How to Prepare Your Child for Daycare
Helping your youngster adapt to a new environment is a circumstance even the most skilled parents struggle with from time to time. Working through this transition takes time, patience, and understanding—from both parents and children. To help you make the most of this pivotal life stage, here are our top four tips on how to prepare your child for daycare at Kids R Fun in Calgary.
Establish a Daily Routine
In many instances, the unfamiliar sights, sounds, and smells involved in a life transition may cause discomfort in your child. Having to enter a new environment that doesn’t include Mom or Dad is understandably nerve-wracking for youngsters. One way to help your child embrace his home away from home is by setting up a daily routine. Familiarity often fosters comfort, and by introducing a new routine before daycare begins, your child’s time at daycare will feel less abrupt.
Bring a Toy or Item from Home
While your child may not protest your initial departure from home, sometimes they are reluctant to make new friends or take part in activities. Allowing them to take a favorite item or toy from home often eases these up-front anxieties and helps them step into new surroundings. It can also act as a conversation starter or a bridge to playing a game with a new friend.
Consider a Gradual Transition
If your child continually dreads departing for daycare or hasn’t taken to the other children, adults, or environment yet, it may be time to implement a gradual transition. After checking with the daycare’s staff, remaining with your child for incrementally less time can help them accept that it’s okay for Dad or Mom to be gone for a while. Start with hanging around for 60 or 45 minutes, then 30, and then 15, as your child grows more confident in this new place.
Form Relationships with the Caregivers
While helping your child successfully transition is a top priority, getting to know their caretakers is an excellent method for additional support. If there are any activities your child loves or has a strong aversion to, offering this information to the daycare staff helps them make informed decisions. Building these relationships also allows them to share highlights and recent developments with you, so you can pick up where daycare left off when you see your child next.
Remember that even the most outgoing children sometimes have difficulty feeling comfortable in the midst of change, and that is completely normal. Understanding how to prepare your child for daycare is a step-by-step process that is often extremely rewarding.
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