Daycare

A couple of times a week, we have what we call a 'Family Circle'.
Now this is not just for family, we have done them when friends are visiting at dinner time as well.
It entales us sitting at the table after we have finished dinner and talking about how our day has gone, or what ever question we decide to throw out there for everyone to answer.
The main one at present is 'tell us 1 good thing and 1 bad thing that you liked about today'
This then makes the boys think about their day and have to decide what they thought was a good thing and what was a bad thing.

Unfortunately Alex is now coming up with no good things and just bad things about his days!
Alex has all of 3 weeks left at Daycare and this is the problem, because he is BORED.
Simple put, he has out grown the place, he no longer gets enjoyment from hanging around with 2 & 3yr olds.
He is ready to move on to the next chapter in his little life and it just can't seem to happen soon enough for him.
If the Principle had said he could have started 3 weeks ago, when the term started, he would have been there with bells on, running through the gate in his little uniform carrying his large school bag, but because he can't officially start until he is 5, then he has to wait 3 more weeks.
Alex has been playing up at home quite a bit in the last week or 2 and I have now come to realise that it all stems down to shear boredom and lack of challenges.
When he does activities at Daycare, then there is no challenge because he is by far the oldest and most coordinated. There is no sense of competition.

So for the next 3 weeks we will just tenderly take stepping stone paces around Alex as we try to deal with his frustration of boredom and look forward to the next wonderful chapter in his life that is about to start, real soon.

Extra Time

Alex currently goes to Daycare 3 days a week, funnily enough, the days I work!

They called me yesterday and asked if I would like him to go 5 days a week for the same current price I am paying for 3 days?

I was sure there was a catch and said I would have to get back to them on this.

I currently can't actually justify sending him full time all week. I currently work 3 days a week and I want him to spend some time with me, because I never had my boys so they could grow up in Daycare. He goes when I work and that is it, yes I would like him to maybe have some extra hours there, give me 2 minutes to myself to get things done occassionally, but it would only be a half day or something. I also know that he loves the place and is learning so much whilst there that I actually don't have a problem with him spending more time there.

However, until now it would cost us to send him an extra half day and we definiftely can not justify that!

So on further discussion with them, Alex will now be going on a Friday as well from just after 9am till about 3pm.

It will be free for that day, no extra cost to us.

I will drop him off after taking Ben to school and I will pick him up either as I go to get Ben from school or as I come home afterwards.

So during school hours on a Friday I will now have no children to worry about and I will probably get a lot more errands and jobs completed as I will not have to keep worrying about toilet stops, drinks and food!

This is also a permanent thing until he leaves next year to go to school. I am sure it might change if they suddenly get a lot of children wishing to attend the daycare and pay for the sessions, but until then I am not going to knock this back. I am just going to accept graciously and smile sweetly.

Roll on Friday, what shall I do??

Boys Art

We have got to the stage in life with the boys where we are constantly getting art work brought home.

Everyone knows what I mean......you look at every piece and say all the right things but then you wonder "what the hell am I meant to do with it all now?"

We have treasure boxes for the boys and I do manage to keep some of the better pieces for them to view when they are older.

But I also love to have it on display so we can appreciate what they have achieved.

So, I copied an old friends idea, and created an art board in the dining room.

This board can now display any piece of art that we want to view for a while.

Then when something new comes along, we change it all over.

Ben also gets to display any achivement awards he gets from school there.

Works for us.

Daycare

When I went to collect Alex from Daycare yesterday, his first words to me were 'Evaporation'

Yep that is right, I have been sending him to play lots learn lots and he blows me away with things like evaporation.
He even went on to tell me that you get a glass of water, leave it in the garden and it evaporates up to the sky to make the clouds!

He is 3 1/2!
So consequently I love this new Daycare, I am going to have a buddy Einstein before the end of the year.


Oh and thank you so much to Mary over at Owlhaven for leaving a comment to my blogging post abd explaining to me how to do strickthrough. As yoyu can see above it worked brilliantly and I am so impressed with myself for doing it first time. You are great, thanks.

Daycare

Alex has this adversion to daycare at present!

We are not sure if it is just him being 3 or whether there is actually something going on.
He has been the same with lots of things he is doing.
He goes to swimming, has a fabulous time in the water, full of smiles, laughter and total fun. I know because I am sat there watching him, but then when he gets out, in the changing room he will tell me he doesn't like swimming and can we go home now?
But then the next week he is all eager and raring to go...!

Jumping Beans is the same, to an extent, one day he decided during Jumping Beans that he had had enough and wanted to go home. So I told him to put his shoes on and we would go. So he did, ran to his shoes, put them on, waved good bye and was out the door. As we pulled away he told me he didn't like Jumping Beans.
The next week he wanted to know when we were going to Jumping Beans and when we got there he had fun for 10 minutes and then sadly hurt himself. So we went home, but as we left he told me he didn't like Jumping Beans and didn't want to go again!

Now we constantly have it with Daycare. They have asked me to work all week this week so Alex is at daycare everyday, but because somethings changed at work and they didn't need me for what they thought, I was able to negotiate that I still take the boys to swimming lessons. With Alex that meant going during work and with Ben it just means I finish earlier on Mon & Wed.
So I collected Alex yesterday and right from the moment I had him he told me he didn't want to go to Daycare, he wanted to go home. When swimming had finished, which he enjoyed BTW, he again went on about not going back to Daycare and that we could just go home!
I tried, without putting ideas in his head, to ascertain if there was a reason for not wanting to go?
This is the conversation I had with him:

Alex: I don't want to go to daycare
Mum: Why not?
Alex: I don't like daycare
Mum: Why?
Alex: I just don't like it
Mum: Is there something you don't like about Daycare?
Alex: I just don't like it! I like swimming, Jumping Beans(!), home, Countdown (we were just driving past at the time) juice.
Mum: But you like the sandpit, painting, lunch, morning tea, reading the books etc
Alex: Yes, but I don't want to go to Daycare.

Although when we got to Daycare after swimming, he had no trouble going in the building and I had no trouble leaving him.

Then this morning it all started again. I don't like Daycare, I don't want to go to Daycare, although this time he didn't want to get out of the car with Daddy to walk through the hospital. We actually had some tears, all the while it is tugging at my heart strings to listen to him, but we managed to get him to go with Daddy and I haven't heard that there have been any problems, although as I write this I may find when I call Steve in a moment, that Alex is still sat with him in his office helping him with his work!

We think this may have something to do with school?
As in Ben is going to school, it looks like lots of fun and therefore I want to do that instead?

We are trying not to tell him that everything is ok and not to worry because you are leaving that Daycare in 3 weeks and won't have to go back again, because I don't want this to be a thing about going to Daycare, he still has to go to Daycare because I am still working, but in January he is starting at a new one close to home.

So my heart will just have to be tugged everyday for the next 3 weeks as we listen to Alex complain every morning, although he does still go through the door happily, so the tugging doesn't last for too long!

1st & 2nd Day Update

In the pouring rain at 3pm I stood outside the class room waiting for the teacher to release the animals.
Ben saw me through the window and waved, then eventually he came out with the teacher and started to tell me all about his day.
Whilst I stood talking to the teacher, Ben suddenly yelled 'Daddy' and went running off, I turned and there was daddy, come to meet his big boy from school on his first day.
No disrespect to Steve, I just hadn't thought about him meeting Ben from school, I thought we had taken him as a family and that after school would just be a normal everyday thing, but it was great to see Steve there, all smiles and questions for his big boy.
Turns out Steve had even finished work and was coming home then as well. As he said 'it is not everyday you have your first day of school, it is a special day'
Have I ever told you how much I love this guy, he is a sentimental as I am and a fabulous father to his boys.

So at dinner time we had our family circle time when we had all finished eating and we had some great talking going on.
Ben telling us all about his big day, Alex telling us about what he didn't like at swimming and us talking about taking our big boy to school.

This morning Alex had Daycare, all by himself, at first he wanted to know who was going to stay with him, but when I called Steve later to find out how he had been I got told that he had hung up his bag and then dissappeared, not a care in the world!
Ben and I walked to school and because we were rather early then we sat and read a book in his class room. We put his lunch box and drink bottle in the right place, emptied his book bag and then hung up his bag.
At 8.30am I went with Ben to the office to hand in some papers and then we walked back to his room, thinking we could sit and do something until the bell rang at 8.55am.
Instead he then turned to me and said 'bye mum, see you later, you can go now!'

Still got 15-20 minutes until the bell goes and I simply got dismissed!
Well I think he is going to be just fine, who said school was going to be a problem, he loves it.

Alex's Day

When you go and collect your child from a day at daycare and they tell you they kept forgetting that they had a new child in the room it makes you feel really happy.
Apparently Alex just blended in and got on with it and they kept forgetting that he was new as he blended so well.
He was a very happy child when we collected him, he had had a ball.

Me....I managed to get the laundry on the line to dry in the sun, get some Parents Centre work completed and spend so lovely time with Ben when he finished Kindy.

So a good day which was finished off with a Christmas picnic party at Kindy for Ben. All I can say is that Ben is very enthusiastic about his singing. He was the loudest and everyone noticed! But he had fun and that is all that matters.

A Place We will Miss

Since Ben was 7 1/2 months old he has been attending daycare. He had a 6 month break as he turned 2, whilst I was at home on maternity leave with Alex, but after that he has been there until this day.
Alex joined him when he was 7 1/2 months too.

We chose this daycare as we felt it had a homely feel to it, plus Ben took an instant liking to it on the times we visited prior to him starting. He was always fascinated by what was going on and all the pictures on the wall, all the other places we visited, he never seemed that interested in them.
We have never for a moment regretted sending our boys here, this has been the 2nd place for them to grow up, the place where they do all their messy play, learn to share with more than just 2 other people and learn where they fit in with a big group.


Daycare have always been very accommodating to our needs, always being able to help us when we have required extra sessions, be it for 2 weeks or 6 months.

When Alex was first born I could ring them at 8.30 to see if they had space for Ben and he was usually there playing by 9.15.So he did quite a few extra days when Alex first arrived. It was great to have that outlet for both myself and Ben.
He got to play and have lots of attention and I got to have one on one time with Alex, or more time to sleep!

The current owners took over a month or so before Ben first started and lots has changed whilst we have been there. The rooms inside have become even bright and colourful than I remember them on our first visit.
There are so many little corners for the kids to hide in, escape to or even discover. The walls are always covered in pictures and stories of what everyone has been up to in the centre and it is always fun to find out what has been happening.
The boys have their little set routine and are so good with what happens when they arrive and leave. It makes collecting them and dropping them off so enjoyable.
So thank you so much to Glenda and her wonderful team at 'Under 5' Care and Learning.

My sons have grown so much with all your love and care.

We shall miss you all very much, we are very grateful for everything you have ever done for our family, your support and your open door to our family.