This time last year I was writing about Erin’s first day at nursery and wondering how the hell I was going to cope not having her at home with me every day like normal. The settling in sessions and those first few weeks were absolutely heartbreaking for both of us. Erin ran off to explore on her settling in days but when it came to dropping her off for full nursery days she screamed, cried and clung to me for dear life. I spent most of the time walking home crying and feeling lost in a quiet house when I got home.
Now though, we are heading into a New Year with big changes. Just a couple of days ago Erin turned 3 and now she has a lot of changes to cope with.
Just before Christmas we were told that Erin’s nursery would be closing down in just a few weeks and we had to find somewhere new for Erin and quite fast. Luckily we got everything sorted quite quickly and found somewhere that could take Erin on the same days as she went to nursery before to close to the same times and it was a little bit closer to home. The only difference is that the new nursery is term time only.
Yesterday Erin went for a short settling in session at the new nursery and today she is having her first full day there. I’m scared, nervous and excited for her all at the same time. My feelings about Erin starting a new nursery are completely different to how I felt when she went for the first time last year. One of the staff from Erin’s previous nursery actually got a job at the new place so I think having 1 familiar face will really help Erin to settle in.
The new nursery is a Montessori nursery so their ways of doing things are quite different from what Erin is used to. The way the children learn and play is very different and Erin can be a bit wild. Erin also used to have hot lunches at nursery but now she has to have packed lunches each day instead. I think I’m mostly worried about the changes being so big that Erin will struggle to get used to them easily. I worry that she won’t like her new nursery even though she has already been to look around etc. I worry that she will ask to go back to her old nursery and it just isn’t something that’s possible.
Maybe Erin will love it from day 1 though and it will all be really easy.
Another change will have quite an impact on both me and Erin. As the new nursery is term time only it means that we now have no childcare for the school holidays. While we could have sent Erin to a nursery that did offer this kind of care it wasn’t really somewhere we liked and it wasn’t worth it for a few weeks of the year. I am very lucky to be self-employed and work from home so it’s not the biggest deal in the world if Erin is at home. However, I do still need to work and now I am going to have to manage my time better and make sure I am ahead over the school holidays. John will be taking some time off when he can and my Mum is also going to come and stay to help out on her weeks off too so it might be easier than I think.
Currently, Erin will go to nursery 3 days a week from 9-330. Erin’s funding will FINALLY kick in after the Easter holidays and she will get 30 hours so that means Erin can go up to 4 days a week. I think this will really help prepare her for Reception when she moves up to a school and it will also help me to get enough work done to be ahead during the school holidays (I hope).
Are you facing any big changes this year? Let me know in the comments!
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Aww! What a big change. I hope she settles into the new nursery well. Good luck x
Thank you Kim. She seems okay there so far!