Lazy and unstimulating nursery - when to draw the line?

[OutnumberedDad]

You were all so helpful to me before and I’m really hoping to pick your brains again so thank you so much in advance.

DD has just turned 3 and is showing lots of aptitude. She only attends nursery one day a week but we are looking to increase this now she is 3. However, her local nursery is a play-school which is a chaotic rabble and doesn’t offer any form of academic stimulation. At first, this was ok as our main priority was for her to stay local and make local friends but could this environment be damaging to her development as her nursery hours increase?

Between September and December we did not receive a single piece of artwork or anything produced by dd. On top of this, no effort is put in to her EYFS reports. The wording has been almost identical for all four reports in all sections.

For maths for example, according to the EYFS she has remained at the exact same level as when she first joined having just turned two. This means she is now currently assessed at being below her age. By way of context, DD is secure with size and shape, can count to and recognise numbers 1-100 (reciting or counting objects), do 1 more and 1 less and knows her number bonds to 10 (thanks Numberblocks!) Her key worker told us how all of the Auntie’s had her reciting 1-10 in 5 languages (a party trick she learnt off of Bounce Patrol!) and although dd can be stubborn, with an awareness of a ‘talent’ like this it is hard to see how they’ve spent even 1 minute over the last year ‘assessing’ her. Again, this isn’t the main reason why she is at nursery but if it is going to be the ONLY feedback we receive all term it could at least be accurate.

So, in short, we aren’t receiving any artwork and the EYFS is completed with no effort whatsoever. But...she has made friends there? Does this change things?

There is another decidedly average local nursery so we we have signed her up to a morning there on a trial basis to see if she likes it and we’ll contact her current nursery to try to get them to try a little harder as she’ll continue there in January for the other day. Will two nurseries be ok (she’s used to a variety of baby groups) or is this a stressful move?

What do we do? Please help!!

[user789653241]

Lots and lots of playing with interest do really good at this stage. So being at the nursery/preschool with lots of ideas and resources is great.
What my ds enjoyed at this age was a lot of educational toys, legos, building blocks, etc.. We were lucky we had a lot passed down from my nephew. Most he enjoyed was fraction toys, which was meant to make 1,using 1/2, 1/3, 1/4/, 1/5, 1/6, up to 1/12 pieces.
And I also bought a lot of train rail sets/blocks/legos/kinex/books/puzzles/magnetic letters and numbers/etc really cheap from charity shops. Also he loved the teaching clock(that we bought for 1.99 at charity shop), he was able to tell 8:41 or 19 minutes to 9 instantly thanks to being obsessed with it by 3.
Also I am amateur artist, so I had a lot of art material for ds to experiment.

[Bekabeech]

I'd suggest starting by working out what you want her to get from pre-school? For mine I wanted them to work on social skills and to let them try new activities. One of mine did very little art at one setting because they would offer them art which they would decline and not be offered again - they were then sad not to have a painting to bring home (this was not good enough in my opinion).

Then is the village nursery offering what you want? If not then look around for an alternative. Just because they went somewhere else before school won't harm their settling in at school, don't panic about that. Choose what is best for your child/family.

If mine were tiny I would be very tempted to travel out of town to a village that has a lovely "forest school".

[user789653241]

Oh yes, forest school would be ideal for young children with lots of curiosity.

[greendale17]

Any good nursery will tell you that 1 day a week is pointless

[user789653241]

greendale17, I do agree. My ds's manager asked us to increase days from 3 half days to five full days, for my ds's sake, too get most out of the social environment. Us sending our ds to nursery full time was nothing to do with childcare, only to do with his development.

[OnlyGlowingSlightly]

It sounds like your DD is sociable and easy-going, and wouldn't struggle with a second setting. But your other option doesn't sound any better!

We found that the 'childcare' type nurseries we visited were all quite similar. The one we chose was Ofsted outstanding, had good record-keeping and a permanent art area (ie the things you've picked up as missing in yours) but it was still mainly chaotic running around.

We found an enormous difference when DD went to a nursery which was part of a school. No academics, but loads of interesting, stimulating activities and careful thought about each child's individual development. All the good things mentioned by @bugaboo! I do think that having a qualified teacher makes a huge difference. Do you have a school nursery (led by a teacher) available?

Montessori nurseries can also have this thoughtful education-focused approach, but look carefully: many claim the Montessori label without genuinely practicing it.

In contrast, I also saw very academics-focused, hot-housing London nurseries, where the children spend a lot of time sitting at desks, doing structured activities, phonics etc. I don't think this is the best education for 3-4 yo - doesn't sound like it's what you're looking for anyway.

Good luck in finding a really great nursery for your DD.

[OnlyGlowingSlightly]

tldr; There is a big difference between education and academics.

It's not wrong to expect a nursery to have a strong focus on education. This doesn't require them to teach academics, or even have the kids sitting down.

[Sleephead1]

Now she is 3 can she not join school nursery for her 15 hours ? school nursery are mostly play based but do numbers/ phonics and getting ready for school skills. If she is 3 now they can usually join the term after third birthday have you looked into that