It’s almost here: your child’s first day of nursery! It is not uncommon for parents to feel a mix of excitement and nervousness as it approaches, and you may be thinking about how they’ll settle into their new environment.
Don’t worry, although it can seem daunting, there are several steps you can take to help your child transition to Nursery with as little difficulty as possible.
Read on to find out the top tips for helping your child get used to education!
Get to know your Key Person
The Happy Days Key Person approach ensures a tailored and highly personal experience for your child, and getting to know your Key Person early will help improve the process.
Your child will build relationships with and trust their Key Person who will give them consistent and continuous care and attention. That Key Person will be assigned before your child starts their nursery journey, so you and your child feels secure starting with one relationship already built.
Make use of our ‘settling in’ sessions
Happy Days are proud of our comprehensive and effective settling in sessions, they are designed to help both you and your child to feel comfortable in their new setting. These sessions take place before your child joins the nursery, allowing you and your child to meet your key person, and the wider team, and allows us to complete the necessary paperwork.
As these sessions continue, we will start to build up the time you are away from your child so that they can get used to being away from you. This helps to make their first full days much easier and leave your child feeling more comfortable.
During these periods apart, we also help your child experience all aspects of nursery life, including meal and nap times, outdoor play, structured activities, and more. By the time their first day rolls around, your child will be excited and ready to start their journey, and you can relax knowing that they will be carefully looked after and happy during their time with us.
Help your child get used to social activities
To help ease them into playing with other children, it could be worth organising or joining existing play groups.
These can be very beneficial for children and will help develop their social skills and understanding of concepts like sharing, while also making them more comfortable when meeting other children and new people. It could be especially useful if you can find others who are starting nursery at the same time, as you could help build relationships before starting at nursery.
Encourage some basic tasks at home
One of the best ways to help with the practical aspect of nursery is to encourage your child to practice some of the regular tasks that happen during your typical day at nursery. Encouraging positive characteristics such as sharing toys, playing games that take turns and putting things back.
To start with, you could ask them to put their toys in a toy box or to hang up their coat, developing good habits we can then build on once they join us!
Create a suitable morning routine
Getting your child ready for nursery while you’re also getting ready for work or trying to do essential tasks can often be a challenge. Before starting nursery, consider trying to create a consistent morning routine that you know won’t leave you rushing out the door.
By having a semi-regular time when your child should wake up, have breakfast, get dressed, and plan it around the time you have free to help them, you could help significantly reduce stress levels in the morning.
Practising this before nursery will also help your child to be more acclimatised to this by the time your child starts.
Find a local nursery for you!
Are you looking to find a nursery or preschool for your child? Looking for an Ofsted outstanding nursery or preschool to ensure your child is getting only the best early education possible? Use our Happy Days nursery finder today!
The minimum we strive for is an Ofsted good nursery, and we work diligently to ensure that our nurseries are rated as highly as possible for our children. We have locations throughout the southwest of England and Wales that are routinely inspected by relevant local bodies.
Get in touch with our team today on 0800 783 3431 or email enquiries@happydaysnurseries.com to find out more!