Today was Orla and Hamish's first day at Kita. Mine too as we have a 4 week settling in period to contend with. First off we had to go up to Hamish's class and the kids pretty much got on with it. In fact when we got told we had to go down to Orla's class Hamish said he wanted to stay there and play so I asked if that was ok and despite their aghast faces they agreed to it. So Orla and I went downstairs and I let her get on with doing playdough, drawing and playing. Alles gut!
Last night I sat and translated all the pages of documentation they gave me before and discovered the schedule that they want me to follow is:
Wk 1. Come with your child and sit with them and make them feel secure.
Wk 2. Give your child some space, but still be there in the room for them.
Wk 2. Give your child some space, but still be there in the room for them.
Wk 3. Leave the room, but be outside the (glass) door where they can see you and still get to you if they need you.
Wk 4. You may leave the room (and line of sight of the child, and then leave the Kita for short periods of time.
So today with Hamish we pretty much covered all 4 steps with complete success and I would have done the same with Orla but they would probably have locked me in. Tomorrow I am going to ask if I can nip out to the shops (German withstanding) or at the very least take a book. I have the feeling though they're going to think me terribly cold and heartless. Stevie thinks I may have to resort to saying I need to go to the bank to pay the Kita fees.
On a side note saw an awful lot of boys wearing tights. Still can't quite get my head round that, but cometh the winter, cometh the big chunky Hamish legs in wooly tights no doubt!
Bloody hell, you're not allowed to leave until week 4? Lindsay Lohan served a shorter sentence than that!
ReplyDeleteDay 2: caught the staff looking at me and talking about me as I glimpsed up from reading my book blissfully happy and child-free. I am a bad mother; the kids were happily playing with other children having a great time. The staff disapproval was entirely justifed.
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of sounding a bit xenophobic, I thought the German approach to childcare was a bit more 1970s/laissez-faire? I'm basing this on a holiday in Greece three years ago, where I watched German families blithely chatting as their tiny toddlers struggled not to drown in the pool, or wandered out of the hotel complex into the road. I was rather in awe of them as I hovered over my milksop kids with the factor 50.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know what you mean, I've witnessed the German approach to learning to swim. This though seems very different. The kids seem very insecure when it comes to joining a nursery. All the 'newbies' in Orla's class who are now in wk's 3, 5, and 6 of which there are 3 all around her age have cried NON-STOP every day that I have been there. I don't think the staff do enough to distract them from their crying - most nurseries we know of in the UK tend to take the crying child to see the fish tank or whatever as Mummy leaves and then that's about it. But here, given that there's a 7 to 1 ratio they just don't seem able to do it.
ReplyDeleteThe most ridiculous thing though is the whole wk 3 fiasco where you can watch your heart broken child through a glass door, which in my opinion is just making it worse for them.
My husband works at a Kita and I have been fascinated by his tales of children's wear, layer by layer. Good luck snapping up the winter wear.
ReplyDeleteAre the boys in tights yet? I also want to avoid the subtle hints I missed last year where they started leaving woolly hats and gloves in Hamish's cupboard to indicate that it was high time to wrap my son up to the eyeballs (October)
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