Walking blind-folded through thick, dense woodland may not be everyone’s idea of fun but it has certainly given one group of childminders food for thought.

The short trek formed part of a forest discovery exercise led by Forestry Commission warden Barbara Thomson which delegates completed during a day-long conference organised by Parsonby childminder Gillie Young.

The event, held at the Whinlatter education centre, was attended by childminders from Aspatria, Kirkbride and west Cumbria along with Gillian Winder and Shirley McLean, the manager and assistant at the preschool unit at Plumbland Church of England Primary School.

Gillie, a childminder for more than four years, said: “There’s a group of us who’ve got to know each other over time and we were talking about doing something together and it has grown from there really.

“I’m a member of the Forest Childcare Association that is all about getting young children to enjoy and explore the outdoors to aid their learning and development in areas like taking risks. My little girl is at Plumbland School too and they’ve just started doing Forest Schools there so it was a natural step for them to join in too.”

The short walk through the woodland of Whinlatter was designed to heighten the senses of those taking part and seeing the situation from the perspective of a child.


Gillie Young “The walk was all about your senses and understanding them from a planning point of view, highlighting things you can do with the children that can be fun,” said Gillie.

“It also got you to think about situations where you may have oversensitivity, say a child who doesn’t like getting their hands dirty or they don’t like the dark, and it got you to think about how you can help them. But it also reminded you of some simple things you can do with children.”

She added: “When we were blindfolded and holding on to the person in front we had to put our trust in them and they had to try and pass on instructions and directions of where we were going. It was focusing on communication and how important that is.”

Catherine Fairlam, a childminder in Kirkbride near Wigton, was among those taking part.

She said: “It was a great day, the blindfold walk was really good. We had to think about our senses a lot and it made us think about different children and if we had a child with additional needs or a visual impairment, and how we’d adapt to their needs.”

Participants were also taught how to build their own dens, with warden Barbara testing if they were waterproof when they were complete.

“Every child loves picking up sticks,” Gillie said, “so we loved finding out how to build dens. Barbara even poured water on them with us inside to see if they were waterproof.

“We were able to use that exercise to think about how we could adapt those skills to suit our children, like making fairy shelters for example.

“We also went on a forest discovery walk. It was very short, only about 400 metres, but in that time we were shown how to identify trees and what you could find to eat in the shrubs. It was so informative. We learnt all kinds, even activities that don’t have to be expensive like taking some paper and wax crayons and doing rubbings of two different trees.”

Carlisle accountant Robert Gordon also led a workshop to discuss the changes to business accounting for those who are self-employed.

Composer Alexander Clarke, a primary school teacher from Gilcrux, also delivered a session showcasing how you can use music and songs to teach phonics to pre-school children.

“He is amazing,” said Gillie. “He writes all his own songs and he combines music with phonics as a method for children. A few of us have three and four years old, which we receive funding for, and so we have to do phonics with them, so that was really useful to a number of us.”

Gillie is now planning another conference, building its content on feedback from fellow childminders.

She said: “From the evaluation forms it seemed to be a really good day and I’m looking to plan another one in the spring term. I’ve asked for ideas of what people want to find out about and some have already been asking about sign language, Makaton, and communication.”

Organisations including the National Trust and Blaithwaite House also supported the childminders’ conference, donating items that delegates can go on to use with youngsters they care for.