Nursery for socialising at 2 years

[redhollyberry]

My daughter will be 2 in a couple of weeks.

In Wales we have a kind of nursery/ play group where you can take your child from two years old - it's called a Cylch Meithrin. See here if you want to have a look: www.mym.co.uk/

The sessions are usually for a couple of hours at a time, and the children play and are spoken to in the medium of Welsh. The parents are not present.

My family keep on telling me to put my daughter down for this nursery, saying it'll be good for her social skills etc.

I'm not sure at the moment - My thoughts are that she's only 2, she's learning lots with me and DH, I take her to plenty of playgroups and out with my friends children so she plays with plenty of children, she is very confident already.

She will start school officially at 4, my mother says that this is too late, that I need to leave her with someone other than family before this time or she will hate school etc. She's not shy and is not clingy to me so I'm not really worried about this at present.

I was thinking of waiting a little while until she is at least toilet trained and converse with me clearly so that she can tell me if something is wrong etc.

What do you think? Any experiences of this?

No experiences with that but for me only my eldest went to nursery 10 months onwards, fulltime at first as I was working. With my other 4, I took them to 2 toddler groups a week and sent them to nursery at 2.9/3 with a full day on one day so they got used to having lunch. Only one of them struggled to settle st school but he is very sensitive and after the first term he loved it.

I don't think they need to be away from you at all. Personal choice. My almost 2 year old is only just beginning to notice other children and toddler group is just enough. He is used to, and is fine with, being without me for a couple hours at a time while I have been college/studying/taking other kids to appointments etc and has been with grandparents for short periods. All my others were the same and are independant going on cub/brownie camps aged 7, no probs.

Do whatever you feel happy with! Both mine were/are in nursery due to me working and enjoyed it. It might be good for her to have some time with other adults and it would give you some free time too! Equally, if you are happy with what you are currently doing, then it's not up to your family to decide.

Meant to say with my other 4 I have been a SAHM so they have been with me (or DH when he isn't working) nearly all the time till school.

I'm a part time student and my 2yo DS is with a childminder while I'm in classes etc. I did look at nurseries too, but I found that I prefer the idea of a childminder type of evironment at this age, mainly because 2 year olds are still mainly into parallel play, they tend to play next to each other and find it very difficult to share, developmentally. Taking turns is within their understanding but playing together with another child of the same age on one thing is very frustrating and difficult for them. I feel that at 2 they gain a lot more from playing with other children of differing ages, which doesn't tend to happen in a playschool/nursery type environment where they are usually in a "ones and twos" room.

However, the cm I found happens to have a child the same age as my DS, so I suppose that effectively he is in the situation that he's mainly interacting with another child his age, and actually his confidence and his language has improved massively over the last few weeks that he has been going there. (I still think that the cm environment is probably better at age 2 just because it tends to be a bit more home like and less institutionalised.)

It is your choice, and I don't think she will be harmed by missing out (or indeed by attending!) but I tend to agree with you that two year olds don't necessarily need socialising. You probably take her to groups and things anyway, I assume?

I definitely don't subscribe to the notion that you need to "get them ready" early for something which is going to happen in the future by recreating that situation at an earlier age.

Ah thank you jellybeans! Gosh you were quick replying - takes me ages to type things out!

Glad to hear your children have all settled in school - I feel a bit better now. I was also thinking that 3 may be a suitable age to send her as it'll give her a whole year to get used to it before school then and lots of children start school at 3 anyway. She seems to like other children but doesn't really actively play with them yet either.

She's mostly with me at all times but doesn't really care if I leave her with others, if fact she readily waves me off.

Thank you for your reply.

Thank you Jetgirl and Bertiebotts too - see I said I was slow at typing! There'll probably be more replies after I've posted this too.

Jetgirl - I do fancy some time to myself, especially with the terrible twos! That's at least one pro!

Bertiebotts - yes I know what you mean about children of different ages - I have a 6 year old nephew and my daughter absolutely loves him. She also likes playing with my friends 3 year old daughter a little bit more than children closer to her own age.

I'm not sure what my mum is getting at - I started school at 3 and totally loved it, I was desperate to see other children as she had never taken me to playgroups before - I didn't want to come home.

Thank you both.