Toys and Games 0-3 Baby Bear Laptop
Supplier/Manufacturer: Vtech Electronics
Tel: 01235 546845 Web:
www.vtechuk.com Price: £12.99 Age range: 6-36 months
Description: Play peek-a-boo with Bear! Featuring a cute light-up nose and five shape buttons that introduce shapes, numbers and animals! Includes a colourful roller-ball and a cute moveable mouse shaped button. There are eight uplifting melodies and three happy sing-along songs plus light-up buttons to attract baby!
Score: 84.6%
What the testers said: “My 7-month-old baby loved this laptop; it was very lightweight to pick up and easy to store away. I found that the price was very reasonable and it included the batteries. It is a very durable toy as it has been dropped a number of times. If the baby closed it up on his hand, he sometimes got stuck. All in all a
good toy for the price and the children are still playing with it.”
Silver Award 3
Tolo Toys Teatime Shape Sorter
Manufacturer: Tolo Toys Learning Tel: 01978 280070 Web:
www.tololearning.com Price: £19.99 Age range: 12+ months
Description: Anyone for tea? This colourful shape sorter can also be used as a real teapot! Comes with four mini teapots which are colour matched to their respective holes for shape sorting. The clear beaker can be placed inside the teapot and liquid added to allow for a real teatime experience. Easy grip handle and easy to remove lid. Encourages a greater understanding of colour matching and shape recognition. Enhances manipulation and fine motor skills.
Score: 84.6%
What the testers said: “Initially very excited by the product. I liked the option to use it as a teapot and pour water from it, this proved to be very popular with the children. This product had instant appeal. I’ve enjoyed lots of pretend cups of tea since it arrived. The product was very durable and stored away easily.”
3
Fisher-Price Little People Fun Sounds Farm
Manufacturer: Mattel Tel: 01628 500154 Web:
www.fisher-price.co.uk Price: RRP around £40 Age range: 1-4 years
Description: The Little People Fun Sounds Farm complete with Farmer Eddie and his troupe of animals brings imaginative play from the farm right into a toddler’s world. The tall barn and silo lets them play standing or sitting, while the day and night mode offers different musical styles. With lots of places to put the animals, the fun songs and animal sounds spark imaginations even more!
Score: 83.9%
What the testers said: “The Fisher-Price farm has been a colourful and appealing toy for the younger children. They repeatedly listened to the sounds that can be made by opening the gates, sliding the chicken and pressing the hay stack and they matched the animals to the sounds. Lots of fun was had opening and closing the gates and putting everything in the silo to shoot out of the bottom door. This product is a bright and appealing farm for younger children.”
3
October 2013 Issue 153
October 2013 Issue 153
Now incorporating Child Care magazine Subscribe today! LEARNING AREAS COVERED
A childcare funding jigsaw policy update
How will tax-free childcare work in practice? Purnima Tanuku of the NDNA explains the latest proposals and calls for a simplified system with lessons learned from the employer-supported voucher scheme.
PRACTITIONER
EXPRESSIVE ARTS AND DESIGN
Child Care Making an impression
Mark Kniveton continues this series on using famous artwork to help develop children’s ability to think critically with Kandinsky’s abstract use of colour, line and shape that he likened to creating a piece of music.
As practitioners, we know we need to be proactive in ensuring the children in our care develop their critical thinking. However, how often are we challenging our youngest children to think for themselves? There are several ways of encouraging it; the study and appraisal of artwork is one very useful technique.
We are familiar with appraising the artwork our children produce. We also know it is important for them to talk about and evaluate their own work. ‘Oh, that’s a nice picture you’ve made, what do you think of it?’ is heard frequently. So on some level we take steps to judge the quality of the work that children produce and ask them to talk about their own work. On the other hand, how deep is the actual analysis of the artwork in question? Are we comfortable with being truly critical or are we merely paying lip service to it? Being critical of work may seem daunting, because we do not want to offend anyone. However, through the careful study of a piece of art belonging to someone we do not know, the practice of
being critical becomes more acceptable. Artists are rightly proud of their work, but are more than happy for the viewer to formulate their own opinions.
Below are some ways in which you can critically evaluate the work of Wassily Kandinsky by looking at one of his famous pieces – Impression V (1911). By completing these activities you will develop children’s understanding of Kandinsky’s art and encourage them to engage with the piece. This engagement will probably lead to children gaining different opinions about Kandinsky’s work than intended, but it does not matter as long as critical thinking is taking place.
Pass the paintbrush EYFS, EAD: Exploring and using media and materials n 30-50 months: Beginning to be interested in and describe the texture of things.
Firstly, source out Wassily Kandinsky’s Impression V. (Try
arthistory.about.com or just searching Google images)
aroused considerable media attention. Many people had never thought of having a male nanny before, or even considered that male nannies were possible.
The rise of male nannies W
hen Norland College admitted its first male trainee nanny last year, it
Yet the number of males entering the childcare profession has actually been growing steadily. Although females still dominate the early childcare sector, males have been involved for some years in nurseries and childcare centres.
The Government launched its proposals on tax-free childcare in August to a mixed reception. The consultation outlines plans which aim to make it financially viable for more parents to get work or stay in work by helping with childcare costs. The plan has drawn criticism from some areas for not including stay- at-home parents. The new scheme will offer parents who choose to use it help in affording good quality childcare, which will in turn allow them to return to work or increase their working hours.
to choose NDNA has given the scheme’s aims to widen support to more working parents a cautious
Parents’ right 8 Practical Pre-School September 2013
welcome. Parents have a right to choose when it comes to childcare, whether that is staying at home to care for their children or being able to use good quality childcare provision. However, for parents who want to go back into paid work outside the home, then all too often the cost of childcare is a major barrier standing in their way.
Under the new scheme, 20 per cent of a parent’s childcare costs will be paid by the Government with an annual cap of £1,200 per child. This means that for every 80 pence parents put in, the Government will put in 20 pence. So for every £100 paid for childcare, parents will pay £80 and the Government will pay £20.
Regulated through an online account, parents will then pay for their childcare with vouchers which can be used at any Ofsted regulated provider in England, and the equivalents in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Holidays and flexibility The consultation document questions whether the cap should be implemented monthly or annually. What needs to be taken into account when deciding this is the challenge parents with a range of working patterns face during school holidays. As the recent survey on holiday childcare by the Family and Childcare Trust showed, these costs are rising and for the first time this year broke the £100 a week mark. Many parents
will want to build up a bank of childcare hours to use during holidays, especially those who have school age children.
Who is eligible? The vouchers through tax-free childcare will be available to families where both parents work 16 hours a week or more but do not receive tax credits or Universal Credit. It will also be available to single working parents, those on parental leave and parents who are carers.
Parents will be able to earn up to £150,000 each which means a household with an income of £300,000 a year will qualify for tax-free childcare, but a household where one parent is not working – if for example one parent is working and one
For the Early Years Foundation Stage
Who was Kandinsky? He was an expressionist who painted abstract forms. He claimed to be able to hear colours. This is known as synaesthesia and it was the key to his art. As a result, Kandinsky named some of his paintings ‘improvisations’, ‘lyrical’ and ‘compositions’ as though they were pieces of music. Kandinsky expressed colours and forms in his paintings if they were plucked from the same air through which sound waves travel. He wanted people to feel the same emotions when looking at his work as when they listened to a piece of music.
Kandinsky’s style was distinct from other artists of the time. It was based on non- representational images of form and colour through which he would express his emotions, memories and imagination. A huge block of colour could indicate happiness and a small line could suggest a trailing thought. His colours were often vibrant and used to catch the eye. He would sometimes use geometric shapes alongside his more abstract marks. This was a unique technique amongst abstract painters.
What makes the Norland decision different is that it showed that men were now moving into the homecare sector, caring for one or two children at a time. Liz Hunt, principal of Norland College commented: ‘We were very pleased and excited to receive Michael’s application – we knew it would receive a lot of
attention when he started and it did. We were delighted about this as it highlighted in a positive way, the importance of encouraging more men into childcare.’
Although the idea that men can be actively involved in childcare within their own family is now fully accepted, there is still some reluctance to acknowledge that men can create careers in childcare. Young people wanting to enter the sector do encounter adverse comments from friends and family, and some uncertainty about the role of men in childcare still remains.
September 2013 Issue 152 9 © MA Education Ltd 2013
The usual comment is that it is not a ‘job for a man’. Young people seeking to enter the profession do experience adverse comments mainly from friends and family. Typical reactions
PPS pull out colour September
2013.indd 9 07/08/2013 12:19 4 August 2013
include, ‘its weird’, ‘it’s a career for women not men’. Families are generally initially hesitant being faced with the prospect of a male childcarer. Tinies director, Amanda Coxen, says: ‘There is still a stigma attached to men working with children, which some parents find hard to ignore. Often, it is the husband or male partner in a family who is most against the idea of having a man in the house looking after the children.’ Once they become accustomed
to the idea, the advantages become very apparent and reactions become positive across all types of childcare sectors. Aaron Ward, a Level 2 assistant in Norfolk and Norwich Hospital nursery, said: ‘It did worry me what parents might think, but it has been better than expected. Parents love me. I get on with them really well. I get parents asking if I can be the key worker for other children moving up through the rooms.’ John Cassidy is manager of the Busy
Bees Nursery in Peterborough. ‘Dad’s coming into an all female environment can feel anxious, meeting another male in the nursery makes a difference.’ Nichola Hancock was initially shocked when it was suggested that a male nanny should accompany the family on holiday. She said: ‘I had commented that the endless energy of three boys on holiday could be quite tiring. It was suggested that a male nanny might help. ‘My friends laughed when I said
I had a 22-year-old on holiday with us. It was perfect. The boys were able to do a lot of snorkelling, swimming, football and other games. The boys used up a lot of energy playing games
and we could have a rest. My oldest son has asked if Tom (the nanny) could come on holiday with us this year.’
Mannies Nicknamed ‘mannies’, the male nanny is proving to be very popular, particularly among parents who have young boys. So successful has the concept of male nannies become that one agency, Holiday Nannies, has even set up a special branch dealing with Holiday Mannies. Throughout the industry, it is becoming accepted that males definitely have a clear role within the childcare sector, whether working as nannies, in nurseries or other childcare settings. Norland’s endorsement of male nannies has helped considerably. Nicky, of Holiday Mannies, reasons:
‘For families with children with special medical or physical needs – a man’s strength can be useful. For families with sporty boys – it’s another member of the football team! For families who are travelling without a Dad – it can provide a male figure for the children and also another supportive adult for Mum’. On a longer-term basis, a male childcare worker can provide a male role-model, especially where there is no adult male influence within the family. It can give children a feeling of security; that there is a male on the premises if there are problems, for example, with security. Younger male childcare workers
can appear like older brothers to the children within their care. ‘It gives positive male images to children and we can provide a different skill set in the child environment. Boys and girls are more happy to talk about their
The issue of attracting more men into childcare has long been on the sector’s agenda, but numbers are rising in one area at least, that of the male nanny, often called a manny.
Now incorporating Child Care magazine
www.practicalpreschool.com
Go for an autumn number hunt
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Entice fussy eaters with fresh snack time ideas
and legend
Games to help physical coordination Animals in myths
The monthly for Early Years Foundation Stage practitioners, childminders, nannies and childcarers
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Toys and Games 0-3
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