The children in your care will gain skills and knowledge when they join an early educational setting, such as nursery or playgroup. But they can also learn a great deal in their time with you. A nanny's advantage over a group setting is that you can more easily follow the lead of individual children.
Children learn so much through conversation, when you answer the question that is of direct interest to them this minute.
Likewise, in your activities and outings, you could pick up on some aspects of a project or theme that the children are following in nursery or school.
But be guided by the children; they may want their home pursuits to be different.
From 'me' to other people
Children start out very focused on themselves and their understanding steadily moves 'outwards' from their personal perspective. Children get called 'egocentric' and that psychological term is fine, so long as it is not used with any sense of criticism, for example that children are self-centred in a selfish way.
Young children are busy learning about their social world. Facts and explanations that seem obvious to adults are far from obvious to children.
There is so much that they do not yet understand. Young children work from what they do know already, and their intriguing mistakes often arise because they over-generalise from their own experience.
Perhaps Sasha's grandparents live a short drive away, so she is puzzled that her friend Malcolm is going to take all day to travel with his family to see his grandparents. She asks, 'Are they going to drive very very slowly?' Children's questions and comments let you know about the gaps in their knowledge. On this occasion Sasha's nanny can ask, 'What makes you say that?' Then she can follow up with, 'Now I understand. Malcolm's grandparents live a long distance away. But, yes, they'd have to crawl like a snail if they were only going as far as your Granny's.'
A sense of place and direction
Younger children learn about location, distance and travel from familiar trips that you do with them in the car, on foot or by public transport. If you point out sights and anticipate what's coming up, they will start to link familiar places together. They will form their first mental maps about routes.
Initially children can be quite confused between distance ('how far away we are going') and time ('how long it takes'). A regular car trip that you do with them - perhaps the school run - may not be far in miles, but it takes a while because the traffic is so slow. Listening to music and story tapes can be very useful for car journeys, but try to ring the changes in ways that extend the children's understanding of what's outside too. Of course, you have to keep a good section of your mind on the road at the same time! For example: * Children will start to recognise the landmarks of a regular car trip.
Invite their active involvement with the route by asking, 'Who knows which way we turn at these next traffic lights?'. Young children will not know left from right - for them, it is more about 'the way that bus is going' or 'towards the church'.
* Play an 'I spy' game for sights rather than the version by letters. Who can spot a man on a bicycle, someone walking a dog, a police car? You could prepare simple lists beforehand with pictures as well as the words, and then the children are geared up for the journey. If you do a long list, it might last all week.
* Children can learn about sequence in a familiar journey, recognising landmarks. Ask if the children can anticipate what is coming up 'just round this corner', and sometimes vary the drive and approach a familiar landmark from a new angle.
* Encourage them to recall the journey sequence (out and back) - 'First we pass the fire station, then we drive past that long line of trees and last of all we see the flower seller on the corner. Will she wave to us?'
* A familiar journey is a natural way to introduce children to the vocabulary of location and direction - for example, past the common, under the bridge, around the roundabout, all along by where we can see the canal.
You can use the opportunities of longer trips such as holidays or when parents travel on business to add to the children's understanding.
Check with parents beforehand about what you plan to do, to ensure that you do not spoil any surprises, and do not suggest an activity that does not suit the parents. Maps and globes are rather abstract for younger children, but you can bring the two-dimensional map alive with illustrations.
For example, Tessa the nanny knows that Sally and Michael are going on holiday to France. The children are interested in looking on the map for where they are going to stay and their stops en route. On their return, Michael is keen to show Tessa his collection of postcards from the places they had found on the map. Sally can now tell Tessa about some of the places that were just names before the holiday. Both children want to make the map into a display with the postcards and a few sentences of description.
A sense of time and change
Children are learning about time and place. The two can combine easily through regular journeys or outings.
* Alert the children to the changes over time that you can observe from a journey on foot or from the car. What has happened since yesterday or last week with the building that is being demolished or the block of flats being built?
* Spot the changes that come with the seasons in the natural world - changes in the trees and flowers, when the blossoms come out and how fast they blow away if you have several windy days.
* A regular journey can easily link with a child's personal past history - 'That's where I used to go to little playgroup', 'That was the way to Marsha's old house', or 'I remember when that big tree fell right over the road and we had to go another way to get Benjamin from school'.
* Sometimes you will also see people 'out of place'. Perhaps Harry spots the 'friendly lady from Boots' and realises that she has a life outside the shop.
Children may become interested in local history when they realise that a familiar neighbourhood has changed, even within their short lifetime. You can follow up this curiosity, starting with the local library where there may be some local history books with illustrations, or even a display of photos or old postcards. Children's attention is caught as they see the image and realise, 'that's our high street but it's so different' or 'that bit of the common hasn't changed much at all.'
CASE STUDY
Some nannies work with families where one or both parents go away on business. Children need to keep in contact, and you can help them in that communication. If parents go to a regular venue, children may be keen to know more about the location and the route.
Jon's mother regularly travels on business, often to the same conference centre. Jon wants to keep in touch by telephone and likes to send her pictures and messages by fax. Jon's nanny Laura, with his mother's agreement, starts to build a map in response to Jon's questions, 'How do you get to this work?' and 'What is your other office like?' Laura and Jon add photos that his mother takes of herself at work and of the building.
Jon also asks for photos of her driving route, including the service station where she usually stops for coffee. He feels reassured having a visual image of his mother when she is away, and he becomes interested in ways of travelling and journeys in general.