World nursery rhyme week

Hands up if you love nursery rhymes? Then World Nursery Rhyme Week, 10th-14th November 2014, is made for you. Sadly 1 in 4 adults in the UK can’t remember a single, whole nursery rhyme, which means lots of children are missing out on fun.

Nursery rhymes are important for children’s development in lots of different ways. Reciting nursery rhymes helps develop memory and cognitive skills, sequencing events, speech and language, and an understanding of the world. The rhythm of speech patterns used in nursery rhymes is ideal for helping children pick up the number of syllables in each word, and words often important sounds and identify those that rhyme.

Many nursery rhymes help with mathematical development because they involve counting forwards (‘one, two, three, four, five once I caught a fish alive) and backwards (ten green bottles….nine green bottles…eight green bottles…) and stretch children’s imagination.

You can use nursery rhymes in many different ways, not just singing! Encourage children to clap along either to the beat or to the rhythm of the syllables, make up actions, paint or do crafts using images and ideas from the rhymes, create a bag or box of props to illustrate rhymes, get finger puppets…the possibilities are endless.

The 5 rhymes for World Nursery Rhyme Week 2022 are:

Oranges and Lemons
Old King Cole
Five Currant Buns
Hey Diddle Diddle
I hear Thunder

What will you do?

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.

Bonfire night safety

With the cost of living on the increase and many of us watching the pennies (and pounds!) you might decide to recreate some of the fun at home with sparklers or by building a small bonfire with older children, maybe even doing some campfire cooking. The most important thing to keep in mind is that fire, and fireworks, are dangerous.

Sparklers are cheap and fun. They give off sparkles as they burn and make pretty patterns, but they can also be very dangerous and definitely shouldn’t be used by children under 5. When using sparklers:

Make sure everyone wears gloves
Hold sparklers well away from you
Keep a bucket of water to put the finished sparklers in
Only light one at a time
Never pass lit sparklers
Keep children more than an arm + sparkler’s width apart – around 6ft or 2m is a good distance
Never allow them to wave sparklers at each other or duel with them

If you want to make a fire, then follow some simple rules and keep it small so it doesn’t get out of control. Remember that if it’s windy you shouldn’t build a fire as the wind could pick up burning sticks and quickly get out of control. If you decide to have a bonfire at home:

Build the fire carefully and make sure it on clear ground away from buildings, vehicles trees, fences and overhead cables. If your garden is too small to build a fire safely then go to a public display.
Make sure all clothing is safe to be around fires – some synthetic materials will melt when in contact with heat
Don’t use any accelerants such as petrol or lighter fuel to make the fire burn faster
Only put wood, cardboard, leaves and and paper on it but keep flyaway materials to a minimum
Have buckets or water or a fire extinguisher nearby
Follow basic fire safety rules and once the fire has died down make sure you dampen the embers to stop it relighting

And finally, we hope you don’t need it but here’s a quick refresher on how to care for a burn:

Cool under cold running water for at least 10 minutes
A burn larger than the size of your hand requires treatment in A&E, as do full thickness burns (these look white or charred) or partial thickness burns to the face, hands, feet, arms or legs (these burns have blisters).
Get medical help for any burn in a child under 5, a pregnant woman, someone over 60, has a pre-existing medical condition or if there are other injuries or the person is going into shock
Don’t pull off anything which is stuck to the burn – if necessary, cut the material around it
Don’t touch the burn or try to pop any blisters
Cover the burn with cling film or put a clear plastic bag over the hand or foot to prevent infection – do not apply ice, creams or greasy substances such as butter

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….

Halloween Hazards

Whether you agree with Halloween or not it’s become a fixture in the calendar. A time for dressing up, a time for scary stories and a time to go out and beg the neighbours for sweets – also known as trick-or-treating – and a few additional risks.

The first Halloween hazard you need to keep in mind is costumes. Check that all costumes are safe and don’t let children carry heavy fake weapons – foam swords for your pirate are much safer just in case he or she tries to swashbuckle anyone. Make sure that they fit so the children won’t trip over and consider adding some reflective strips so you can all be seen. Any face paint or make up should be suitable for use on children and removed as soon as you get home.

Then not only can that person in a scary mask or underneath a cloak be absolutely anyone, but a child can easily get lost and not be able to find you if you’re one of a hundred witches, and you may not be able to find them easily either. Make sure if you’re going to be costumed while out and about that children know not to go off with anyone else and that you have a safe meeting point if you become separated. Even if it’s just a party in a hall you can designate a specific corner to reduce their anxiety (and yours) if they can’t find you. If you are outside make sure children have your contact details secured to them in case they get lost and that they know who it’s safe to approach for help.

How do we teach children than every other day of the year you can’t just knock on people’s doors and accept sweets from them? The safest way to do this is to organise signals in your neighbourhood which mean the occupiers are okay with trick-or-treaters knocking at their door and teach children than they can only knock when they see them. This also has the advantage of minimising disturbances to people who don’t want to be involved and forcing you to plan your route.

How will you deal with trick or treaters coming to your own door, especially if you’re babysitting? One strategy is to put a bowl out on the step with a sign warning trick-or-treaters that there are children in the bath/asleep but they should help themselves. This will prevent any nasty tricks because, after all, you’ve provided a treat. Just make sure you top up the bowl regularly! If there is a safety chain then make sure you use it if you do open the door and have a curfew in mind.

Finally be careful of any sweets you are given as well-meant treats may contain choking hawards or nuts. If it’s home-made or doesn’t have a wrapper then don’t eat it. You don’t know what it is. Monitor the amount that young children eat – overloading on sweets is the fastest way to turn your Halloween into a real-life horror story!

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!

A sticky end

One of our lovely Nannies messaged over the weekend to tell us how she has been getting on!

I’ve been an au pair with a family in France who since the beginning of September.

This afternoon, my host mother left me with 2 children for an hour and a half after school. The 3 yr. old wanted to have one of his chocolates but instead of just taking one from his sweet bowl, he brought the whole bowl into the living room.

He ate his chocolate and then I popped him in front of Sesame Street (I have about 75 episodes of this on my laptop and he loves it!) while I went to make dinner in the next room, which isn’t even a separate room as there’s just an archway.

I also had the baby girl who has finally learnt to crawl and is now getting into everything, so I was back and forth every few minutes to check she hadn’t found wires or got stuck under a chair (both have happened). Because there isn’t a door it’s hard to keep her contained! I then went back into the kitchen to serve up their dinner and was not out of the living room for any more than 3 minutes! I came back in to tell them that it was time to come and sit up to the table and heard the baby scrunching some plastic. She had her back to me, but when she turned round, I realised what she’d got: a plastic bag that (had) contained some of the chocolates and sweets from the sweet bowl that he had left on the table. I then noticed there was no chocolate in the bag, and that instead, it was all over her face, hands, and clothes. She’d even managed to get it on the bottom of her feet! She was really pleased with herself!

I took the empty sweets packet away (there were just some of the sweets left, one of which she’d clearly chewed on and decided she didn’t like…) and tried to clean up the sticky baby! She’d managed to get it everywhere, including on the glass table and the carpe

I was mid-stripping her clothes off and trying to keep the 3-year-old, who was attempting to hit his little thieving sister, at a distance, when the mother came back. I was there with a semi-naked baby who still had chocolate all around her mouth on my lap and a 3-year-old having a tantrum.

Not the ‘calm and well-organised scene with children happily eating dinner up to the table’ I was aiming for! So embarrassing!

Oops, Kate! We bet you won’t make that mistake again.

All about spiders

Halloween is coming up and one of the traditional symbols is a nice, hairy, eight-legged spider. This year spiders are apparently particularly big because the summer was so warm, which means spiders had lots of lovely food to eat and lots of time to grow, and that can make them even scarier to those of us who don’t like them. But spiders really are our friends, so next time you see one as you’re running a bath for your charges, don’t scream – share some of these fun facts.

Spiders don’t have blood, or any kind of blood vessels. What they use as blood is actually a kind of light blue liquid that floats around their body.

They breathe through their tummies.

Spider silk is probably the strongest material in the world.

Antarctica is the only continent where you can’t find any spiders.

There is one species of spider that is vegetarian, all the others are predators. British spiders mostly eat insects, which makes them really useful.

More women than men are afraid of spiders.

Tarantulas shed their skins, like snakes.

Not all spiders make webs, and spider webs can come in lots of different shapes and sizes.

Nanny or Nanny-housekeeper?

The rise of the nanny-housekeeper has been pretty universal. All over the country nannies are reporting that new jobs come with more household duties than they used to, and bosses are increasingly asking nannies to take on jobs around the house when charges move on to school or nursery.

It used to be said that you could either have a good cleaner or a good nanny. To a certain extent this holds – nannies become nannies, and train to become nannies, because they want to work with children. Most training courses don’t cover household duties, and placements in nurseries are more likely to be cleaning on a large scale using specially designed products and very resistant furniture. While nannies are usually happy to clear up after themselves and take on nursery duties such as children’s laundry, their focus will always be on the children and that may mean the housekeeping just doesn’t get done.

Cleaners are often great cleaners because of their attention to detail and their love of making things sparkle. That may mean their attention to the children suffers and their own feelings of frustration mount when things don’t stay clean and tidy for long.

So what can you reasonably expect someone to do when providing dedicated care for your children? The answer is it depends what you’re prepared to compromise on. If you’re modifying a job it’s important to discuss with your nanny what they feel capable or comfortable doing. A nanny who is also an excellent cook may not object to cooking a family meal for the evening and filling the freezer. A nanny who doesn’t mind ironing may be prepared to do yours alongside the children’s. Asking them if they would mind running the hoover round the rest of the house while they do the children’s bedrooms may also be possible, but do bear in mind the logistical problems this might bring if there are children at home full-time anfd the fact that nanny needs a break during the day!

A nanny-housekeeper, however, is employed to fulfill both roles and probably has experience of balancing the two. They are prepared to take on more cleaning than a dedicated nanny, will often shop and cook for the family and can work particularly well with school aged children. One of the most attractive features is how long-lived the role can be. Parents who are prepared to commit to employing a nanny-housekeeper from the start with more focus on childcare in the early years and on the household later will often find the same person will stay in the role, providing stability and continuity of care.

Is Childcare Harmful for my Child?

Leaving baby
Most of us know what it’s like to be a first-time Mum going back to work after a period of maternity leave. We consider our childcare options: day nursery or nanny or childminder? Which is best for my child? Can I afford what I want? Will it be ok to leave my baby in the care of someone else?

You wonder (or worry!) how your child will get on with the new minder(s); whether you’re doing the right thing in going back to work and leaving your child with – as is the case most of the time – a complete stranger. And many of us will feel a certain amount of joy, a freedom, a sense of “getting back to normal”, a reclaiming of our identity, in getting back to work.

The naysayers
Then we hear so-called experts such as the psychologist and broadcaster Oliver James claim that mothers of toddlers should avoid working outside the home and leaving young children in the care of others for long periods. In his 2010 book “How Not to F*** Them Up” James wrote that mothers who go out to work and leave their toddlers in day care are to blame for their child’s bad behaviour. James’s views are controversial to say the least.

The best of both worlds?
Is it unnatural to leave your child with someone else while you go out to do a day’s work in order to pay the bills or to further your career or simply to do a job you enjoy? Of course, there are women (and some men) who prefer to stay at home to raise their children but they have to be able to afford to do so. Can working parents have the best of both worlds? Is it possible to go out to work and be confident that the childcare you have chosen is “good enough” for your child?

The data
Recent studies show that childcare is not in fact harmful for children, once it is consistent, i.e. children are not given to one person one day and left with another on another day in a haphazard way, and once it is of a high standard. In other words if you can’t be the one to look after your child you want “second best” to be the very best. This is where careful consideration of your childcare options comes in. One of our previous blog articles, “Choosing Childcare That’s Right for You” is worth a read for more information on making this decision.

The reality
Nowadays most women have no choice but to work and their attitude is usually “I am doing my best”. Working motherhood is a reality so it’s crucial that you find childcare that’s right for you. Rather than assuming you won’t be able to afford a nanny, take a look at the NannyJob website. If you have more than one child, you may find that sending them to a childminder or a nursery can often work out nearly or as expensive. The advantage with a nanny too is that your children will be cared for in their own home by just one person. Alternatively, if you have just one child and wish to reduce your childcare costs, a nannyshare might be worth looking into. Visit our parents section at nannyjob.co.uk to begin your search.