Mindachild :: The Leading Babysitting Agency

Welcome to Mindachild.co.uk. We are a new friendly, reliable babysitting service, offering fully qualified babysitters 7 days a week.

Mindachild offers you a tailor made service, whether you have a last minute engagement or simply booking in advance, we have the solution for you.

All of our childminders are CRB checked and reference checked to ensure your childs safety and your piece of mind.

Register with Mindachild today...

If you are a parent please click here

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If you have any further questions please contact us at info@mindachild.co.uk

Art School Online

Drawing is fun! Drawing is cool! You can draw by yourself! You can draw with your friends! You can make new friends (real or imaginary)! Learn how to draw cars, aliens, cartoon faces, cartoon people, horses, zebras, dolphins, sharks and lots of other pretty cool stuff... find out more at: www.drawbooks.com

Kids Crafts

All our kids crafts are quick and easy, require minimal equipment and materials, and offer satisfyingly instant results - because we know that even crafty kids like to be able see the fruits of their labour in action within minutes rather than hours! Scroll down to find our kids crafts sorted by holiday, season and activity.

To find out more visit www.activityvillage.co.uk

Cooking with children - Annabel Karmel

For grownups, spending time in the kitchen might be a chore, but for children the kitchen is a fun and exciting place. Children love to cook and relish doing things like kneading and rolling out dough or cracking eggs and mixing batters. Cooking with your child is not just a great way of bonding – it’s also educational. Children can acquire and hone skills such as counting, measuring, weighing and understanding time and fractions – all without noticing.

Children are seldom taught much about cookery at school so it’s up to parents to encourage them to experiment with cooking at home. The school holidays offer the ideal opportunity.

Learning to prepare food teaches children to be self-sufficient and better prepared for an independent life. Getting children involved in the kitchen is also a great way to motivate fussy eaters. Children will eagerly tuck into something they have prepared themselves and take great pride in watching someone else enjoy their food.

To read more about this article and view the recipes click the green 'Next' button at the top of this article.

Mindachild :: The Leading Babysitting Agency

Welcome to Mindachild.co.uk. We are a new friendly, reliable babysitting service, offering fully qualified babysitters 7 days a week.

Mindachild offers you a tailor made service, whether you have a last minute engagement or simply booking in advance, we have the solution for you.

All of our childminders are CRB checked and reference checked to ensure your childs safety and your piece of mind.

Register with Mindachild today...

If you are a parent please click here

If you are a babysitter please click here

If you have any further questions please contact us at info@mindachild.co.uk

Brown reveals free childcare plan

By Brian Wheeler BBC News, Labour conference, Manchester

Gordon Brown visited a Sure Start centre ahead of the conference

Every two-year-old would get a free nursery place under a proposal for a major expansion of childcare over 10 years announced by Gordon Brown.

Up to 600,000 children could benefit as ministers seek to build on existing provision for three and four-year-olds.

Mr Brown announced the plan in a Sunday Telegraph interview as Labour's annual conference got under way.

It comes as an internet survey suggests Labour could be left with as few as 160 MPs at the next general election.

Aides were stressing that the extra childcare places were an aspiration rather than a firm policy commitment.

Boosting achievement

Mr Brown told The Sunday Telegraph: "I think more choice for women and for families is one of themes of the next stage of our policy reforms.

"What I want us to do is to create thousands more nursery places, not just for three and four-year-olds but also for two-year-olds.

"This is not a government that walks away but a government that's on the side of hard-working families, helping them to climb the ladder."

The plans go further than an already-announced scheme to help 20,000 low income parents with two-year-olds.

They will feature in Mr Brown's make-or-break speech to the Labour Party conference in Manchester on Tuesday, when he will promise a "new wave of social mobility - upward mobility - people being able to do better than their parents".

At present, parents get up to 15 hours of free childcare a week when their children are three and four.

Ministers believe that exposure to learning environments at an earlier age will boost achievements at primary school.

Mr Brown opened the conference on Saturday with a pledge to do "whatever it takes" to sort out Britain's financial system.

BROWNOMETER That PoliticsHome poll will not make happy bedtime reading for Mr Brown. Perhaps he could try a Harry Potter... Full conference coverage

The PM hailed the action his government has taken to help stabilise the money markets in the past week.

But he said he would now push for reforms to the global finance system.

Meanwhile three different opinion polls have suggested a mixed picture for the Labour Party. An internet survey for PoliticsHome.com questioned almost 35,000 voters from 238 marginal seats, over three months up to the eve of the conference. The results project a landslide victory for Conservative leader David Cameron at the next general election.

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The survey's findings are that the number of Labour MPs could be reduced to 160, lower than after the 1983 election. Eight cabinet ministers will lose their seat, the projections based on the survey suggests.

And a ComRes survey of 1,014 adults for the Independent on Sunday suggested Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's offer to cut taxes had boosted his party at the expense of the Conservatives. The survey showed the Lib Dems closing the gap on both their rivals - up to 21%, with Labour on 27% and the Tories on 39%.

Meanwhile a YouGov survey of 1,200 Labour members for the Sunday Times suggested 53% thought Mr Brown was "indecisive and dithering" and just 34% thought he had an exciting vision for the future.

Downturn takes toll on child care providers

by Linda Angelo | The Flint Journal

Sunday March 22, 2009, 5:54 AM

GENESEE COUNTY, Michigan -- Day care providers are feeling the wrath of the nation's recession as parents lose their jobs or work reduced hours.

Some child care homes and centers have been forced to shut down, and others are operating with higher vacancy rates and less staff.

"Parents are looking for less costly child care options, so they are choosing their friends, family and neighbors," said Mary Ann Ketels, executive director of 4C Child Care Unlimited in Flint.

Recession hits day care industry

A National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies survey found:

• 45 percent of its providers experienced a decline in child care services offered at homes between the first and last half of 2008.

• 27 percent of its providers experienced declines in the number of child care centers in their communities.

• In the last six months of 2008, 65 percent reported an increase in vacancy rates at child care centers and 76 reported an increase in family child care homes.

• Requests for part-time care increased 41 percent.

In 2008, nearly 130 child care facilities closed in Genesee County, according to the state Department of Human Services.

It's a problem that isn't isolated to the Flint area or Michigan.

The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies conducted a survey and found that 45 percent of its providers experienced a decline in child care services provided at homes between the first and last half of 2008.

Child care centers, meanwhile, experienced a 27 percent decline.

Parents can no longer afford the high price of child care after they lose their jobs, cut back hours or have to take lower-paying jobs.

In Genesee County, parents pay an average of $128.33 per week for child care, data show.

Nancy Kramer, owner of Teddy Bear Child Care in Davison Township, said she hasn't gotten many calls lately from parents looking for child care.

"I would average two years ago six calls a week, where now I'm averaging two calls a month," said Kramer, who has been in business since 1982.

"Now I'm averaging more calls per week from people looking for work than looking for child care."

Kramer is licensed to operate a group child care home, which can take up to 12 children. But over the past two years, her enrollment dropped to the point where she could no longer pay an employee and began operating as a family child care home, which can accept up to six children.

The number of family child care homes in Genesee County dropped from 168 in 2007 to 148 in 2008 while group homes declined from 176 to 151, Ketels said.

Of those still operating, many have seen a shift from parents needing full-time child care to part-time care as parents work fewer hours.

That mirrors the national association's survey, which reported a 41 percent increase in requests for part-time care.

Mary Simmington, owner of Little Rascals Child Care Center in Flint, said her center now provides greater flexibility to meet those part-time needs.

"I see a lot of families struggling to make their payments," she said.

The national survey also indicated that 41 percent of its providers said centers were laying off staff.

Simmington said she hasn't had to lay off employees, but they are working fewer hours and one position was not filled after an employee left. Little Rascals, which has operated for 21 years, has experienced about a 25 percent drop in enrollment.

Some child care providers worry about the ramifications of parents pulling their children out of a structured setting to stay with friends, families or relatives.

"We're a preschool, so they miss out on all preschool activities, computer work and a structured environment," said Marcy Beam, program director at Doodle Bugs in Burton. "We run almost what it's like in a kindergarten facility.

"When you are with 20 other students in a class, it's different than when you are home by yourself."

Not all child care providers, though, are experiencing hardships.

Karen Crist of Little Pals in Flint Township said she is licensed for 12 and is full.

"I have a lot of parents who are laid off, but I've kept my rates low," she said.

"I love what I do. I think everybody in the community needs to step up and lower rates. ... They need to work with a little less of a wage and make concessions so everyone can get through this."