Blog

“Strive to make everyday the best day of your life, because there is no good reason not to.” Hal Elrod

"I was churning out quantity and not quality and totally wearing myself out, which was ridiculous!"

Aug 02, 2021

I have been a registered Childminder since 2002.

I began Childminding after my divorce in 2000.

I wanted to have an occupation where I could work from home and be there for my two daughters and support them through their school life.

Throughout my career I have given 100% and so far achieved 3 Outstanding Ofsted Grades.

Unfortunately I feel that because I have given so much to my job and the families I care for, I have missed out on the main reason for starting this childminding journey......... my family.

For years I thought that my vision was to provide a setting which emulates a school nursery. I would be obsessed with the EYFS Development Guidance, taking multiple daily observations and obsessively completing tracking charts.

I used a variety of online platforms to observe our children and found the whole process to be so time consuming and a complete chore. I felt that because I had constantly done so many observations, I needed to keep up that pace.

In actual fact, I was...

Hygge Case Study: A Hygge Cabin

Nov 19, 2020

My name is Keeli Wallace (you can find me on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/keelischildcare/). I'm an outstanding childminder in Rochdale. I started my journey 3 years ago when I left teaching at a school as an early years teacher. I felt I was different and have searched for that "something" during my time as a childminder.

I stumbled across hygge and strangely I felt at home. I felt I had found "my place" and a community that felt the same as I had for so long.

I love changing my setting to cater for the children. I always have. As a teacher i was told not to and to keep things the same (how boring!). So my journey as a childminder then made my husband crazy as I changed things sometimes weekly as I didn't think it "felt right". The children of course loved a change and played with things they hadn't seen for a while.

Then once I completed the hygge accreditation in 2019 I got the idea I wanted a separate space to make my home and work life more hygge. I was l...