Stepping Stones Childminding With Adelle Tracey

22/06/2026

🔔 Parents we will not be attending the library tomorrow. 🔔

Due to the heat at our usual setting off time,
expected to be roughly 22 degrees and coming home time expected 25/26 degrees. 🥵

I do not want our 2 tiny ones sat in the pram in the heat for the journeys there and back, and also need to consider our other 2 little ones who both walk to and from library.

Instead we will do book club within the setting, beside our fans, keeping cool with plenty of shade and liquids.

See you in the morning ☀️☀️☀️

22/06/2026

Happy Monday!!! ☀️☀️☀️☀️

This week is going to be all about enjoying this beautiful weather but also making sure our little ones are kept safe and comfortable in the heat.

Today we went out as soon as all little ones had arrived and eaten breakfast. Straight to the park for lots of fun & fresh air 🥰 little ones enjoyed taking their shoes off, running around on the grass, sitting in the shade collecting flowers and rolling down the hill 🥹☀️🍃

Our garden is all set up for little ones, with mud, sand, water, bikes, scooters, playhouse, slide ect.

But we also have lots in place to keep cool and safe this week.
Little ones will be encouraged to drink plenty of water as always. 💦
Little ones each have their own flannel which we have enjoyed wetting with cold water and using to wash our faces, hands and arms to help cool down throughout the day. 🥵

As much as we have enjoyed lots of time outside, little ones have been brought in for some shaded time. Time to rest in front of the fans which are set up in the living room, for some time out of the sun playing with the downstairs toys or simply enjoying an episode of some of our favourite Julia Donaldson programs. 😌

Little ones have slept in just their pull-ups or nappies today and will do for the rest of the week, clothes & blankets are definitely not needed 😂
Suncream will been applied when necessary and we will finish each day with ice pops. 🍦🧊

Summer reminders… ☀️☀️☀️

I always supply suncream i have a mixture of brands but all factor 50+, however if little ones need a specific one please bring in each day for me to apply and I will make sure they are put back in little ones bags to send back home at the end of the day.

Vests and extra layers definitely won’t be needed this week.

Please make sure little ones have their hats, and suitable footwear.

Thanks guys! Happy heatwave week 🤣🙈🥰☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️ summer has arrived 🙌🏼

11/06/2026

Another beautiful week at dels house 🏡🤎

This week we have celebrated healthy eating week.

We played shops on Monday, matching and identifying different foods, my bigger one weighed foods to see which were the ‘heavier’ ones and which were the ‘smallest’, and we made shopping lists and went to the shops (dels kitchen) 😂🥕🥦

Tuesday Little ones enjoyed playdoh, making shapes, and rolling carrot shaped doh, the idea of my bigger one 🥹🥕

On Wednesday my tiny ones enjoyed exploring different fruit and vegetables all with plenty of colour.
Tiny ones tasted, smelt, felt, scooped and filled different tubs and baskets with the food, whilst my bigger one counted and identified the colours all while chopping the fruit and vegetables for the birds 🥹👏🏼 Amazing work 👏🏼

Today tiny ones enjoyed a little tinker table. We banged objects together, hooked rings, shape sorted, whilst some tiny ones also started to copy my counting 👏🏼 making sounds as I say each number 👏🏼

A super busy week as always, & we have still managed to fit fresh air in the garden inbetween this weather 🌦️ and of course all the other fun stuff little ones enjoy at dels… rhyme time, story times and cuddles with a little role playing and dressing up 🥰

Hope everyone has an amazing weekend.
See you all on Monday 💛🧡

04/06/2026

Happy 1st week of June!! ☀️☀️☀️
And first week back after holidays 🥰

All our little ones settled back in just perfectly as if they had never been away 🥰

A week filled with lots of fun, little ones playing and learning, fresh air, story times, rhyme times, delish homemade meals and cuddles 🩷💙

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, see you all on Monday 😌

🏡🩵

20/05/2026

A lovely end to the week today with our little ones 🥰.
We are now closed for holidays and reopen Monday 1st June.
I hope all my family’s and little ones enjoy the half term break and all the extra time together.
I’ll see everyone back soon.
Love Del 🥰☀️🩷

19/05/2026

🔔 A polite parent reminder 🔔
Tomorrow we close at 3pm for holidays ☀️✈️ & reopen Monday 1st June 🥰

30/04/2026

🌸🌱A wonderful and very colourful April 🐛🦋

Ah we have welcomed spring with open arms and enjoyed all that comes with it…

little ones have learnt the names of flowers and trees and a little about their life cycle 🌸🌳

We have been learning to match baby animals to their mums and dads and have learnt the names of the baby animals “lamb, piglet, calf, puppy, kitten ect… 🐑🐄🐶

We have been learning about bugs and searching for them on many nature walks and out in the garden 🐞🕷️🔎

We have been reading the hungry caterpillar 🐛🦋 completing jigsaws, playing with the figures and acting out the story, & decorated our own butterflies 🥹🎨

Our bigger one has been learning her phonics, counting in order to number 15! & continuing to develop her skills of recognising letters from her name 🥰

We have been learning shapes and colours ⚪️🔺🔸

Plenty of rhyme times 🎶

Plenty of story times 📚

Our weekly Tuesday trips to the library, where our two bigger ones have been in charge of their own book bags and choosing books to take home and read with their families 🥰📚

Plenty of outdoor time, nature walks, trips to the park, snack times in the beautiful gardens under the blossom tree and plenty of time in the garden ☀️☀️☀️

We’ve implemented a new safer sleep routine and all little ones have smashed it 🥰😴

A safeguarding network meeting for Del, keeping up to date with all things safeguarding to keep our little ones safe 🥰

And to finish the week we had our garden glow up just in time for the beautiful weather we’ve had this week ☀️🌱🌸

Time flies when your having fun & this busy 🤣👇🏼🥰

Hope everyone has a lovely bank holiday weekend…
🥰🌸☀️

🏡💛

27/04/2026

This 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Let that sink in…just 7 months and childminders have gone through:

*Early years foundation stage welfare requirements changes(safer eating, safeguarding every 2 years, DSL requirement, personal care requirements and more) Sept 2025

*Funding expansion Sept 2025

*Statutory nutrition guidance -Sept 2025

*Voluntary charges for consumables for funded childcare change - Jan 2026

*Ofsted Inspection Framework November 2025

*Climate action Plans-December 2025

*Ventilation and air quality guidance- Feb 2026

*Screen time guidance-March 2026

*Working together to safeguard children document update March -2026

*minimum wage update for those who employ assistants -April 2026

*Ofsted inspection cycle change- -April 2026

*Making Tax Digital - April 2026

*Wear and tear allowance removed in line with MTD -April 2026

*CAF funding ended (for those with SEND holiday care) and replaced with SACIF- April 2026

*School transition guidance -April 2026

*Safer Sleep email and then clarifying guidance a couple of weeks later -April 2026

This is a lot for any work place.
Let alone remembering that most of us work on our own.

Many of these changes are not minor.
They involve new training, updated policies, different admin systems plus reconsideration of financial sustainability and in some cases having to purchase new equipment.

And this is all around our job of actually caring for and educating young children for often over 40 hours a week, which is exhausting and comes with a huge amount of outside of hours work in itself.

Childminders are not imagining the strain.

Funded hours don’t cover our lost private time to do this work.

We can do it, but having space between updates or a good amount of notice rather than an immediate effect change with no prior discussion would go a long way!
If government departments could actually look ahead at the workload, because this is more than an update a month but also often happening all in one go…7 of the changes THIS MONTH ALONE.

We are real humans behind the work having to be at our best bright and early for little humans.

Plus funding should take into account the mandatory work being put upon us outside of contact time with children that we can’t add into our fee, Funding banning top up fees and limiting what we can charge for means we are working hundreds of unpaid hours, because none of this can be done when the children are in our care.

How we are surviving is magic in itself quite honestly, and still going above and beyond for the little ones in our care.

(Did I miss anything? I haven’t managed to even look at Scotland and Wales yet as, clearly I’ve been having to keep up on changes that affect me!)


Department for EducationUK Prime Minister

26/04/2026

💚🍃🪾 Garden glow up 💚🍃🪾

Mud kitchen ✅
Tuff table for potion making ✅
Sand & water ✅
Playhouse 😆✅
Bikes, scooters & push along ✅
Slide & ball pit ✅
Table & chairs for getting crafty ✅
Balance beams ✅

We have added a few new bits and bobs to our outdoor space over the weekend! & I can’t wait to see little ones enjoy their time out in the fresh air exploring, playing & learning 💚🍃☀️

Thankyou to my Dani for spending his Sunday afternoon helping me build and put things together, sweeping and cleaning, making sure our outdoor space is all clean tidy and safe for little ones, you are the best, couldn’t run this without you always helping in the background 🥰

🍃☀️