We were kindly sent a copy of Fiona Cooke’s ‘What would Fiona do?’ to review. Written by a practising maternity nurse, Fiona combines her midwifery training and years of experience with a gentle and compassionate tone to inform and guide new parents (and childcarers) through the first few months.
Leaving your nanny job
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye….All good things must come to an end.
It’s cliché but it’s true, and this time of year is often a time when jobs end. Moving on is part of nannying, children don’t stay young forever and the summer before starting school is often a natural break point, but that doesn’t make leaving your charges behind any less painful.
Work with the parents to prepare your charges for the transition. It’s very distressing for children to suddenly learn that it’s their beloved nanny’s last week with them. You need to give children time to process the change, ask questions and be reassured. Pretending that it isn’t happening will only make it harder in the long run for both you and them. Your charges will pick up on your feelings through your notice period no matter how much you try to hide it.
Summer maths
School may seem a long way away but you can keep those mathematical skills ticking over and even developing, all while having fun.
Count – forwards, backwards, every which way. Start from different numbers and don’t be tempted to go on from 20 all the way to 100 if you don’t need to. At an early age this means saying a sequence of numbers to 5 or 10 but back that up with counting out concrete objects 1…2…3 and the understanding that ‘3’ relates to the total number of objects as well as what you say when you put the third object down. Bring this in naturally, for example you’re pouring drinks for your charges and their friends – ask them how many they need, get them to count out the glasses, count as you’re pouring the drinks. Count the number of petals on a simple flower or try to count the number of petals on a daisy – are they all the same? Get children used to the idea of estimating by guessing a number before you count the petals. Use mathematical language like the first swing and the second swing. Make collections and count them out, and use the shells or stones or sticks you’ve collected to sort them later.
Students for summer childcare
Every year university students use their long summer break to earn a bit of extra cash to support them through their studies. Often young women, although some young men too, who like children see spending a summer as a nanny as the perfect solution. Students can be a great alaternative if you’re considering a summer au pair, but there pros and cons to weigh up.
Top 10 messy summer activities
- Give the soft toys a bath
- Paint with ice crayons
- Improvise a mud kitchen
- Make ‘potions’ with grass and flowers
- Finger, hand, foot, knee, tummy painting on a huge sheet of paper outside
- Tie-dye a white t-shirt
- Try large scale splatter painting
- Throw wet sponges at targets
- Make a shaving cream slide – it’s like a water slide, but messier
- Water pistol painting!
Top 10 summer days out
- Go to the zoo
- Go to a water park, outdoor swimming pool or lido
- Go to the beach
- Go to a botanical garden
- Go to a ‘pick your own’
- Go to a real castle
- Go to the cinema
- Go to a theme park
- Play crazy golf
- Take a trip on a train
Top 10 seaside summer days
- Swim in the sea
- Build a sandcastle
- Bury your feet
- Eat fish and chips out of newspaper
- Collect shells
- Try to predict the weather using seaweed
- Watch the tide turn
- Go fishing in rock pools
- Collect items for a beach art project
- Skim stones
Top 10 country summer days
- Go for an all day walk
- Have a forest day
- Learn about wildflowers
- Build a treehouse or a den
- Visit a farm
- Plant a butterfly garden
- Grow your own salad
- Play giant pick up sticks
- Race snails
- Visit a local or county agricultural show
Top 10 city summer days
- Go to a new museum
- Find a new park
- Go on a treasure hunt
- Learn about the history of your town
- Find an open air cinema
- Go to an open air concert
- Have lunch outside at a café or restaurant
- Go bowling
- Make a new friend
- Visit your local library
Top 10 for sunny summer days
- Get out the paddling pool, fill it up and stay in there for hours
- Make a sundial
- Draw on the patio, the pavement and the walls…
- …then wash it off again
- Have a BBQ
- Rescue frozen animals or figurines (put animals, lego men, playmobil etc in ice cube trays or small bowls of water in the freezer and let the children work out how to get them out)
- Blow bubbles
- Plant a butterfly garden
- Skip
- Have a water fight