Nursery painting 2-4 yo nails

[Vanillalatte1]

My 4 year old DS returned from nursery with his nails painted and said it was varnish day at nursery and that the teachers were painting the kids nails. Is this normal? The kids are between 2 - 4 years old. They seem a bit young to me.

The eyfs is very specific about which areas children need to cover. All children have to meet 'skills' by the end of the phase so, no, teachers don't have time to dick about with make up. That's literally one parents can do if they wish.

And how is sitting still for an adult more fun than doing their own creative task?

Lol my ex was the same. I would send DS off for the day with beautifully painted nails and toenails as was his wish, bless him, and he would return home with it removed by ex-MIL. Then we'd just paint them again 😂

nail varnish is a common allergy too - usually shows up with dermatitis on the face (as we all touch our faces so much)

My DP paints his toenails and he is both very masculine and a veteran. Saying it’s ’not for boys’ is ridiculous. Imagine if we said that having short hair, playing football, being an electrician etc was ‘not for girls’!

Course they have time to dick about, are you kidding? These are 2-4 year olds! Dicking about is exactly what they are meant to do, you know... Having fun? 😂
Is messy play not allowed either then?

Panting nails actually requires a lot of control and use of fine motor skills anyway, and playing nail salons is good for imaginative play and role play. I am dumbfounded by some of these responses.

Both mine (ds and dd) had nail varnish (toddler appropriate the one that lifts off) at that age - my dd used to love to ‘paint’ nannies nails too!

Why are you dumbfounded? The children weren't actually learning anything or doing anything for this activity apart from sitting still?

Of course messy play is allowed and encouraged as the children will be actually learning and doing something whilst engaged in the messy play.

I’d be grateful you’d found a nursery where your child has so much fun OP. My DD’s would love this

But it's not the children using those fine motor skills is it? It's the adults painting their nails so holds no value.

As I said up thread if you had bothered to engage properly, a planned event using appropriate paint, permission and taking into account allergies where children painted their nails is entirely different. Unless I have misunderstood, perhaps op you could clarify.

Nursery workers are trained professionals. They don't get paid to dick about. They get paid to extend children's learning through play. It's an insult to them you think it's just funsies. The skill is doing activities that are fun and develop the necessary gross and fine motor skills etc.

Sitting on your arse having nails painted by adults is neither fun nor useful.

Panting nails actually requires a lot of control and use of fine motor skills anyway

I agree, but the nursery teachers were the ones painting the nails, so it's not a learning opportunity. I love the idea above about using water colour paint, and that sounds much more appropriate and child led.

YANBU OP, I have no problem with parents using child friendly nail polish on their children, but it's not a decision nusery should be making, especially without informing the parents.

Kids need to be able to dick about sometimes. Not every bloody thing has to be a learning experience. Although I'd argue that having fun for the sake of it is an enriching experience and as good for nursery kids development and well being as learning to read and write.

Both my kids love having their nails done. The 7 year old only has his thumb painted these days.

You can get nail varnish that washes off for little kids.

However I'm not sure I'd want the school to do it without permission.

Well that's lovely but not a recognised approach in childcare. Take it up with Ofsted.
Ps how to tell me you don't work with children without telling me that you don't work with children.

My son had an allergic reaction in crèche, we figured out it was ketchup they had dipped some food in. We don't eat it at home because my older children don't like it. I just asked his carer to not offer it to him again.

I believe varnish it’s just part of playing like dress up, or like using coloured chalk in their hair. If you don't want them to do it again then just tell them.

Do you really think they just sat in silence whilst doing their nails? You can turn almost anything into a learning moment.

Pretend play is always beneficial. Maybe they weren't at nursery but were at a nail salon getting ready for a party.

They could talk about colours, especially with the younger children. What colour is this? Which colour is your favourite? etc

I sincerely hope that you don't work with children. I'd avoid any nursery you worked at like the plague.

Because people are saying that there is no time for messing around in the EYFS, that children should always be engaged in a learning activity. It's total nonsense, some kids spend 10 hours a day at nursery, they are tiny children.
The most important thing is that they are happy and having fun, emotionally well looked after and that adults are talking to them and engaging with them. My son loves painting his nails, he asked my mum for her sparkly polish. He is just having fun with paint and colour, trying different combinations, looking at how it sparkles. Everything in life is a learning opportunity for a toddler.

And me.

Learning through play is learning. Messy play, playdough, doing own crazy hairstyles, planned nail painting by children could all be fun activities .
Sitting still for an adult for ten plus minutes it takes to paint nails is neither play nor learning.

Everything else people are mentioning has a value. Tottering about in dress up shoes has a value.
Sitting still for a real beauty salon is not imaginative play and no, again, I wouldn't expect to see a well planned childcare provider give it the time of day.

And that's absolutely fine you'd avoid me. There's currently a shortage of childcare and I've no shortage of parents who understand more than one thing at a time. Thank you

I think you're being a bit too judgmental...shock!!! I have no problem with boys wearing whatever they want. My son jumps around in a tutu which is part of our dress up box. It's a children's tutu never referred to it as being a boys or a girls tutu. Just a tutu.

Sure.

I've been meaning to start this on Sundays with my two! Teach them the Importance of R+R and get my self cafe Sundays back on track too 😂 thanks for reminding me.

Ignore op. They love a straw man. Instead of addressing the main concerns of health and safety and what they are actually learning, safeguarding and ratios they'll call you a homophobe.

As I said upthread, the correct way to do this would be to seek permission for anything going on child's skin and have children do it. Which would be perfectly valid, but I imagine most nurseries wouldn't want the admin or risk assessments.

As a pp said, things like sunscreen need explicit permission and usually a personal bottle so the same standards would apply to nails.

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

Great come back 👏