CLANDON PARK NURSERY
Preparing to Start Nursery!
Preparing for Nursery
Here are helpful ways to prepare you child and yourself for nursery.
We have split how to prepare your child for each of the two main stages of the nursery whether it is into the baby room (Sleeping Bunnies 6 months -2 years ) Or the Pre -school rooms for 2 years until when they leave us for school. (Little Foxes, Percy Peacocks and Bonnie Badgers)
Sleeping Bunnies
- Socialisation
To prepare your little one for starting nursery can be hard as it feels the time has flown by and they are still so small. It is really good to begin socialising them at any small and large groups you can, so they can get use to have lots of little people around them who will crawl into their space and want to look at the same toys as them. Your local play group, baby sensory sessions or arts and crafts groups are all good ways to begin them socialising and to get use to the more noise of other children in a room. This can be daunting for many babies but this is very much a part of going to nursery, is that other children will be in their space and being able to cope with the noise of giggling, loud noises and even a few tears from babies ready for a feed will really help them to be prepared.
- Time away from you
Start getting your baby and yourself ready for not spending all your time together. Let other people look after your child for short periods of time and then build this up to the length of a nursery day-9 hours so your child gets use to being left with other people. Leaving your little one for short bursts of time will not only give them the reassurance you’ll be returning, but it also gets you used to having someone else look after their needs. This can take a while so the sooner you start this process the better. It will support your child not to be so upset when you leave and be use to not seeing you all the time. Children can suffer with separation anxiety and this is a good way to combat this.
- Sleeping time
As soon as you can make sure your child can sleep in a cot on their own and they do not need you to rock them to sleep and then be transferred from you to a cot. As much as we would love to have that lovely one to one time with your child we cannot in reality when there are other babies to also care for. It is a great way to support your child to become independent and supporting your child to self-soothe is an essential life skill and will really help you both in the long run.
- Breast feeding
It may be a good idea to start thinking about if you are breast feeding will you start weaning first before you start or will you provide formula or can you provide enough breast milk for your child throughout a nine hour day. This is important as having a baby very upset because they are hungry for breast milk, but you have not been able to leave the nursery with enough milk to cover the needs of your hungry baby is a real consideration. Especially if you can not leave work early to do a milk drop to nursery.
Make the first day of nursery as seamless as possible by practising the early morning routine.
If you haven’t been working to the clock in the mornings before your child starts nursery, it’s a good idea to start getting into the habit of getting up and dressed by a certain time, as well as eating breakfast in time to leave.
Keeping the morning routine calm and consistent will reduce stress and unnecessary rushing – allowing for a more positive first day of nursery.
Little Foxes, Percy Peacocks and Bonnie Badger Rooms (2 years to the leave for school)
Settling in sessions
No one likes being thrown in at the deep end, so to make that first day of nursery a little less scary, we offer settling-in sessions that allow little ones to explore their new environment and become familiar with the toys, activities, and exciting new spaces to play.
Settling in sessions are also a great way for the children to meet the team and their key person who will be working with them, to get an insight into what types of activities they will do, and what toys are available.
By getting familiar with their surroundings in settling-in sessions, that first day won’t feel like such a big deal (for them!).
Practising
- Get practising with key independence skills such as putting their coat and shoes on and off by themselves.
- Hanging their coat up by themselves and a bag on a peg
- Using a knife and fork by themselves and having a go at cutting their own food up.
- Being able to sleep by themselves and self-soothe if they are at an age where they will need a nap in the afternoon. It maybe a good idea if your child needs a sleep in the mornings to push your child to having a sleep in the afternoon. As Pre-school rooms are very busy in the mornings when most the children are wide awake and ready to go on lots of adventures! So a tired child mid- morning while out and about is difficult to manage and they will miss out on all the fun.
- Helping you to tidy up and put things a way. All little jobs are a great way to get them use to listening to instructions and working as part of a team and by themselves to build their independence skills which are essential life skills.
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