| Starting nursery can be enormously beneficial for children and their families, but it can cause some anxiety for everyone involved! So, what can be done to make the process of settling children into nursery positive for both parent and child?
Here at First Steps, we make sure we hold your hand (quite literally in some cases!) through the whole process from that very first session to when you finally leave them and walk away feeling assured they’re in very safe hands. There is no exact formula for settling a child in, as we’re sure you’re already aware, each child is unique so no one process fits all. We make sure we take as long or as short as your child needs to feel at ease in our care. In the first session, you will accompany your child, we encourage you to play games with them, read a story, do whatever will make them feel happy in these new unusual surroundings. The session usually lasts an hour. It is also a great time to get to know our team better and ask any questions you may have. In visit number two, you can leave your child with us, but only if you feel happy too. If you would prefer to stay – you can. This time it will just be a little longer. If you are happy to leave your child it is usually for an hour or so. A lot of parents will nip for lunch or a coffee and then come back to pick up their child. Visit three is where we often see all children being left with us for a good few hours. We play games, give them their lunch, and generally get them used to a usual day at First Steps. If then, you and your child are both happy, we normally won’t see you again until their first official day with us. Again, this process is only an example, we always take each child’s needs into consideration, as well as the parent! Ultimately, it is our job to make everyone feel comfortable and truly happy to be at First Steps and we will do all we can to make that happen. |
Getting settled in
