Children At Nursery

This is a collaborative post

Since my youngest has turned two I've signed him up to go to the same nursery as his sister for a couple of days a week. This lets me get some work done at home and around the homestead, I love having them with me but some jobs just aren't possible with a two year old!

I almost feel guilt for sending them but they absolutely love it. They're both social creatures and it really prepares them for starting school.

The nursery has just moved from the village hall to the new school. This has worked wonders for me as it now means I have the same pick up times for all three children as well as picking them up form the same place.

The other great thing is it's not a "pack away" nursery anymore, like it was in the village hall. That means when I come to collect them they're still playing and enjoying themselves and often I can sit down and join in for a few minutes before we have to go. 

The only downside is the outside space, it's great that they have somewhere safe and secure to run around and play with their bikes, but the whole space is tarmacked. they really could do with a big patch of artificial grass to green the place up and make it a bit softer. If they had any real grass I would imagine it would turn to mud pretty quick in this sized area! 

Luckily they use the local cricket pitch lots and when the new school field greens over they'll be able to use that as well. The village also has a few play parks as well so sometimes they arrange for us to drop the children there, my kids think that is a great adventure. I even have a picture when they went and it was hammering it down with rain, they all squeezed in the back of one of the nursery workers cars for hot chocolate! It was so sweet! 

We're also lucky in how the nursery believes children should be "taught" while they're there. They believe in play led learning which they call "in the moment planning". I love this as it means that the children can play how they want and have a free choice over what they do. I'm always impressed with the great range of things they have of them to play with, I've even brought in a few things like surplus fruit and vegetables for them to cut up and try - apparently not many of them like radishes!