Christmas at nursery: A good argument for homeschooling

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 14 December 2007 21:19:38

Christmas this year has stepped up a gear partly I think because of Groover's nursery. It's been like a snowstorm of notes coming home with him the last couple of weeks. He came home the other week with a note about the Christmas Show - the nursery do one together with the reception class of the nearby school.

"Please dress your child as a Christmas Card, Christmas Present or Toy".
Honestly! As you know I am reasonably handy with that sort of thing but the idea of fashioning a box with holes for head and limbs, for a child who doesn't even like wearing clothes much*, then wrapping the poor little so-an-so in christmas paper.... Well, no, frankly, I won't dress him as anything of the sort. He's 2, for heaven's sake.

Then I noticed that the show was on Wednesday afternoon, when he's not normally in nursery anyway, so I felt quite happy about telling them he wouldn't be in it. The dress rehearsal (dress rehearsal! these are toddlers!) was on the Tuesday morning, when he is in nursery, so I asked them whether they wanted me to keep him home, rather than have him around if he wan't actually going to be involved. "No, that's fine, bring him in, but let him dress up in his costume anyway, so he doesn't feel left out."

Darn. All my costume-making-avoidance plans out of the window. Then I remembered that at toddlers there is a Buzz Lightyear costume in the dressing-up box. And Buzz Lightyear is a toy! Hurrah!

So off he went on Tuesday dressed (reluctantly) in his Buzz Lightyear costume. He has no idea who Buzz Lightyear is. I told him he was Buzz, so he thought he was a bee.

Loads of the kids at nursery are under the weather at the moment, and quite a few of them are really quite little, and were really very freaked out by the whole thing. There were lots of weeping Christmas presents, and a very bemused-looking Scooby-Do. I thrust an unhappy Buzz at a nursery person, and beat a hasty retreat.

As far as I know it all went okay, but I didn't question closely. Honestly, next year we're all going to the bahamas for December, I swear.

*He is currently quite militantly anti-trouser.