Garden Policy

[Guest]

I had a very angry granddad moaning at me as his grandsons coat got covered in mud after being in the garden (this child LOVES to roll in the mud) as we cant stop children from getting messy i thought i would make a policy explaining to parents that this is what will happen at nursery and why. Has anyone else got one that i can use as inspiration, or know of somewhere that will poiint me in the place. I want to word it in a way which informs the parent so I dont end up with any more complaints, but Im rubbish at wording things

thanks x

[Beau]

We just had a line in our information booklet which stated that "Some of the activities can be messy, so send your child in appropriate clothing."

[Guest]

Hi, we raise the parents awareness to the fact that when they decorate, wash the car, 'do' the garden they wear work/old clothes - and nursery is the children's 'work'.

 

To appease them, we invite them to bring a change of clothes that they can help the children change into on collection if they aren't going straight home. We have also bought some cheap supermarket 'packamacs' to go over the top of their coats.

 

Good luck, it's always hard keeping everyone happy

 

 

Meant to say also that a display of lovely photos showing happy stimulated children might help improve parents and grand parents perception of outdoor play. Evaluate the learning in plain speak to help the message

Edited February 25, 2010 by gingerbreadman

[Shiny]

We have a large A2 poster made up of photographs of children taking part in very messy activities, mud pie making, jelly splatting, hand and foot printing, puddle jumping in mud, shaving foam in the tuff spot, cookery etc with a little bit of writing about what they are learning and how important it is!! When new parents look around the preschool we ensure that they get a really good look at this (we always choose the 'worst' most messy pictures to go on here).

 

What I am effectively saying is "This is what we do, this is how messy and mucky your child can get with us, if you want your child to stay beautifully clean and learn through a much less messy medium, please take them elsewhere."

 

It makes them think about suitable clothing!!!!

[Inge]

we too had a paragraph in our booklet about allowing children a wide range of experiences.. many of which included messy and outdoor play.. suggesting that parents thought abot what their children was wearing to pre-school and saying that while we did try to minimise the fisk with aprons etc we could not guanantee children would stay clean... or something like that... We also had something about suitable footwear after we had several come in flipflops or shoes with heels...

 

we also did the poster of really messy children for all to see with what they were learning from the play...

 

It does remind me of one child we had who was always well dressed and came in a white coat... often... but she was a real dirt magnet and only had to step outside to be covered in something, or touch a paintbrush for it to go everywhere... we often said sorry but.... and all mum ever said to us was that the day she came home clean was the day she would worry and ask about it... wish they were all like that..

 

Inge

[Guest]

I tell all my parents that "a messy child is a happy child" and that it is VERY unlikely they will ever return home in the pristine condition they arrive in!!

 

Each child has a change of clothes in a bag, which comes with them each day, so if they are going on somewhere after they leave me they can be changed if the parents wish.

 

The parents just laugh about the state of their little ones now.

 

Nona