I had decided before coming to London that V would have to attend some sort of summer school/camp – at least in the mornings. He generally has better days when he’s in some kind of routine.
Many of the places I found were sports or drama camps and I really didn’t feel that they would suit V.
A friend recommended a place in May or June. I checked it out and got in touch with the head. This seemed like a good place for V. The head sent me the enrolment forms, but I never got round to filling them in. *embarrassed face*
V was super busy when LagosDad was here. They went to the Zoo, the aquarium, the Natural History Museum, Hamleys and were generally just out and about.
Once LagosDad left, it was up to me to entertain V. I managed the park a few times. Usually I leave that to our nanny. I took him to LegoLand one day with a whole bunch of friends. He loved it – but it took me two days to recover! We joined the library and basically ran errands together. V never complained. He loves going on the bus, buying ice cream and helping me sort out baby things. But I felt bad for him.
I had tried getting in touch with the head from the summer school again, but my emails and phone calls went unanswered. I subsequently found out that she had travelled and new students couldn’t be enrolled until she was back.
She got back last week, I went round there and V started on Monday. Hooray!
School is from 9am to 1pm. And he settled really well. No tears or anything.
However… There has to be one, right?
Instead of sending a snack to school with him, the children are given fruit at about 10 or 11 am. This is an excellent practice. But V will not eat fruit. He is a very, very poor eater. So he didn’t have snack. And he refused lunch. So when I picked him up, one of the teachers said he hadn’t eaten anything and they couldn’t give him his own snack as it wouldn’t be fair on the other children. I completely agreed with her.
On Tuesday he nibbled a bit of apple. But still wouldn’t eat lunch. He won’t eat pizza or pasta or sandwiches or fish fingers or any vegetables.
On Wednesday they suggested I collect him at 12pm instead of 1pm as he was just watching the others eat and was getting hungry!
I’ve been feeling bad for him, as he’s so hungry when I pick him up, but I also think it may be the only way he’s going to learn to eat new things.
The fact that he actually puts apple in his mouth, and eats a bit of it, is shocking!
Ideally, I’d like to enrol him at this nursery until half-term or even a bit longer – it depends on when we go back to Lagos – but what to do about this eating thing? He won’t even try the lunches (which means he misses out on dessert).