Does you school help children to apply sunscreen OP?
We had to sign a form giving permission for someone to apply sunscreen to DS, and I send a bottle in every day with his bag but nobody has ever helped him apply it. He's four and (almost) a quarter, so not really up to applying it properly himself.
I also send him in wearing a hat, which nobody seems to remind the children to wear because when I go to pick him up I can see them all outside without them. Usually they are hanging on pegs as we go in the door.
We bought some sports bottles to refill with tap water, and he takes one in every day. Usually it's still full when he comes out, because they keep the bottles inside while they play out and when they do come back in, they can only go for a drink if nobody else is at the refreshment table. The refreshment table is out of sight of the main classroom. I think they just forget they've even got a drink with them most of the time.
It was the same in the winter. Parents were told we must provide waterproofs and woolies to be kept at school. So that meant a full set of jacket, trousers, wellingtons, winter hat, scarf and gloves kept at school all the time and they couldn't be worn home and brought back the next day.
Parents were warned that if they didn't provide all of this by a certain date that the school would provide a set and charge parents for them. And it was almost £50 for the full set of things, which is a lot of money for most families at this school.
Not once has DS worn the waterproofs. I know because I never saw him wearing them when I went to pick him up and they were still playing outside, he often came home with soaking wet feet and the bottoms of his trouser legs soaked from playing in the wet playground and, when they gave the waterproofs back to us this week before term ends, they were still clipped together by those plastic things that hold price tags on.
We do practice DS doing up zips, putting on shoes and boots himself etc, but those trousers in particular are not easy to put on over normal clothes, pull down properly over wellies and button up at the bottom of the legs to keep them tight and stop water getting in. Especially for children who had only just turned three as they were starting in September.
He's also been practicing rubbing in his own sunscreen, but I don't trust him to apply it all properly without either missing bits and still burning or covering himself and everything else in far too much of it.
And I think it's a bit much to expect children of 3-4 years old to put on their own sunscreen properly or remember it and ask for help with it (which nobody seems to have time to give anyway), or to go off in search of drinks, remember hats every single time or manage difficult zips and buttons on bulky waterproofs while bundled up in scarves, gloves and wellies as well.
I realise I've turned a bit ranty about this but it's one thing to say parents are not sending children in properly protected but another to know you are doing everything the school ask but these very young children are just not being helped to use all this stuff if they need it.
I've bought some all day suncream now and put it on DS before we go to school in the morning. Even then though, I think you are meant to reapply 15 minutes after sun exposure so I just have to hope they are using the other cream in his bag. Which he says they're not.
I can understand why some parents might not be sending things that don't get used anyway, even though I personally would rather send it with him and hope DS remembers for himself and gets help if he needs it.
