My New Life!

Last week was a very exciting week for us. I had a taste of my new life!! 

Every child aged 3 & 4 in England gets 12.5 hours of free child care a week! There are heaps of different types of child care - Nurseries, pre-school, children's centres - it was all a bit overwhelming at first and I didn't really know what was what. We aren't 100% sure yet if we qualify for the free hours, and I didn't even know if I was going to bother - but everyone I spoke to was like 'so where if Leilani going to Nursery?' 'Is she in Nursery' etc. It's like the done thing here that if you are 3 you have at least some sort of 'pre-schooling/childcare'. 

The more I thought about it all and the more time we spend here away from family and friends the more I realised that I did need to get the girls in somewhere. And if Leilani is free then why wouldn't you!!? We have to pay for Emily but I decided it was worth sending her too - the girls will settle better if they have each other and Emily needs 'other kid contact' just as much as Lani.

We found Hollies Children's Centre - and it is fantastic! After a couple of weeks of 'settling in' (they came here for a home visit and then we had 2 x 2hr sessions there) it was time to take them in and not collect them again for 4 hours!! Yes, you read correctly - 4 hours in the afternoon (1pm - 5.00pm) 2 days a week! 

Here they are trudging off to their first session... they were so happy!

And if you think they missed me... then you are WRONG!! They loved every minute of it, and didn't even care when I left! It's a fantastic place - with a huge out door area with cubbies, slides, climbing frames, bikes, sand and everything else you can think of! Inside has pretty much everything you can think of too! 

They have a singing time and do lots of different activities together. The carers are all really nice and have no more then about 20 kids there at a time (including babies in the baby room). 

After 4 hours of non-stop play the girls still didn't want to leave! After the 2nd session Lani was introducing me to her 2 new friends, Phoebe and Maddison. And one of the little boys there does swimming with her also, so that was kinda nice. 

When I asked 'Did you miss me?' the reply (from Leilani was) 'No... but I still love you!!' 

At first I kinda felt guilty for leaving them there - it's not like I have a job or anything, but I now know we are doing the right thing, especially for Leilani because she starts school next year, and she needs that interaction with other kids before she goes (as we are not there for her to do pre-kinder). 

I'm excited for the girls, they love it and I'm sure they are going to learn lots of new things - things which I can't really give them on my own. (Some of which will probably be bad... but I guess that's the way it goes). 

I'm excited for me!! I know I will be a happier Mum with some 'me time', some of which will be spent on me - and some catching up on the 'home-maker' duties - which will then in turn give me more quality time to be with the kids'. 

We miss our family and friends - especially during the week, when you just wanna get out for a while and drop in and say hello to someone for a minute! It's been very different (as you would expect) and the kids have missed being able to say 'can we have a sleep over at Locke & Jenna's tonight?, or 'can we go down and see Meea and Grace?' or 'can Charlotte come over to play?' etc etc ( I could go on here forever!!!) 

We have met some wonderful new friends here though, and Leilani has already said 'When we go back to Tasmania, I am going to miss Adelphi' (one of her friends from church)! We get together and see them a bit, and have spent some lovely days together, but it's just different I guess. 

So anyway... now I spend Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday dreaming about what I am going to do on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons!!!! Aren't I lucky!!!! I may even have to look for a job!!