Striking the Balance: The Key to Nannies’ Well-being

In the dynamic and demanding world of childcare, nannies often find themselves juggling between their professional and personal lives. Just like any other professional, it’s critical that nannies too, maintain a healthy work-life balance to thrive and excel in their role.

Establishing clear boundaries between work hours and personal time is crucial. Just because your workplace may be a home environment doesn’t mean you’re always on the clock. Remember, your personal time is invaluable for your mental and emotional rejuvenation.

Furthermore, it’s vital to practice regular self-care and stress management. This could be through activities you love – reading, painting, running, yoga or anything else that helps you relax and unwind.

In addition, finding time for your hobbies or for relaxation is key to avoid burnout and maintain a healthy perspective towards work. Remember, you can take care of others better when you take care of yourself first.

Striking a balance isn’t always easy, but it’s necessary for long-term job satisfaction and personal fulfillment. What’s your secret to maintaining work-life balance as a nanny? Share in the comments.

Creative Activities for Kids: Inspiration for Nannies

As nannies, we’re always on the lookout for fresh, fun, and educational activities to engage the children we look after. Not only do these activities help us keep the kids entertained, but they also play a crucial role in their cognitive development, enhancing creativity, curiosity, and problem-solving skills.

So, whether you’re looking for some new ideas to break the routine or seeking inspiration for your next playful adventure, we’ve got you covered. Here’s a small guide to help you inspire your young charges and foster a love of learning and exploration.

1. Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

Taking the kids outdoors is a great way to spark their interest in nature and the world around them. A nature-themed scavenger hunt in your backyard or local park is an exciting activity. Create a list of items for the children to find, like a feather, a leaf of a specific shape, or a particular flower. This not only keeps them physically active but also encourages them to observe and explore their surroundings.

2. Arts and Crafts

Crafts are an excellent way to keep little hands busy while fostering creativity and fine motor skills. This could involve anything from painting with watercolours, making collages with old magazines, or creating homemade playdough. The possibilities are endless, and the resulting artworks can be keepsakes that parents will treasure.

3. Indoor Games

Rainy days needn’t be boring. Indoor games can provide endless entertainment. From classic games like charades and Simon says to building blanket forts or setting up an indoor treasure hunt, there’s a myriad of ways to keep the kids happy and engaged indoors.

4. Storytelling and Role Play

Invent a story with the children, taking turns to add to the narrative. This not only fosters creativity but also helps in building their language skills. Dressing up and role-playing parts of the story can add to the fun and make the experience more interactive and enjoyable.

5. Cooking and Baking

Involving children in simple cooking or baking activities can be a delightful experience. Making their own sandwiches, decorating cupcakes, or assisting in making dinner not only teaches them valuable life skills but also introduces them to the joy of cooking.

While these are some suggestions, the world of child-friendly activities is limitless. However, as a community of experienced and dedicated nannies, we know that some of the best ideas come from you. We invite you to share your favourite activities that have been a hit with the kids you look after. Let’s continue to learn from and inspire each other, fostering a space where creativity and curiosity can thrive in the hearts of the children we care for.

Leave a comment below with your go-to activities!

Balancing the Budget: Nanny Tips for the School Summer Holidays

School summer holidays can be an exciting but challenging time for nannies, as they need to find ways to keep children entertained and engaged without breaking the bank. With six weeks of no school, the money can seem to evaporate quickly. But fear not! We have compiled a list of tips and ideas for nannies in the UK to help you stretch your budget and make the most of those summer days without emptying your wallet.

Plan:

Make a schedule of activities for each week, considering the interests of the children you’re caring for. This will help you prioritise your spending and avoid last-minute, costly decisions.

Utilise Local Libraries:

Local libraries often offer free or low-cost activities and events during the school holidays. From storytelling sessions to craft workshops, there’s bound to be something for every age group.

Explore the Great Outdoors:

Nature provides endless opportunities for fun and learning. Take advantage of local parks, woodlands, and beaches for picnics, nature walks, or scavenger hunts.

Go on a Bike Ride:

Cycling is a fantastic way to explore your local area while keeping children active. You can plan a route that includes a fun destination, like a park or a playground.

Visit Free Museums and Galleries:

Many museums and galleries across the UK offer free entry. They provide a fantastic opportunity to educate children on history, art, and culture in an engaging way.

Check for Vouchers and Discounts:

Keep an eye out for vouchers and discounts on family attractions, available in newspapers, magazines, or online.

Get Creative at Home:

Set up DIY craft stations or organize a home-based baking day. These activities can be both educational and fun, without costing a fortune.

Arrange Playdates:

Teaming up with other nannies or families can help keep costs down by splitting the expenses for outings or activities.

Utilise Community Events:

Check your local community centre or council website for information on free or low-cost events happening during the holidays.

Practice Mindful Spending:

Prioritise experiences over material items and focus on creating lasting memories rather than accumulating stuff.

With careful planning and creativity, nannies can make the most of the school summer holidays while sticking to a budget. By exploring free and low-cost activities, you’ll be able to provide a fun, educational, and engaging experience for the children in your care.

Summer 2023 Fun activities!

As summer 2023 approaches and the days grow longer, it’s the perfect time to start planning outdoor activities with your children. With lots of long weekends on the horizon and the long summer holidays looming, many parents and caregivers may wonder how to fill those sunny days. Here are our top suggestions to keep kids entertained and engaged in the great outdoors:

Nature Drawing 🌳🎨

Explore your local park, garden, or nearby woodland with sketchpads in hand. Encourage children to draw what they see, from flowers and trees to insects and animals. This activity not only sparks creativity but also teaches them about nature while providing artwork to display at home.

Backyard Olympics 🏃‍♀️🥇

Inspired by the excitement of professional competitions, host your own Olympic-style games in the backyard or at a park. Let the kids choose events like races, long jumps, or beanbag tosses. They’ll enjoy creating signs, leader boards, and even making their own medals.

Teddy Bear Picnic 🧸🍉

A teddy bear picnic is perfect for including friends, whether they’re playmates or stuffed animals. Set up a shady spot with picnic tables or blankets and personalise the event with invitations and place cards for each special guest. You can also make simple teddy bear ears and paint noses to help children feel more like their cuddly companions.

Cycling Adventure 🚴‍♂️🌄

If you don’t have bikes rent or look out for second hand ones and plan a family cycling trip on a designated route or at a local park. If you have younger children, get bikes with child seats so everyone can participate.

Embrace the warm weather and make lasting memories with your children this summer 2023. Share your fun and inexpensive summer plans here! ☀️🌻 #Summer2023 #FamilyFun #OutdoorActivities #MakingMemories

Easing Child Separation Anxiety When Hiring a Nanny

The prospect of hiring a nanny for the first time can be intimidating for any parent, especially with concerns about how well your child will adjust to the new caregiver. Separation anxiety is a natural part of child development, but if it persists or becomes disruptive, you and your nanny may need to take steps to help ease the situation.

Child separation anxiety typically occurs from as early as 8 months and should fade away as the child grows older. However, if anxieties interfere with school or other activities, it may be a sign of separation anxiety disorder, which may require professional help.

Common symptoms of separation anxiety disorder include physical complaints like stomach aches, fear of something terrible happening to loved ones, nightmares about separation, school refusal, and fear of sleeping alone.

Possible reasons for your child’s separation anxiety disorder include your own anxieties, changes in routine, or recent stressful situations.

Tips for parents and nannies to deal with separation anxiety disorder:

Allow the child to get to know the nanny while you’re still around.
Focus on positive aspects of the situation.
Talk through the child’s feelings and concerns.
Leave without fuss.
Set boundaries and maintain routines.
Give praise for accomplishments, no matter how small.
Stay calm, firm, and in control.

If your child’s separation anxiety persists despite these tips, consult a GP for further advice.

Fun Activity Ideas for Children to Do on Mother’s Day!

“A mother is like a flower, each one beautiful and unique.”

With Mother’s Day coming up on Sunday 19th March, we’ve put together some fun activity ideas for children of all ages to create something special.

Continue reading “Fun Activity Ideas for Children to Do on Mother’s Day!”

Car Safety Advice for Nannies

A typical aspect of being a nanny involves driving the children you care for to and from activities, appointments, grocery shopping etc.

As a child-carer, your job involves catering to the well-being of the child in your charge. You need to have certain safety measures in place to ensure that everyone makes it from point A to point B safely.

Continue reading “Car Safety Advice for Nannies”

Is a Childminder the Right Choice for You?

Like any form of childcare, using a childminder has its upsides and downsides. The needs of working parents are as varied as the children they need to find care for. Just as with parenting in general, when it comes to childcare, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

In this article, we will try to make an often-difficult decision – what kind of childcare to choose – a little easier by providing a simple list of the pros and cons of using a childminder.

Childminder Pros

It is important, emotionally speaking, for children to forge strong attachments to their caregivers. It is easier for children to form an attachment to one caregiver, rather than several staff members at a nursery or preschool.
Your childminder will be limited in the amount of children she can have in her care at one time, ensuring that she will be able to give the children in their care the attention that they need.
A childminder will often end up costing less than a nursery or preschool.
Many childminders accept the UK’s Early Years Vouchers that give all 3+ year olds 15 free hours of childcare per week.
Childminders will often take newborn babies.
Some will offer to pick-up and drop-off themselves, saving you further time.
Childminders are OFSTED regulated, and by law they must have had a minimum level of training – unlike in some nurseries, where only a percentage of the staff are required to be qualified.
Because the number of children they are caring for is much lower than a nursery or preschool, they are able to offer more flexible, individualised care, taking into consideration any preferences of the parents in discipline styles, for example.
A childminder often becomes like a family friend, and a much-loved figure in the child’s life, remembered well into adulthood.
The home-from-home setting can make it a lot easier for children to settle into being apart from their parents. In addition, being cared for by a childminder makes it easier for sensitive children to develop their social skills, as they will only ever be in a small group of children.

Childminder Cons

Because they are so popular, it can be difficult to find a childminder that is available at the times you need them.
As they work alone, it is a concern of some parents that there is no way of telling what happens behind closed doors. These parents would probably prefer their children to be cared for in a nursery setting.
Some parents prefer the more school-like, structured environment of a nursery or preschool over the more relaxed, home environment of the childminder – this is not a ‘con’ as such, rather a personal choice.

From the perspective of the parents, a childminder often proves to be the most cost-effective, flexible childcare choice. Equally as importantly, many children do better with the individualised care and home-from-home setting that a childminder can provide. Only you know whether a childminder is the right childcare choice for your situation.

Spooky Fun This Halloween!

Autumn is well and truly here in all it’s rainy finest! To many of us this may induce a collective ‘sigh’ as the nights draw in and we begin to dig out last year’s coats and SADS lamps (or maybe just us here at Nannyjob?!), but for others it means one thing – Halloween fun is just around the corner!

Scary outfits, parties, trick or treating, face painting, spooky decorations and pumpkins all spring to mind, so we’ve got some fantabulous ideas for you and your little ones to make this Halloween the most ghoulish yet!

Party fun

Staying at home and having a party is arguably safer than being out trick or treating, and is also a great chance to get little buddies round to play.

Decorate the house with streamers and props of skeletons and spiders, our favourites are from http://www.sillyjokes.co.uk/occasion/halloween/decor.html.

As well as rocking their very own home made outfits (more on that in a minute!), you can get the kids involved in some spooky games, including:

Apple bobbing
Wink murder
Making mummies (remember to stock up on loo roll for this one! Prizes go to the quickest or best attempt!)
Pin the tail on the witch’s cat
Halloween treasure hunt in the house or garden
Pass the pumpkin (fill an empty pumpkin with treats and play this in the same way as pass the parcel, each time the music stops the winner takes a goody out of the pumpkin, treats getting bigger towards the end!).

Face painting and costume making

Whether your little one wants to be a ghoulish ghost, a wicked witch, a scary skeleton or something entirely different, there are hours of fun to be had designing and making the costumes with them, and going to town with face painting. Here are some fabulous costume ideas from one of our favourite sites, Netmums:

Scary Spider

This an easy costume that’s really effective. Dress your child as a ‘scary spider’ using a black hoodie, black trousers, and black shoes. Make four more legs using two pairs of child’s tights and stuffing them with old stuffing from a pillow.

Grim Reaper

See if you can track down a cheap black hooded cloak from the supermarket to go over the body. Gather up the hair in a white swimming cap. Using face paints,cover your child’s face in white, rimming the eyes black. The final addition is a long stick (perhaps an old walking stick or a broom handle?) onto which you stick a cardboard ‘scythe’ – an easy take on the Grim Reaper!

Walking dead

A nice easy one, adaptable for both boys and girls! Simply get some old clothes and tear holes and rips in them. Cover exposed skin in fake blood. You could also buy some fabric bandaging to wrap around hands and heads (splatter with fake blood for extra effect)! Faces should be daubed in white face paint and powder, with a smattering of blood here and there!

Trick or Treating

Last but not least, classic Halloween fun usually involves traipsing the local neighbourhood and picking up some treats! In these strange times, this is probably something that many of us can’t do or don’t want to do but if you are planning on going out please do so safely and follow the guidance for your Tier. If you’re worried about safety, make sure you or another adult accompany the kids (standing a few feet away of course, so as not to cramp their spooky style!).

A word of advice when out trick or treating – make sure the children understand not to be too serious about the whole ‘trick’ part of this. There are a lot of people who really do get intimidated at Halloween and won’t answer their door, so encourage the children to understand this, and swiftly move on to the next house with no tricks in store!

Make sure you don’t forget to take a fun kitty bag to put all the treats in – decorate yours by sticking on home made pictures of bats, pumpkins and witches!

Have fun and stay spookily safe this Happy Halloween!

Why not share your plans for Halloween on our Nannyjob Facebook page….

Resetting The Body-Clock With Autumn Time Change

When the clocks go back in October, it can be a real nightmare for some families as it can take several weeks or even months to get their children back to sleeping to a civilised hour! Some parents never really manage it resign themselves to being woken early until the clocks change again in spring.

But don’t worry, there is a fun and simple solution to this problem and it takes just one weekend!

Be aware that if your child has a habit of early rising before the clocks change, this may not work. You may need to make additional changes.

The idea is to get your child so exhausted that you break their current habit of waking at a particular time. You can then reset their body-clock based on how much sleep they need each night and putting them to bed at the right according to this.

Friday Night – Bedtime 2-3 hours later than usual

Instead of giving your child dinner at dinner time, give them a snack then give them a bath. Get them dressed then go out for dinner. Take plenty of toys/games and keep them entertained by bringing the different toys/games out one at a time. Travel home with the windows down in the car and the music up or walk home so that they don’t fall asleep on the way. When you get home, do the usual bath (yes, two baths! The first was to wake them up a bit) and bedtime routine and put them to bed 2-3 hours later than usual. The older they are, generally, the later you will need to keep them up.

Don’t expect them to sleep any later the next morning, but do expect them to be a bit over-tired and grumpy by the afternoon. If your child usually has a nap, limit it to 50% of their usual nap time.

Saturday Night – Bedtime 1.5-2.5 hours later than usual

This similar to the first night, so have a snack instead of dinner, then go out to play! Take the torches to the park and have some fun. When you get home, sit down to a nice family meal (you may need to keep the heating down low to keep them awake). Afterwards give them a really long bath (keep adding hot water), and get ready for bed as usual. Put them to bed 1.5-2.5 hours later than usual depending on their age.

Again, your child probably won’t sleep any later their usual wake up time, which will be an hour earlier as the clocks will have gone back at 2am! Limit any naps to 50% of the usual time.

Sunday Night – Bedtime 1-1.5 hours later than usual

Do the usual bedtime routine, just slightly later than usual. Your child should be absolutely exhausted by now and by the third morning they will sleep later. Their body clock has now been reset! Hooray!

For the next few days, maintain a bedtime 30-45 minutes later than you would normally and then on Wednesday or Thursday, go back to their usual bedtime. This helps to stop them falling back to their spring/summer wake-up time.

Most children between the ages of 3 and 8 years need 11-12 hours’ sleep in every 24 hours. 8-11 year-olds generally need 10-11 hours’ sleep.

Set each child’s bedtime based on how many hours’ sleep that individual child needs, and work backwards from when you want them to wake in the morning. This can sometimes mean that younger children go to bed a little later than older children, but it is worth it if it means that everybody wakes around the same time and nobody is over-tired as a result of being woken by the one little person who doesn’t need as much sleep.

Enjoy resetting your children’s body-clocks, it is fun!!! Spread the word and the parks will be filled with children and torches on one Saturday night in October each year!