing with excitement to celebrate World Bee Day where we made our own bees and pollinated POD with daubs of yellow paint on pom poms whilst learning all about the life cycle and habitat of bees. We learnt a bunch of blooming good stuff on Every flower Counts Day exploring the role of wildflowers (great for bees and the environment). We’ve planted oodles of wildflower seeds in our allotment and have been excitedly waiting for them to grow. Getting kids talking about endangered animals or learning about how to help natural environments thrive is a brilliant way to cultivate eco-curiosity from an early age.

Health and Wellbeing Commitment – Creating a Happy Healthy Environment Where Everybody Thrives

When you feel good inside, you can achieve anything. Nurturing health and wellbeing whether that’s for our staff, our parents or for our kids, is something we feel strongly about. That’s why we build lots of activities to help create a positive, supportive and rich self-care environment for everyone.

Whether our parents have grabbed a copy of our book of the month (Mindfulness. A practical guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World), listened to this month’s recommended podcast (Diary of a CEO – The Food Doctor), or joined in on some of our family wellbeing activities (grabbing some much-welcomed time out), we’re committed to our open-door policy and are always here to offer a listening ear or to pop the kettle on. After all happy parents means happy kids!

Mastering mindfulness and teaching about the importance of self-care is something we believe children should experience early on in life. We weave wellbeing into everything we do. This May, in Practically Wild, we are focussing on “Mindful Movers”, exploring loads of different areas of mindfulness through activities such as yoga, dance, games and art. Mindfulness is all about helping our PODders take care of their own well-being to create even happier versions of themselves!

The introduction of our Practically Wild Happiness Scrapbook is another way of kids taking important time out to document happy memories – from time spent with friends, pets or from days out they’ve loved. Scrapbooking is a simple yet effective way to teach the idea of gratitude but to also give kids a wonderful reminder of happier times if they are ever feeling down. Children have been sticking in pictures, paintings, photographs, or things that simply make them smile. Parents; prepare for a *few* happy tears!

Continuous Learning Commitment – Not Just for Little Brains but For Big Brains Too

Part of what makes our little family so unique is our staff. We are a strong team with a big heart! Caring for our kids means we are led by their individual needs (and brilliance!). To keep fresh and up to date, our team is constantly adding to their caregiving toolkit! From taking courses such as Nurturing Wellbeing & Resilience to others like Little Scientists Leading the Way, we are always looking at ways to grow and develop the *best* environment for our kids.

Our respectful caregiving approach means that with everything we do, we ensure every child’s emotional cup is overflowing.  From using positive praise, encouraging independence, or simply making sure we slow down to go at the child’s pace, we are involved and fully present all the time.

Giving thumbs up, sharing high five’s and being available for the ‘why’ questions is oh-so important for a child’s whole development. This feel-good learning style also called “Holistic Learning” is all about nurturing each individual child socially, emotionally, physically, intellectually and spiritually. We know children learn best when all their needs are met, when they feel empowered and capable to really shine. Creating environments for our children like our brilliant Holistic Spring Garden, is all designed encourage and explore learning through natural curiosity. Want to know more? Why not check out our blog  about how we’ve given a holistic high-five to ALL our outside fun this spring.

And we are really proud to announce that we've been awarded the 'Millie’s Mark' by National Day Nurseries Association in collaboration The Department for Education and Millie's Trust.

 




 

Helping kids to shine with a captivating curriculum that is built firmly on our pact to ‘be good and do good’ is what we continue to strive for. This May our affirmation was “Never say the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon.” Whether we’re helping our kids reach for the stars or lighting that little spark of curiosity that can fill a child’s entire universe, we are doing it all with an extra sprinkle of our Practically Family magic.

Hands up who’s excited about what June has in store!