{"id":196,"date":"2012-01-05T11:04:26","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T11:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/?p=196"},"modified":"2012-01-05T11:04:26","modified_gmt":"2012-01-05T11:04:26","slug":"childminding-rainy-day-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/childminding-rainy-day-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Childminding: Rainy Day Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Childminding can bring some challenging times, especially on those days when evacuating to the garden or local park is not an option.\u00a0 Childminders will often be responsible for children of different age groups, so it is vital to have some ideas up your sleeve to help keep them occupied (and to avoid going stir crazy!).<\/p>\n<p>On that note, here are a few suggestions of activities do engage the children in whilst childminding that can be easily adapted to different age groups.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1>Play Dough<\/h1>\n<p>Home made play dough is quick and easy to make, completely non-toxic and a joy to play with.\u00a0 I challenge you to think of one child (or indeed, an adult) you\u2019ve met who doesn\u2019t enjoy a good dough squishing session!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There are many different recipes you can use to make play dough for use while childminding, with varying levels of success.\u00a0 The following recipe is pretty reliable and makes a large amount of dough. You could even split the mixture and make two different colours!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You will need:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>3 cups water<\/li>\n<li>3 cups flour<\/li>\n<li>1.5 cups salt<\/li>\n<li>6 teaspoons cream of tartar<\/li>\n<li>3 tablespoons oil (any cooking oil will do)<\/li>\n<li>Food colouring (you\u2019ll need more than you think to get a vivid shade)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Simply combine the dry ingredients (sieving the flour first), before adding plenty of food colouring to the water &amp; oil mixture.\u00a0 Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients gradually, stirring throughout.\u00a0 Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and takes on a nice doughy texture.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This play dough will keep for a long time if stored in an airtight tub in the fridge. Try adding rice or lentils for an interesting texture for little ones, or even throw in some glitter!\u00a0 Older children will enjoy making the dough with you, or you can easily make it the night before for ease\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1>Finger Painting<\/h1>\n<p>Everybody loves finger painting.\u00a0 Very young ones adore the feel of the paint on their hands, and older ones can get creative and make beautiful pictures to take home with them. Finger painting is messy, though, so it may be a good idea for childminders to pre-warn parents that they plan to do it, so they can provide old clothes for the children to change into for the activity.\u00a0 Putting newspaper down is a very good idea, too.\u00a0 Messy play can be a bit of a challenge for the adult in charge, but it\u2019s well worth it for the learning experience that the children will get.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1>Indoor Picnic<\/h1>\n<p>You\u2019d be hard pushed to find a child who doesn\u2019t love picnicking.\u00a0 Picnics in the garden are lovely, but if the weather isn\u2019t accommodating, bring the picnic inside!\u00a0 Make a finger-food lunch together with the older children \u2013 sandwiches, breadsticks, houmous with vegetable dippers, crisps, cut up apples and cupcakes are all good choices \u2013 and take the plates of food to a blanket on the floor.\u00a0 The children will love helping themselves to their lunch, and the novelty of eating on the ground can be enough to convince even the fussiest of eaters to dig in.\u00a0 For extra fun, make a canopy with a sheet laid over the back of some chairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Childminding can bring some challenging times, especially on those days when evacuating to the garden or local park is not an option.&#49824; Childminders will often be responsible for children of different age groups, so it is vital to have some ideas up your sleeve to help keep them occupied (and to avoid going stir crazy!). &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/childminding-rainy-day-ideas\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Childminding: Rainy Day Ideas&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,96,98,409],"class_list":["post-196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childminders","tag-activities","tag-childminder","tag-childminding","tag-rainy-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nannyjob.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}