Aistear Childminding Blog
In this Aistear Childminding Blog, we explore three more important Principles: Family and Community, Agentic Educators, and Transitions along with some practical ideas for your childminding home.
These Principles reflect the heart of childminding and the very special role you play. Each day, you help create a meaningful bridge between children’s home lives and your childminding home, gently support their growing independence, and guide them through change with care, patience, and understanding.
Family and Community
What this means: This principle recognises that children learn best when there is a strong connection between their home, their childminding home, and the wider community. Families are the most important people in a child’s life, and their knowledge, values, and experiences should be respected and included.
Ideas for Your Childminding Home:
- Build warm, trusting relationships with parents through regular chats at drop-off, pick-up, or through messages. Listening to insights about food, sleep, interests, or changes at home helps you respond to each child’s needs and supports their wellbeing.
- Create a sense of belonging in simple, meaningful ways, such as an “All About Me” folder with drawings, photos, and notes about each child’s life and interests.
- Invite parents to share traditions, stories, or special occasions from home. These small moments help children feel proud and valued. For example, sharing a favourite story, song, or family celebration.
- Connect with your local community through outings like walks, trips to the park, library, or local shops. Take part in local events. These everyday experiences help children build confidence, learn through real life, and feel part of their community. It also supports their social, language, and physical development, while helping them feel more confident in new environments.
Agentic Educators
What this means: This principle reflects the thoughtful and responsive role you play in children’s learning. Through everyday interactions, you support children to explore, build confidence, and make sense of the world, following their interests and being present in the moment.
Ideas for Your Childminding Home:
- Learn about children’s interests and use these to plan activities (e.g., if a child loves cars, introduce counting, sorting, or storytelling through car play).
- Take a moment to think about your day, what worked well and what might you try a little differently tomorrow?
- Be flexible and open to changing plans if something else captures the child’s interest.
- Use everyday moments as learning opportunities, like cooking, tidying, or getting ready to go outside.
- Provide simple everyday items you already have at home to invite creativity, exploration, and problem-solving. Cardboard boxes, pots and pans, fabrics, or natural materials can spark endless imaginative play.
- Take time to build on children’s play by joining them, showing interest, chatting with them, and gently adding ideas that can help the play flow and grow. Share the moment without taking over.
- Ask open-ended questions: “What do you think will happen next?” or “How could we build this higher?”
Transitions
What this means: Transitions are the many small changes children experience throughout their day, such as arriving in the morning, shifting between activities, or starting school. With gentle support and understanding, these moments can help children feel safe, confident, and ready to embrace whatever comes next.
Ideas for Your Childminding Home:
- Create gentle, consistent daily routines so the child feels safe and know what’s coming next. This helps them settle more easily and builds a sense of trust and comfort. For instance, greet the child warmly at the door each morning, have them hang up their coat, and choose a quiet activity. Over time, they begin to follow this routine with confidence, knowing exactly what to do.
- Give gentle warnings before changes: “In five minutes, we will tidy up and have lunch.”
- Use songs, stories, or tidy-up games to make transitions smoother and more enjoyable. For example, singing a familiar tidy-up song while children put toys away, turning it into a “race against the clock” game, or using a short story character (like a teddy going to bed or a car going to the garage) to guide children gently from one activity to the next.
- Allow children time to adjust, especially when they are new to your home or returning after a break. Some children may want to settle in quietly at first, while others may need extra reassurance, familiar routines, or a favourite toy close by before they feel ready to join in. Keeping the pace calm and unhurried, and gently following the child’s cues, helps them feel safe and supported as they connect and find their confidence.
- Work closely with parents during key transitions, such as when a child is beginning with you or moving on to preschool or school. A gentle settling-in approach might include the child visiting alongside their parent at first, helping them become familiar with the environment at their own pace. When children are preparing to move on, it can be helpful to talk about this move, share stories or books about starting preschool or school, and gently encourage the child to express their feelings and thoughts so the transition feels positive, familiar, and well supported.
These Principles remind us that childminding is about so much more than just minding, it is about connection, understanding, and supporting each child in a thoughtful and meaningful way. It is often these small, everyday moments that have the greatest impact, helping children feel safe, valued, confident, and ready to grow.
While we have shared just some ideas here, you may already have your own wonderful ways of bringing these Principles to life in your setting. We would love to hear them. Please feel free to share your ideas with us so that we can pass them on and inspire other childminders too. Please email:
You can read also read Aistear Childminding Blog 1 and Aistear Childminding Blog 2 for more ideas and inspiration.