Welcome to my Wendy House.......

Do you remember your nursery days? Apparently I attended nursery from being 2½ years old though, obviously, I don’t remember that far back because usually you can’t remember much before you are four years old.

My first nursery teacher was Mrs McManus – I remember sitting on her lap, her soft arms around me, her comforting voice, her smell (pleasant) – I loved her! She was a wonderful substitute for my Mum, who had to go to work to supplement the family income. I was happy at school, there was so much to do and so many children to play with; I didn’t have any siblings until I was five years old, so going to nursery was ideal for me. Of course some children cried all day because they missed their parents but Mrs McManus usually managed to soothe them and had them joining in the play before too long. We each had our own peg on which to hang our coats, with a picture on it to help us recognise our own peg, mine was a clown.

The most magical thing in nursery for me was the ‘Wendy House’. It seemed to me to be a perfect miniature replica of a real house and I just loved playing with the plastic tea-set, pots and pans on the cooker, curtains at the windows and it even had a bed! Of course all the girls, and just a few of the more ‘sensitive’ boys, wanted to play in the Wendy House so we had to take turns so everyone got to have a go playing house and looking after the children (the dolls).

I loved painting. Mrs McManus would set up the easels with a jar of water, brushes and paints, put a plastic apron on us that had sleeves and covered us from head to toe and off we’d go. Everything we produced was a ‘masterpiece’, according to Mrs McManus, and we were allowed to take the masterpieces home to our parents to be pinned on the wall.

Then there was the sand pit, not actually a pit at all but a huge (well everything looks huge when you’re 2½ ) metal tray on legs containing play sand, spades, buckets and other paraphernalia – a great source of fun, it was like being at the seaside!

We also got to play in the huge sinks, measuring water into containers with jugs, and various pieces of equipment which were like a domino effect where you poured water in at one end and watched it move various bits creating fabulous waterfalls. You can imagine the mess we made with that.

Mid morning we would have our little bottle of milk which we drank through a straw and in winter the crates of milk were put on the large metal cage which covered the heater to warm up – I still love warm milk – we always had a biscuit to eat with it too. Something else we were given was a teaspoonful of Cod Liver Oil (I think Rickets was prevalent then – yes I’m that old!) – I can hear you ‘heaving and retching’ - I loved it. I also relished the school lunches, there was always a proper cooked lunch with a pudding afterwards and never being a fussy eater I scoffed the lot!

After lunch Mrs McManus and her helpers would get out the little fold-up beds and set them out in rows, then we would all be settled down with an itchy woollen blanket to have a nap for an hour whilst the teachers had a well earned break. Afternoons meant more play with the many toys and games all designed to help us learn; threading beads on laces, building blocks, weighing and measuring, letter cards to make up words etc, etc. We never realised we were actually learning we just thought we were playing. The very last thing that happened before it was time to go home was story time, when we would sit cross-legged on the floor and listen to some magical fantasy that Mrs McManus read to us – oh I so enjoyed it!

When the day was over I was always glad to see Mum when she came to collect me, but I loved going back to ‘school’ the following morning to my surrogate mum and my school friends. All such a looooong time ago.

What do you remember about your first years at nursery or school?