Cold weather

[Inspired by Reggio]

I agree that in an ideal world common sense would be enough ~ in centre care we ended up having to have clearly defined 'policy' to avoid constant conflict cause well everyone's common sense comes in different sizes these days and what is common sense to one person is not to another sadly ... we had staff who would argue over if it was too cold the minute it got -0 cause they hated the whole going outside or you had parents would get angry that their child was outside in what they deemed too cold and the other parents angry because their child did not go outside cause they thought it was lovely out there.

I hate conflict and trying to guess what other parents common sense about outdoors might be can be a challenge ~ easier for me to define MINE in my handbook so it is clear upon enrollment that we go outside daily unless certain specific conditions are met .... so send your child prepared for outdoors daily cause chances are we are going outside for some portion of the day rain or shine.

My home town just had an issue this last spring around the challenge of whose common sense to follow when taking kids outside ~ Environment Canada had issued a high wind warning for our city and well it did not seem too windy to the staff at a local childcare centre so they used their own judgement and took the children outside anyway cause the centre did not have a clear policy on what to do in a 'weather warning' and well a big ole tree in the yard got blown down and 3 children were injured by it ... were the staff 'wrong' in their judgement to have gone outside that day? Many parents felt so!