Immoral_angel's Debt Diary

immoral_angeluk

TracySouth wrote: »

Hi I-A

As you can see I am very much a lurker but enjoy reading your thread. Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but I think you can apply for a childminding start up grant to help with any purchases you may need to make or alterations to your house. I was a childminder about 4 years ago and although I never applied for this grant I know a friend who registered the same time as me was able to benefit from this.

Keep up the good work!

Our council does a start up grant too. The lady at the preg-reg meeting said she thought it was £150 but wasn't sure but we had the forms in our pack. Sent off the forms for it yesterday along with my ofsted forms

Sea78

IA- look at you so organised

My c/m is utterly fabulous - but the thing that made me love her was when, after 4 weeks, she handed me a booklet full of the things ds had done, was beginning to do and what she would do over the next 4 weeks to assist this. There were also a few photos (printed from comp) and one or two pieces of art. I looked through it and gave it back, this has then been updated every 4 weeks and is wonderful. I would have loved it to look back on for dd too but had a diff c/m (who was also great). This is on top of a daily entry in his diary (I think similar to nursery?).

Not saying you have to do this, but it's a wonderful thing to do

*vanessa*

you aren't wrong.
Legally I-A can have 3 children under the age of 5, of which only one should be under 12 months(except in certain cases such as twins.) this includes All children in her care including her own. She can also have another 3 children between the ages of 5 and 8(might be 7) years. Then she can ALSO have as many children as she likes over the age of 8, as long as it is not to the detriment to the other children in her care.

I'd say £3 to £3.50 is what you can realistically expect to get as a registered childminder. There are grants - I think its up to £300 , but I know in this area, we don't get that, because all courses are paid for instead.

Good Luck

*vanessa*

Sea78, I think that all childminders are now expected to keep journals of their charges progress.

I also forgot to say, that those numbers are the maximum, if your house is small, they may restrict the numbers further.

Pooky

OFSTED will denote child amounts depending on square footage, but the norm seems to be a set limit per household....of those, no more than 3 can be under 5 and only 1 can be under 1.

But OFSTED are pretty felxible about the "under 1" rule if there's just cause.....if you're up and ready to go and K is say 9 months and you've got a baby wanting to start part time then it's worth asking them. A friend of mine was in that situation recently and they just sent someone round for a chat and to make sure she had enough equipment to cope with 2 babies and gave her approval.


Edited - Cross posting with Vanessa

Sea78

Vanessa - yes, she does the daily journal but this was extra to that - my last c/m didn't do one. It was nice

*vanessa*

yes, sorry My childminder calls my daughters her "journal" its where pictures of outings go, drawings, special things she's done. Mine doesn't keep a daily diary, she just tells me, what a Madam she's been. I agree they are lovely to look over. I nice thing to do for your own child, except I never remember to!

scaredy_cat_2

have just stumbled across your diary ia - did see pictures on another thread when you had jsut had your tiny baby

i really want to read all of your diary!! its true it is inspirational - how much debt you have cleared through ebay and stuff - and saving your child tax credits - am going to see if/how much of that we can do when do the budget this week!!

will really try to catch up on the 149 pages but if not will keep reading - for tips and to celebrate your success with you :T

Snaggles

I'm only just starting to realise just how amazing you're doing, keeping on top of your finances and everything else with a toddler and a very young baby. My head is in such a state I can't get my head around our budget at all, we seem to have spent loads of money this last week or so, and I really don't know where it's all gone. I was going to go through it all and work out what we had left, but I still haven't managed to do it.

I've morphed overnight from semi-sane human being to brain dead milk machine

And OUCH my stitches are hurting!!!

I really don't know how you do it!

immoral_angeluk

Snaggles wrote: »

I'm only just starting to realise just how amazing you're doing, keeping on top of your finances and everything else with a toddler and a very young baby. My head is in such a state I can't get my head around our budget at all, we seem to have spent loads of money this last week or so, and I really don't know where it's all gone. I was going to go through it all and work out what we had left, but I still haven't managed to do it.

I've morphed overnight from semi-sane human being to brain dead milk machine

And OUCH my stitches are hurting!!!

I really don't know how you do it!

I found that... the first week or so you're running completely on adrenaline... then BAM the realisation of it hits you and it's like 'wooooooooah back in the real world!'. lol I really had to force my brain to work but it wasn't easy at all! Was probably running on auto pilot for the first month and then as soon as that auto pilot turned off I started on the slippery slope into pnd!
Babies eh? Who'd have them! lol!

I am on the ball tonight though... So far I've written a behaviour policy, illness/injury policy as well as a child protection policy.... *Sit back with smug look on her face, unknowingly having completely jinxed any chance of her being registered*