Setting open 

Hello! I am an Ofsted registered childminder based in Central Reading, working with a full-time assistant and together we provide a home from home setting for all the children that we look after. We love spending time doing arts and crafts, baking, playing with toys, pottering around in the garden, spending time planting and sowing seeds and more than anything else having lots and lots of pretend tea with all the children.

My Location:
I am based 3-4 minutes from Royal Berkshire Hospital & Reading University, I am also just under 10 minutes away from Reading Station & Green Park.

My Family:
I live with my husband and our 2 sons (5 & 2 years old) in our detached home with a larger than average garden which has been adapted to be child friendly.

My Home:
I have a large playroom where the children have access to a wide variety of toys, resources and activities. The playroom leads directly out onto our garden which has sand and water play area, mud kitchen, wooden playcentre with slide, swings and monkey bars, pirate ship, trampoline and ride on toys. I have created a fruit and veg patch in the garden which helps older children to understand how their food grows and gives the younger children a chance to plant up their own fruit and veg plus have a little bit more time to engage in messy play whilst understanding where their food comes from. My kitchen is where we cook/bake and do lots of messy arts and crafts. I also have a dedicated quiet room that the children use for napping.

Forest Childcare:
I am a Forest Childcare provider so ensure that unless the weather is not permitting we will always spend time outdoors every day, as fresh air and space are essential to the wellbeing of all children regardless of age. We all love taking off our shoes in the summer and have a good run through the grass!

Learning through play:
The children learn through play throughout the day and we operate a mixture of child-led and adult-led learning opportunities. We have a good mix of the children playing with all the different toys/resources that we have and planned activities which essentially allow the children to love learning as it is all geared to their interests whilst covering the key areas and themes which they need to cover for their age and stage of development.

Working with parents:
I use Kinderly which is an interactive parent communication app. We create art masterpiece sketchbooks where we store special artwork that the children have created during the year. I provide home bags every Friday and they are filled with a combination of resources that cover the different areas of learning and development. 

This setting has signed up to offer Tax Free Childcare.