Front Yard Baths
Towards the end of 2019, Noah had developed a real dislike towards the concept of school (as we call childcare). It’s not that he didn’t enjoy himself while he was there - we had photos and reports from his teachers that he was having a good time. We suspect that he just wanted to spend more time with us at home.
Every morning for about 4 months, the first thing he would ask was, “where are we going?”. If the word “school” was mentioned, a meltdown followed shortly after. As you can imagine, 3 times a week, we would have this tug of war with him about going to school. Tears, screaming, begging for a never ending 5 more minutes at home. His grandparents had to drop him off while we were in hospital for the birth of Sophie and they described him behaving as if it was the end of the world, and had so much pity on him that they wanted to let him skip school altogether.
We tried our best to change his perception of school. Threats seemed to be contradictory for him to have a positive impression of school so we tried encouraging him and using rewards - snacks were used to lure him out of the house and the promise of “something special” after school, which was Milo. Unfortunately, they were all band aids to the fear that seemed to grip him about going to school.
One day, I arrive to pick him up and see that he is in the sand pit with his pants & shoes totally drenched in mud. And I mean, completely soiled. My greeting quickly turns into shock as I bent down to ask him what had happened. He replies with all kinds of excitement, “We are cooking mud!” before showing me a toy frying pan with a brown clumpy liquid while a blonde-haired girl giggles beside him. His teacher tells me that Noah & his new found friend have been joined at the hip all day and were playing with mud as food in the outdoor play kitchen. I smile as I listen to her but inside I am dying inside at the mess before me. I quickly proceed to get his spare set of clothes, give him a quick wipe down, and borrow some shoes from the lost & found section. As we walk out of school, the smile on his face is as big as ever. I gingerly place him in the car seat, trying my best to keep the car clean but quickly am resigned to the fact that the seat will need a wash after this episode.
On the drive home, I am adamant about not letting him drag his soiled self through the house, especially with a 7 day old baby. With the summer heat upon us, I come up with a brilliant plan and offer him a chance to have an outdoor bath in the garden. A few pails and a garden water hose later, he’s having the time of his life splashing about. As people walk by our house, they can’t help but smile, amused at the carefree time Noah is having.
That’s the story of how we started tradition of baths in the front garden in summer. But more importantly, that’s the story of how Noah made a friend and started to enjoy going to school. Till this day, he brings his rain boots in anticipation of the possibility of another glorious muddy play date.
We highly recommend 2 books that we read to Noah in an effort to make him enjoy school. Going to School by Rose Blake and Me & my Fear by Francesca Sanna. As much as these books didn’t necessarily solve his anxiety about school on its own, I think they helped build the foundation to creating positive associations with school.
