Monday 22nd July 2015

People always ask me 'how old does my baby need to be to come and enjoy Mini Rangers'
I can confidently say that from the moment your baby looks up and takes in their surroundings Mini Rangers provides exciting experiences for all.  Take for example the simple first communication that babies learn -  pointing. For babies it is usually to fulfil a need or want, but it can be used to communicate something they find exciting.  At mini Rangers the excitement of seeing other children running around, birds in the trees, clanking saucepans, the ducks, the noise of the river all makes for pointing fodder.  Following an 8 month old's gaze or a 14 month old's point can be the start of any parents conversation with their baby.

Key points
 We take pointing for granted
 When we point, we are telling another person that we want them to look at something
 We assume they will understand that there is something like an invisible laser beam that emanates from the end of our index finger in an exact straight line until it reaches the solid object that we want the other person to concentrate on
 Pointing for need and pointing for shared interest is a development along the pathway of shared communication and eventually toward the use of first words

This week we are turning to chemistry to ignite our young learners.  We are going to attempt to make a mud laboratory!  Don your goggles and gloves! (imaginatively, we don't really need these as the mud will not hurt us, although a baby wipe or two and some hand sanitizer might be an idea).  We are going to collect some objects in our environment to mix together.  We will look at the size, shape, colour and smell of what we have collected.  We will then ask ourselves 'What will happen if I mix this object with the other object' .

I will bring the paintbrushes back this week and we can see if we can make anything that we can use as paint?  We can also have a look in the environment to see if there is anything that we can use as paintbrushes may be a stick or a leaf or a blade of grass?

We have all been looking at the way our children interact with their environment I will be brining some blank risk assessment forms for you to take away and have a think about, they are what I use in childminding and they sometimes reassure me when I am taking an outing I have not taken before.  I hope they are useful for you too.

Marina is providing our snack this week, she is looking at the bright colours of Peppers.

Looking forward to seeing you all

Mel