Looking for a nursery for the twins

We are going to visit a nursery this morning. The twins are entitled to their free hours from next January and that time will be here soon. i know you need to ook well ahead if you want certain days in popular nurseries.

Without their free hours it will cost about £18 per hour to send two of them to nursery, such a lot of money! So i am doing my reseach. Some will charge exrta if you are late collecting them. I'm always late so that's not good for me. Some offer discount for siblings, that is good.

I was very happy with the nursery my oldest child went to, it was Fledglings in Ramsgate. I like these details:
1.they were only given water to drink because juice is bad for teeth
2.the children had times in different rooms through the day, as well as an outside play area there is a big hall
3.they went out for walks
4. they had their own packed lunch which i provided, what ever he did not eat would come home to me in the box so I would know. The nursery could provide lunch but I like to know what he is eating.

Some nurseries are awful. When research for my older son I went to see one in Thanet (not in Ramsgate) which was so awful that I had many sleepless nights feeling sorry for the children who were there.

The owner looked like a witch, that was sign number one! The youngest children (under 18 months) had to stay in one small room ALL DAY. They didn't go in the garden, out for walks, or even play in a different room. They did go to a dining room for lunch. The witch told me it was too much upheaval to take the little one to the gardens but the bigger ones did get out to play.

She told me she couldn't trust her staff to take them out for walks in pushchair because they could be smoking and on the phones to their boy friends. She told me the youngest children couldn't have books in their room because they would get ruined. Can you imagine leaving your toddler in such a unstimulating environment all day. What about in the care of a witch with bad attitude. in fact, it must be pretty awful to work there too!

From a web search I can see that there is still childcare at the sme address but it appears to have been taken over in 2004. Lets hope changes for the better. Perhaps Hansel and Gretel stayed at the nursery and pushed the witch into her own oven.

The Twins Have Chicken Pox

My daughter had Chicken Pox and there was no sign of them on her twin brother. The GP told me two things.
The boy would develop all the symptoms exactly 14 days later and he would get it worse.
Well, the 14 days are correct. Amazing! I don't know whether it will be worse as the poorly symptoms are just starting and I don't know why the GP made such a prediction.
More about Chicken Pox on my previous post.

Why do Children Always Need the Doctor Out of Hours

 I have noticed that my three children most often get sick enough for me to want a clinical opinion at the weekend.  Usually Saturday just after normal GP suggeries have closed.
I don't think there is any answer as to why, how do their little bodies know that most medical staff have gone home?
Yesterday was a typical example.  Boy twin was coughing and a bit miserable Friday night and Saturday morning but waited until midday before he started heavy breathing such that i thought he might need to be admitted to hospital for a nebuliser!  Actually I managed to get to see the out of hours doctor within 2 hours, which is probably faster than I would have seen my GP! Antibiotics were prescribed.

Only last week girl twin developed Chicken Pox.  Sure enough the very first spots appeared on Saturday, sure enough Sunday was followed by bank holiday Monday.  I was fairly certain it was Chicken Pox.
I know that GPs do not need to see Chicken Pox, there is no treatment but soothing Clamine Lotion and Paracetamol.  My daughter had red, painful eyes, however, so I wanted to check that it wasn't actually Measles or whether she needed treatment for Conjuctivitus.  The doctor told me sore eyes is a symptom of Chicken Pox as well, I didn't know that, and there was no treatment.  Her eyes are much better now, by the way.

This short film introduces the symptoms of Chicken Pox