Call & Collect

Journal

Call & Collect

This morning I got the phone call I’ve been expecting would come since Elisha started nursery in December. They said she was ill, and could somebody come and pick her up because they thought it was a bug and didn’t want to put the other kids at risk.

When I went to get her I figured she’d be tearful and running a temperature, but she seemed alright to me. I gathered her stuff and took her out to the car, then figured that this (just after eleven on a Thursday morning) would be as good a time as any to take her to the Early Learning Centre for a play. That turned out to be the case, as it was pretty much empty and Elisha had a free reign to play with the bikes and other odds and ends.

I wanted to get her some flash cards with animals and stuff on them so we could help her learn them, but the closest I found was a jigsaw type of thing with animals and objects in different shapes that you had to match to the appropriate hole. I got that for her and a box of chalks so she could draw on the patio, too.

Once we were home I took her out into the back garden with a purple stick of chalk that she’d chosen from the box, showed her what to do with it, and then left her to draw while I made us lunch. The chalk didn’t seem to be a big hit, to be honest. She just left it on the ground and went for a wander into the garden next door.

I brought her back in for lunch and after that I showed her the jigsaw. We had fun for a while as I picked out an animal in turn and asked “what’s that?”, pausing for dramatic effect before telling her the answer, then giving it to her to put back in the board. She seemed to think it was good fun for a while, but then wanted to see if she could make the fish fit where the cat was supposed to go. Not exactly the point of the thing, but at least she was having fun with it.

One out of two isn’t bad – I’m sure she’ll warm to the chalks some other time.

Now we have to figure out who’s staying home to play with the jigsaw and chalk tomorrow, as Elisha cant go back to nursery for 48 hours or until the “bug” clears.

Rob