All change

So, after maxing out a credit card (or two) on nursery fees, it was finally time to call it a day and admit that a private nursery was not for people like us, but for the professors and doctors etc. who can afford the extortionate fees. Added to which, we were only really keeping him there because he loved it so much and it only took a week of him saying "I don't want to go to nursery" and a few incidents like not being told they had changed his keyworker, looking at his record of progress to find it had not been updated since he had moved into the pre-school section a month ago in addition to my repeated but unsuccessful attempts to get them to put a coat on him when in the garden (NOTE: all the staff were always wearing fleece jackets!)to wake us up to the fact that we were no longer getting value for (lots and lots of) money.

I was scared. Little Z had had six childminders before starting school and I really didn't want the same for Big J. I made some enquiries and found a childminder on recommendation from a few mums at Little Z's school. We are now 2 weeks in and all is well. She is very qualified, really friendly, and Big J likes her. Apart from that, I don't think I will be messed about by her.

Big J has also started a new Pre-school. It is the same one Little Z went to so it was a bit strange going back there after 4 years. It has changed somewhat, but Big J is happy there and I am hoping he will stay there until he goes to school in September.

So, new childminder & new Pre-school as well as all the new places he will go to with the childminder are all the ingredients I needed for an overwhelmed and slightly bewildered little boy. So, what better time to introduce these things than just coming up to Christmas when everything else is out of routine too!

I am glad to say that the changes have gone as well as could be expected and with as few tears (from all concerned) as possible. He does not seem too concerned to have left his nursery, quite the opposite in fact which tells me maybe we should have done this sooner. I just hope that he doesn't think his new pre-school is always like this with party food and Santa coming to visit.