Bug = 3 years 7 months
Bub = 1 year 9 months Linus at this age
Bud = 1 month 24 days Linus at this age – Ada at this age

Linus’s Needs

Our weekly schedule offers Linus a few different activities: playing with his little sister sisters, lots of reading, videos, swimming, songs and stories at the library, and – as the weather gets nicer – tree-climbing and bush-whacking in the back yard. He also gets to see friends his age and Ada’s age occasionally.

However I’m feeling more and more that Linus needs more than I can manage to give him at home. (Kindergarten didn’t work out for us for various reasons.) More opportunity for arts, crafts,  and music would be nice, but we do manage to do a little of that at home. Where I really feel he’s missing out is in physical activity and in social interactions with other children, especially older ones. I’m particularly keen to see him get some positive rough play, which he doesn’t get much of around home. (I hope the other parents don’t object to a bit of this!)

Arranging playdates with pre-school friends is tricky when all Linus’s friends/potential friends have such busy schedules with kindergarten and daycare, so I’ve decided that it’s time to try out Playcentre.

Checking Out Playcentre

We visited a distant Playcentre last week and had a lovely time, but it was too far to consider for multiple trips a day, so I put the word out on Facebook and got some feedback from friends on where they go. Today Nana and the kids and I attended a session at a Playcentre across town, and we had a fantastic morning: Linus needed no encouragement to go and play with the other children (they cooked and served him imaginary pizza), and Ada – who’s at a less social developmental stage – enjoyed painting, drawing, and puddling in water.

So I decided this is for us – I imagine most Playcentres are similar, so the deciding factor was that I already know a couple of the mums at this one (and another friend is considering going there). I’ve enrolled all three children in Playcentre for three mornings each week. Children under 2.5 have to be supervised by their parents, but over that age they can be left for the three hour session, so once we’re all settled in I imagine I’ll try to leave Linus there at least once – and possibly twice – each week.

High Hopes

I’m hoping that, along with the specific benefits for Linus, my mental health will benefit from having a routine that gets us out of the house and doing something positive. The fact that it’s done by lunchtime means that I’ll be able to schedule other things for the afternoons if I need to, or can simply get into some housework without feeling like the kids are missing out on fun. And being so involved in Playcentre and my children’s learning and development will be a good grounding should I decide to home-school.

And please oh please! let this help make Linus a bit easier to cope with at home!!!!

Bug = 3 years 7 months
Bub = 1 year 9 months Linus at this age
Bud = 1 month 24 days Linus at this age – Ada at this age

In October last year Linus started going to kindergarten, and for over a month it went pretty well. But in December*, just before the end of term, I decided to pull Linus out for a number of reasons.

The main reason was that, with me going back to work in the new year and Linus attending kindy on my three days off, I felt that I’d be missing out on too much time with Linus and that the family wasn’t going to get benefits that would make that sacrifice worthwhile.

There were other contributing factors that helped with the decision. None on its own would have stopped us going to kindy, but they added up:

• Linus was still needing naps in the afternoon, which made the time after kindy less than relaxing, and also meant that he was almost due for a nap when kindy started – not the best time of day to be encountering a new environment full of people you don’t know very well!
• After a good first month, Linus started to cry every time I left kindy (not to mention throw paddies later when I tried to take him home). Of course he was fine almost as soon as I’d gone, but I found it quite harrowing.
• The length of session (2 hours) was so short that it didn’t give me much of a break, especially if I tried to walk him there or home.
• 2 hours in the early afternoon is quite disruptive to the family’s entire day – it doesn’t leave much time for other activities.
• Linus must have had a negative encounter with one particular boy (“Simon”), and ever since then (even NOW, a YEAR later!) he’s piped up with “Simon pushes me!” and other accounts of Simon’s wrongdoing. I’m sure the memory has been blown out of all proportion, but it’s hard for kindy teachers to help these relationships along when they have a short length of time, just three sessions a week, lots of children, food to dish out, activities to write up, and nappies to change.
• I’m considering home-schooling my children, and felt that I needed to get used to spending days with my children and focusing on them, with activities adjusted to suit the family as our needs change.

Bug = 3 years 7 months
Bub = 1 year 9 months Linus at this age
Bud = 1 month 20 days Linus at this age – Ada at this age

Today was the first time I’ve seen any of my children playing at breastfeeding a toy… if Nana hadn’t pointed it out, I probably wouldn’t have worked out why Ada was busily trying to stick her baby doll up her top!

Bug = 3 years 7 months
Bub = 1 year 9 months Linus at this age
Bud = 1 month 15 days Linus at this age – Ada at this age

As I’ve mentioned a few times, one of our favourite children’s books is Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. The copy we had was a very tatty secondhand one that I’d bought at a stall a few years ago, so when I recently received a Whitcoull’s voucher, I decided that I’d treat us to a brand new copy.

When it came to dealing with the old book, though, it seemed wrong to throw all the lovely pictures out, and there were too many to make into fridge magnets. At the same time, Linus’s new bedtime routine had begun, and with it the reduction in the amount of reading time he gets. I decided that the solution to both issues was to make a WTWTA “library box” to hold the children’s current library selection in an accessible and distinctive location. Hopefully for years to come such a box (in various forms) will exist for the whole family to enjoy. (Previously most of the library books had been kept in a cupboard that the kids couldn’t reach and only a few were out at a time.)

The pictures have been stuck onto a cardboard box using a glue stick, and I’ve covered the entire outside of the box with Duraseal. Ada has climbed in it a few times, but I’m trying to encourage Linus and Ada to be gentle with the box so that the product of an afternoon’s work lasts a couple of months at least!