MF at last! Now for the £300,000 'Mansion' Fund.

earthgirl

I still haven't wrote to Nursery. I must do it next week - baby only goes until Friday.

I had a lovely day yesterday. No tutoring clients, and earthlet and I went into town for a wander. I got some sunglasses reduced from £28 to £2, which I did need. I also got earthlet some cheapo disposible nappies for the holidays, just incase, so that we don't use his expensive [EMAIL="p@mpers"]p@mpers[/EMAIL] during the day. There are 30 nappies in the cheapo pack, I am determined to make them the only emergency nappies we use till september.

I also got some other neccessities - cotton wool for baby and I to use (I used to use expensive make up wipes, but now just use our stock of baby lotion.) I also got cheap ant powder incase we have another wasps nest starting again in the future - no way I am paying another £70 to get rid of them, I hate them enough already! I know all animals are important, but I just can't rub along with wasps outside my front door.

I read India Knight 'the thrift book' from the library yesterday, and it was really useful and funny. I liked the presents ideas, and I didn't know [EMAIL="lakel@nd"]lakel@nd[/EMAIL] did a thing to do your dry cleaning! There are loads of other tips, I will have to read it again.

To do today:
- check electricity tarrif
- Ebay some items (last chance before going on holiday really)
- clean
-I'd like to get out in the garden, but this is weather dependant

museumworker

Glad you liked the book, I think there is quite a lot to learn from there, and it is a funny read too! I still mean to buy those Lakeland dry cleaning things...

gratefulforhelp_2

No help on the nursery front, but I hadn't realised you were tutoring, marking and working full time with a baby?

Blimey! And going for promotion?

CathT

I can't believe nursery are overcharging you like that. I feel lucky that DD's nursery literally charge me for the hours she attends. When we had all the bank holidays I didn't even fulfill the minimum hours as it wasn't my fault they were closed (and I had to find alternative childcare for these days) and there was no comeback.

Rather than work it out in weeks can you work out what you owe in sessions?

Megadebtor

Hi EG,

I would write a really polite letter saying that there must be "a misunderstanding on their part" and that you "assume it's an administrative error".
I would go on to say that although the 1st July was indeed a Friday, the nursery was actually closed and you had to find and pay for childcare elsewhere.
(I'm also surprised that you pay on a weekly rather than a daily rate but maybe various nurseries charge differently.)
I would also let them believe that you are planning to enroll your (future) second child with them and that "in the interest of future cooperation, I would be grateful if you were to reconsider this charge, especially as, due to nursery closure, you (the nursery) were unable to look after earthlet on that day."

You can still go guns blazing if they refuse to be reasonable. Good luck

museumworker

Oooh, good wording Megadebtor, I like the approach

wantabetterlife

Hi Earthgirl, how did you get on with the nursery yesterday...it was DS last day wasnt it?

earthgirl

Sorry I have not posted for a while, end of term madness. I finished school yesterday for almost 7 weeks!!! Yay!! I got most of the work done that I wanted to, so I am very happy to not bring any school work home.

My general activites for the next 7 weeks are a few tutoring lessons per week, looking after the baby, and work on my tutoring business and ohs business.

Yes it was his last day at nursery, and I was sad for him as he loved it there. I got a pile of 'artwork' that he had done, and they had made up a photo album of his time there. it was very cute!!

I have started to make a list of lots of different activities that I could do with him at home, as I am worried he will get bored! I will try and get him out to meet up with my friends children, and there is a baby event at the library to take him to.

Other than that I have come up with:

music - banging on pots etc
senses - different patterns and things to touch
play dough - is he too young at 11 months?
boxes to empty
cause and effect - building towers, emptying water out of things
ball play
puppets / soft toys
books
bubbles
painting
climbing
sorting shapes

and obviously going on walks, to the park, and visitng animals that live around here.

Could any mums and dads out there rack their brains to think of things their little ones like to look at or play with??? Either for free - kind of recycled stuff, or good value toys that can be used again and again?

I wrote to the nursery and the manager agrees that the bill is wrong, it was a nice letter. It is the finance dept that sorts it though, but they don't have access to my bank account, so I am pretty sure that I won't have to pay anymore.

cha97michelle

Great result for the nursery.

I bet you are glad it is the hols the pace you were doing. I just posted you some ideas over on my diary hon, and no, i would say he is not too young for play dough with supervision. Seems like you have a great little list there. Our best value toys at that sort of age were stuff like balls, building bricks, and loads of board books, like the 'that's not my...' series, and we also did some baby signing with a DVD. I hope you get some other feedback too.

I just used to go up to the park for a play on the swing, and get my two involved with stuff with me. Like even when small they can get pegs out the peg bag with you, or help load the washing machine and unload.

I also used to let them sit in boxes, sometimes putting a window or door in it for them, or build a den. Or we'd pretend a box was a boat or train, or pretend to bath the teddy, or whatever they seemed to fancy.

Brodiebobs

stickle bricks are good too, he'll like to chew on them and pull them apart, DS got some for his 1st birthday and still plays with them almost everyday, as does DD who's seven, bis had the wheels to make cars!!