Alby’s new school

Mark and Alby getting ready for the Daddy race on Sports Day 

Emotions really are funny old things.  No matter how often I think about this blog and mean to update it I struggle greatly these days with managing to balance the “right time” and the “right mood” for writing.  I don’t know if I’m really in the right mood now to be honest, but having just received a text message from a friend that has really pissed me off I’ve decided to turn to my blog as a welcome distraction.  And having yet posted about Alby’s magnificent new nursery this seems the right time to lose myself in thoughts at how brilliant the place is, in the hope that the smiles it induces will help wash away my frustrations.

So Alby’s new nursery.  As I say it’s just brilliant.  The staff are warm and welcoming and friendly and you know that they are doing the job because they are passionate about it - something you would expect of all staff but sadly I've met a few in my time who I think are there more because it fits with their child's school timings rather than because they are driven by educating little ones. 

Picnic fun on Celebration Day

The ethos of the nursery suits Alby to the ground: based on the Scandinavian model it is an outdoors nursery meaning that almost everything they do, they do outside.  You may also have heard of Forest Schools which have a similar approach and basically encourage the learning to take place under the sky rather than in a stuffy building.  It isn’t as extreme as some places - I’ve heard of some Forest Schools in Europe where there are no toys at all and where children dig a hole each time they need the toilet.  I think it’s probably correct to say Alby’s nursery is a bit more British than that with top notch indoor facilities including a sleep room, canteen, toilets and allocated rooms for each of the different classes filled with books, fancy dress and the toys you expect at any nursery. The only difference being that the children really don’t use the indoor space. They take their books outside to read in the field, they paint and draw on the tarmac area which doubles up as the road for their scooters and bikes, they play with their cars and toys in the enormous sand pit (it really is huge), pots and pans are taken to the “mud kitchen” and where you’d normally see swings and slides they have tractor tyres, wooden pallets and tarpaulin which one day will be form an assault course and then a pirate ship before being transformed again into a mountain waiting to be climbed. 

Alby with his best friend Gregory 

England is experiencing a truly spectacular summer this year and whilst I thought they might move the children indoors to counter the heat instead they’ve put up a canopy over the sandpit, a large marquee at the bottom of the field for stories, art, music… turned the tarpaulin into water slides and keep the sprinklers going so the children stay chilled.  Plus sun hats and sun cream are at the ready for all day long plus trays of water to keep the little ones hydrated.  No doubt when the snow starts falling and I wrap up warm inside Alby will be outside making snowmen and snow angels and reading stories sat in snowy thrones. 

 If you ask Alby what he does each day he will just say “I played in the sandpit”.  Similarly any questions over what he had for dinner are usually met with the response “pudding”.  However from the amount of art work that he’s brought home (no small folder for us any more, it now goes into a box after all the 3D pieces including my favourite: the mole in a hole), the new songs he’s started singing and the games he’s got us playing I'm confident that the day isn’t confined to the sandbox.  That said, the amount of sand that gets sprayed across the carpets when he kicks his shoes off at home can have me scratching my head at times.

Loving the face painting by his Key Worker - my scary gruffalo

And as well as all the play and learning and general nursery fun, the staff go out of their way to ensure the whole family can take part.  I missed the “Mother’s afternoon tea” near Mother’s Day but Mark went to the Daddy’s breakfast the week before Father’s Day and in the past two weeks I’ve been to both his Sports Day and the end of term Celebration Day.  Whilst the first was a bit of a Parent Fail with me forgetting the camera and Mark stuck in traffic for Alby’s two races with his class mates, I snapped plenty of pictures from the Celebration Day which included picnic, drum workshop, face painting, sprinkler and ice lollies.  And some time in the sand pit.

Gruffalo drumming - why not? 

Being such a brilliant nursery has come at a small price.  No longer is the nursery a five minute run from my front door instead it’s a half hour drive each way meaning that the car and I are becoming best friends once again just as we were when I used to commute to work. And no longer are we enjoying fees subsidised by the army but I can’t really complain. When Alby turns 3 I'll benefit from the statutory 15 hours free childcare - how I love the Welfare State).  What's more the drive takes me past stunning views of the British countryside, Stonehenge and, my favourite, a pig farm.  And with Alby’s songs in the CD player it also offers a great chance for us to brush up on our nursery rhymes and Thomas the Tank Engine library.