Children In Need & Christmas

[AmyLouise222]

I work at a Montessori Nursery and I must admit my boss is a little old-fashioned which is totally fine as we agree on loads. But she has told me we don't do anything for Children In Need. We take 2 1/2-5 year olds and she is concerned they wouldn't understand. Surely a pyjamas day or funny costume day would be fine and get them to all bring 20p or something and explain it is for children like them who don't have all the nice things they do. One child who is 4 told me she was wearing a poppy "it's for the soldiers who got hurt" so they are clearly intelligent. Even the 2 1/2 year olds understand some concepts.

As for the christmas party, I thought it would be nice to dress up as an elf or a christmas tree. I repect not everyone may celebrate christmas, but I think many of ours do. I was told to only wear a santa hat as I may scare the children. Might I add they all love dressing up and when we put the blankets round them when they want to dress up (we have no role play area as part of Montessori we give them material so they can interpret it themselves). The children often mention they dress up at home.

Just wondered others' opinions.

I disagree with your boss on the Christmas thing. Scare the children with a Santa Hat? Really? Does she honestly think thay won't see other people with Santa hats, or that it will obscure your face so much that the children won't know it's you?

I do agree about CinN though. I think the children can understand the basics, but to me, that's not the point. Schools, especially pre schools, should not be holding charity events that basically mean you have to make a donation or your child gets left out.

I don't support either of the charities run by the BBC, because I support other charities and have arious reasons why I disagree with them, and every year it annoys me that I have to buy a nose or something spotty and then make a donation on top of that just so that my kids aren't left out of an event.

your boss is wrong about CinN
my dd hs severe sn and goes to a sn school, they support it and the kids understand that it is good to help others(bizarre in away as they are the very ones being helped) so if the can get, surely nt toddlers and small children ca.
oh and he is just being a humbug about Christmas

Of course the kids understand.

My DD's nursery does loads, charity and otherwise, but there is zero pressure to participate. For example "Red day" (all kids wear red, just to learn about the colour, red painting, red objects, red food, etc). But if DC has no red clothes, it doesn't matter.

My DD is 3yo and loves it all. Even if the nursery don't collect money, encouraging the kids to learn about the cause/ event can only be a good thing and broaden their horizons.

Wow mixed feedback I am so thankful. I just wish I could dress up and get festive with the kids :/ I am like a big child myself when I get involved and interact. MrsUnassumingTroll that is exactly the sort of thing I would love to see. I can see how filofax feels though. There is a lot of pressure which is unecessary.

The thing is that if you do Christmas, you also have to do Diwali, Chinese New year, etc. It would be a lot of work. But worth it, I think. I bet the parents would be supportive.

RE Christmas, I was an elf in a grotto from the beginning of November, we terrified some children just by being dressed as elves! So your boss isn't being too unreasonable there imo. But I can definitely understand you wanting to dress up, I think I'm similar to you in that respect!

Kids do tend to understand the concept of CiN young so I don't get what she's on about there.

Last year I meant to add. I was an elf last year!

A colleague of mine celebrates Diwali and she brought everyone a cupcake in and taught them about the patterns they draw. I thought if I wore the xmas tree dress you would still see my face and so the kids would know it's me.