Helping Your Child Settle into Nursery More Quickly

Starting nursery can be a very stressful time, for the parent and the child, but there are a few things you can do to help relieve the tension. First of all, make sure that you are completely happy with the setting you have chosen. This means visiting several times and speaking to the staff, as well as trying to speak to other people in the community about it to get the full picture. Once you feel like you can trust the staff that will be taking care of your child, you will feel much better.

Below are a few ideas of how to help your child settling in to nursery and to help you feel happy leaving them there.

–    In the weeks leading up to your child’s first day at nursery start talking to them about it and how much fun they are going to have there. Be very positive and tell them about all the friends they are going to make and all the new toys there will be there to play with. Hopefully this will turn nursery into something to look forward to rather than something scary!

–   Many nurseries and childminders like to arrange home visits so they can meet the child in a setting their comfortable in first, so if they offer this service then definitely take them up on it. This will help your child to feel more secure when they arrive at nursery for the first time as they will already know somebody who works there.

–   If your child has a favourite blanket or soft toy that they can’t be without then consider letting them take it to nursery. Speak to the staff first and make sure that they know that it is very important to your child and that it’s not a general plaything for the other children.

–   Don’t let your child see that you are upset about leaving them at nursery, because this will upset them. Be very bright and cheery even if you’re not feeling it and be very purposeful when you drop your child off, don’t hang around for too long.

–   When your child first starts nursery there probably will be tears, because it’s a new and frightening environment that they aren’t used to and it’s a big change. It can be very upsetting to see your child unhappy but persevere and hopefully within a few days they will have made friends and settled in.

–   Make sure that you keep a good line of communication open with your childcare provider, especially in the first few days. The routine at nursery will be different to at home and your child is likely to eat and sleep at different times, so this might affect what you do when they get home.

These are only a few tips to helping your settle your child into nursery, so if you have any more handy tips then please get in touch and I will add them to the list!