The government, and therefore society in general, seem to be hell bent on getting all babies into some sort of ofsted inspected childcare, preferably a nursery. Especially by the time they are two like Rosie. Well, she went to a nursery two mornings a week from nine months to seventeen months old when I wasn't coping with my postnatal depression, and believe me it was substandard - and this was a nursery that did well in it's inspections. The baby room was ok, I couldn't've left her there if it wasn't, they didn't ever seem to be leaving babies to cry and they used various contraptions to settle them down eg battery powered bouncy chairs, which I would never have done at home I had this thing about needing her in my arms at all time, but I wasn't coping and she seemed settled there so hey ho.
At about 14 months she moved to the toddler room and that was where the rot set in. The staff weren't all qualified, they were sixteen year old 'nursery assistants'. The incident that says it all and sticks in my head is the time I went to pick her up, all the other toddlers were asleep in cots, the assistant had her back to Rosie she was so busy filling in all the ticky boxes they have to do these days, and Rosie was cheerfully poking one of the sleeping babies through the bars with a toy to see if he would wake up!
So she left, I ummed and aahed for a bit and she left at easter. I was fine by then, my depression cleared from around her first birthday and I gradually began to cope.
I'm now wondering if there would be anything she could do if she was still going that she hasn't picked up at home? She was certainly happier once she left, she'd been happy there as in she hadn't cried but she somehow became a lot more settled and less clingy once she was home all week. She seems to do everything I would expect.
She is saying more and more every day. Just now she was in the garden and came in very cross because a seagull had made a loud noise in her ear 'Too cary too cary, bird' then a damn good impression of the noise a seagull would make. She is very funny she has been saying 'cary' for scary for ages and she says it for most large animals, things that make big noises, strange people, museums with atmospheric displays such as the coal mining one in the town, Star Trek, Dr Who ... loads of stuff. She says 'nuk' for milk 'boon' for spoon, and I don't think I'm giving away Martha's real name by saying her interpretation of it is 'bottoo'.
She can't grasp the concept of negatives. so if she wants to say something doesn't fit she says 'Fit me' with a serious face and voice and shaking her head, whereas 'Fit me!' in cheery voice with a smile means it does fit! It's the same with 'dike it' (like it). If she doesn't it's 'dike it' with a glare and inevitably something being spat out. She seems to understand most stuff we say so we can have a conversation with her now.
She's holding pencils properly, I haven't shown her she's copied the others, and she likes scribbling all over things. She enjoys playdough, usually shoving it into things then demanding a spoon to get it out again. She's been eating with a fork and spoon for ages, she could teach her big siblings a thing or two about that :-))) Actually she also says please and thankyou more than they ever have. And she can count but misses numbers out, and can do it burying her head in the sofa for hide and seek.
Her fine motor skills are coming on in other ways with big kid toys that she gets hold of such as little figures with arms and legs that come off, she can't always do it and gets really annoyed. She csan turn my ipod on and off though, and can unlock the controls by flicking the little switch, grrrrr!!
She likes a couple of my friends, notably B who she's seen far of than T due to N's accident. She talks about B inbetween visits 'Me B!' 'Me B House!' and when we are there she chats to B and follows her into the kitchen demanding goodies. She also likes B's boys especially the big one, and T's six year old. She's sometimes too confident, went on a bouncy castle the other day full of big boys leaping about at a seventh birthday party, I had to decide whether to let her or have a paddy. Other toddlers are interesting to her but not as much as big kids, she talks about them rather than to them, though she is getting the hang of passing toys over when she is in the mood to 'Here go!' and she asked today where her friend had gone when he left.
So.... I think she's ok, educationally and socially. Possibly more importantly she's doing really well emotionally. I don't think I can be accused of depriving her of anything! She loves having the big kids home all day though she won't remember school now or be able to make any sense of where they went all day, she was always hard to entertain when they weren't here. I remember back in February at a bit over a year she was old enough to know the big kids went out all day but not old enough to remember it was half term, so if they all went into another room she would shriek with joy and surprise when they all came out again haha. She tries to join in absolutely everything as far as she's concerned she's well and truly one of the gang. Which is great.
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