Leo's Off to Nursury

Leo always has been an independent little guy,

Pursuing everything in his own time and always reaching 

the milestone when he is ready.

Since Leo’s 2 and a half year check I have been looking into options and ways that I can socialise him a little bit more. One of the ideas that we discussed with the health visitor was the possibility of sending Leo to nursery. I liked the idea of this as nursery is an environment that would be completely new to Leo, lots of children, teachers and somewhere that Mummy wouldn’t be following him. A scenario that see’s Leo being even more independent than ever before, having to make himself understood to a wider audience…and not just Mummy.

Last Thursday I took one very excited Leo to view the nursery that we were considering. The short car ride to the village school that I used to attend as a child saw Leo’s excitement building. He was throwing his hands above his head and shouting ‘School! Yeah!’ as we went, and I couldn’t help but smile at just how excited Leo was about it all.

Pulling up into the car park Leo was eager to get out, he even insisted on wearing his Thomas ruck sack. He knows that big kids take a bag with them to school so he wanted to be just like them.

Putting Leo’s empty ruck sack onto his back, he held my hand as we walked into the school. We signed in and were escorted around the school that was still so very familiar to me. The nursery is situated in the very heart of the school on the field, right by the playground that all of the big kids play in. Being so integrated with the school (the school that Leo will one day attend) they get so much space to use.

On the front of the nursery is a board with all of the children’s names on, in the morning when the children arrive they have to pick their names (or if they can’t read find their sticker on their name) and take it inside to put on their coat hook, where they will then hang all of their belongings. We were lead into the nursery and that is when Leo simply let go of my hand and went straight off to play. No hesitation what so ever, he just let go and walked off to play. As I was talking with the nursery teacher, he hung his head out of the play kitchen window waving and shouting ‘Mumma!’.

With Leo playing so contently it gave me a great opportunity to hear all about the things Leo would be getting up to if he did get a place at this nursery. We both already loved it so I was really hoping that a space would come up sooner rather than later.

Inside the nursery there is a arts and craft section that has everything you could possibly imagine! It is open to the children throughout the day for them to go in and create whatever their heart desires! There’s a playhouse full of everything Leo loves and I know that he will be making everyone countless imaginary cups of tea! There’s a book corner and a quiet corner and oh so many toys.

Outside they have a mud kitchen where they can create endless muddy delights, of course this requires full forest school gear! There’s a play house, balance bikes and so much more.

The staff structure the day and keep note of everything that the children do. Leo will have a folder that holds all of his milestones and achievements with photos of him achieving them. It will allow me to see exactly what he gets up to while he is at nursery and to also keep for him when he is older.

What I was really impressed with was that the nursery are now required to carry out their own 2 and a half year check assessment. This will be done before Leo turns 3, and in an environment that is much better suited to making these observations. They will be able to see first-hand how Leo socialises and conducts himself, and I feel so much better knowing that they will KNOW him and exactly what he is and isn’t capable of.

Leo absolutely loved his visit to nursery, and he was instantly at ease and playing happily. It was getting him to leave and come home with me that was the issue! He really did not want to come back home with me at all, he was absolutely loving the nursery.

Thankfully a little later on Thursday afternoon… I got a call to say that Leo had a place at nursery and he can start as early as next Monday! So now I simply need to pop back in this week and get him all registered ready to start next Monday.

Leo will be going once a week for the morning session and from September I will be looking to put him in for longer.

I know that I am going to start to see a real change in him, and I know that he is going to absolutely love being such a big boy.