Daycare - revisited

I hadn't intended to post twice in a day, but a) the Red Sox are playing late in California and b) I was scanning through my previous posts and wanted to keep up to date with the news of our first year over here.

Everything was seemingly OK with the kids daycare, until 2 things happened. The first was that Sophie's main teacher made it clear to us that she felt she was struggling to make a relationship with Sophie. This became more apparent by her lack of enthusiasm when greeting Sophie in the morning, and when discussing her at pick up. Now Sophie can sometimes be picky about who she wants to be held by, especially when tired first thing in the morning, but she's a happy kid on the whole and has a thousand-watt smile that is hard to resist. This rang some alarm bells.

The second difficulty was a letter we received home, written in the owner's inimitably confusing style, which concluded with the brief statements that the centre would close at 5pm and that the fees (which we already felt were high) were to be increased by 5% in September. Given that we'd already had some trouble being late for 5.15, the early closure would mean even higher fees.

This meant that we were on the market for a new daycare. Whilst my parents were visiting, we drove through the town where my school is and we spotted a daycare literally on the other side of the road to my school. I investigated and found that it had spaces. It also felt much more like Jake's daycare back in Leeds, with plenty of kid artwork on the wall, small seats even in the infant section and lots of toys in the outdoor areas. The best part is that they feed her as part of the fees!

More tricky to organize was Jake. We're moving to a town with just under 4000 people, and one school that runs the gamut from K - 8, so daycare options there are limited. We were keen to have him start there, however, as this time next year he'll be starting kindergarten (given the spate of "first day at Reception" photos I've seen on Facebook, I feel quite relieved that he's got another year before formal schooling starts). Eventually we found an in-home care which also runs the before and after school care at Strafford school. Not only will Jake get good pre-k support, but he'll also start visiting school as part of this club in January, meaning that he'll already have an idea of where his kindergarten is and who will be in his class.

All of this has taken some time to organise, including who will drop off and pick up the kids on different days. However, the benefits include: Me leaving my classroom at 4.55 and cuddling Sophie at 5.00, no time limits on picking either kid up and no charges for not attending over the summer vacation. We should end up saving a bit of money in the short run, and even more when they turn 2 and 5 next summer. Going on vacation to Europe will suddenly save us $450 a week! Both kids seem to be enjoying the transition, and Sophie even gave her keyworker a cuddle this morning instead of screaming the house down. Watch this space for more developments in the future, but we think we've found a good system that works.

Hiking: Kids of the River

Initially, when I found out that Barrington had a town forest, I laughed until I cried. Given that this town of 48 square miles (Milton Keynes, my hometown is 34 square miles for comparison) must at least 75% trees, the idea of having a dedicated section of this as a "town forest" seemed like a waste of time. However, the more I live here and see how much land each housing development takes up (our new home has just over 1.5 acres, for example), and the idea of having sections of the town that are protected from development makes much more sense.

As part of my effort to become fitter, and also as my natural curiosity about my surroundings kicks in, I wanted to see what trails existed in Barrington for me to explore with the kids. This led me here:

http://www.barringtonconcom.org/Barringtons_Trails_%26_Conserved_Lands.html

Apart from wanting to join this association (I wonder if they have one for Strafford, our new home town?), I was instantly intrigued by the listing of 16 tracks of land that are town protected, and in particular the 12 trails that are linked. Always one for a good project, I started looking into these, and whilst none of them will represent a huge day hike, they all look emminently doable with a baby in a backpack and my son by my side.

So that brings us to today. It's the 4th of September and 75 degrees outside (a delightfully warm temperature without being too hot) and the humidity of previous weeks seems to have gone for now. Jake was snoozing, so I decided to take Sophie out for our first adventure, labelled Kids of the River.

This is a short hike towards the Isinglass River, one of the many waterways that crisscross Barrington, and one of my favorites, mainly because of it's middle earth sounding name. It's also shallow enough to play in and deep enough to canoe in (in a year that didn't have a drought). The trail itself starts less than 10 minutes drive from our house, though the sign is a little small, and you have to know that it's there to find it.

However, once you've parked up, the woods of New Hampshire are there for the taking. The path runs behind some houses (with some less than friendly signage), before heading left into the forest proper and towards the Isinglass. At the time of writing, the Barrington library has taken the book Sal's Blueberries and planted the pages on placards every 50 feet or so along the trial. I really want to take Jake on the hike before they remove it as I think it's a cute idea.

After the turn, the path runs in a straight line through the woods before bearing left at 90 degrees about a quarter of a mile in. The path is unmistakable, if nothing else for the story placards along it. 

However, for those feeling more adventurous, there is a marked "white" trail up a hill just after the "red" trail leaves the houses. It runs uphill for a couple of hundred yards before depositing you on a rocky outcrop which is quite beautiful in the dappled sunlight.

The white trail then runs downhill and brings you out just at the end of the red trail, where you'll find a picnic table next to the babbling Isinglass. It's a secluded spot and one that is ideally suited for a snack for hungry walkers. As we didn't have Jake with us, we simply signed the visitors book and turned for home, ready to return with more walkers and some smackerels for the picnic table.

As I walked back to the car, I ruminated on the fact that the walk would not have felt out of place in the UK, if it wasn't for the fact that there, the edge of the forest would have been fairly close and there would have been a dozen other families on the route. Here, the forest continues for miles in all directions and the trail is a small project run by some school kids and the local library. These will be a very different series of hikes.