At this risk of sounding like a nerd, when I wrote my MA thesis I focused on the fact that parents tend to over rate the quality of their child's childcare centre. They kind of have to because, cognitively speaking, it's hard to leave your child in a place that you think is anything less than the best place possible for your child.
Ok – that said – I really do think that our nursery school is the best place possible for our children to be. It's amazing there for so many reasons and I could write about it at length – but all the testimony you really need is to see me drag Arden out of there, sometimes kicking and screaming, on Monday and Wednesday mornings. She just doesn't want to leave. She has been showing up at the nursery school since she was six weeks old. For a long time, she took her morning nap in a laundry basket lined with a blanket behind a desk in the office. Why I never took a picture of that I do not know… Regardless, today is Friday and this is one of Arden's favourite days of the week because it is my volunteer day at the school which means she doesn't have to leave after I drop ruby off – she gets to stay and play. And play she does. She gets into a little bit of everything while she is there – although right now her favourite activity at the school is a toss up between the sand table and standing at the sinks in the washroom and playing with the taps. The sinks are all at toddler height and apparently they are pretty irresistible.
So, for a long time Arden has had snack with the rest of the kids in ruby's group while sitting in a high chair but today I was feeling a little lazy and did t want to have to clean up the high chair tray afterwards so I just sat her down on one of the regular chairs at the table and she loved it! Ate like a champ and yammered away through the whole snack with the other kids.
I may be predisposed to thinking that my childcare centre is better than it really is but my almost 20 month old can vouch for its quality. She thinks its awesome and I am inclined to agree with her!
3 Ginger Snaps 