Useful tips for preparing your child for nursery

Deciding whether your baby or toddler is ready for nursery is a personal decision and is based on a number of factors including how confident and ‘ready’ your child actually is for this big change; your child’s personality and your ‘need’ to send them to nursery (if you need to go back to work, for example), amongst other things.

Once you have made the decision, there are a number of things you can (and should) do to ‘prepare’ both yourself and your child for the upcoming changes. Your child starting nursery is a momentous occasion and signals both the end of one chapter in their life and the start of a new one. It’s a new phase in their development and one they (and you) will be both excited and nervous about. However, there are some things you can do in the months leading up to your child starting nursery to help make the transition easier (for you and your child).

1. Visit the nursery beforehand

Ask the nursery if you can arrange a visit for your child so they can see what their new environment will be like and for them to meet some of the nursery staff. Familiarising them with their nursery room and who they’ll be spending their time with will increase their confidence when the time comes for them to start. Ask the staff to help you show your child things like where they’ll put their belongings and where the toilets are so they feel prepared.

The nursery will also have formal settling in sessions where your child will be at nursery for a few hours at first (leading to a full day) to gradually introduce them to the environment and being away from you. Nurseries often take in children as young as six months and have special age-appropriate settling in sessions like these 1 year old nursery programs with qualified teachers.

2. Talk about nursery positively

You can help your child be mentally prepared for the big change by talking about nursery regularly and with enthusiasm.  Emphasise what a big girl/boy they are now that they’re about to start nursery and how grown up this makes them – something children love to hear! Talk excitedly about nursery as a place where they’ll make new friends, learn new things and have lots of fun. Most importantly, make sure they understand that they’ll be there for set hours only and not all the time. 

3. Read books about nursery

Taking the previous point further, why not read books together that depicts a child starting nursery and their experience so that your child imagines themselves doing the same thing. This will help prepare them mentally for the transition as they will have a visual representation of what will happen.

4. Encourage your child’s independence at home

At nursery, your child will be encouraged to start doing certain tasks themselves and being more independent. You can help prepare them for this by coaxing them to do things like going to the toilet or putting on their coat themselves in the weeks prior to them starting nursery. This will boost their confidence and make it less of a shock when they start nursery and are prompted to do things on their own. 

5. Plan a playdate with some of the classmates

If possible, try and introduce some children (or even one child) from your child’s class to them beforehand, via a playdate at home or in the park. If you’re on the school mum’s group chat, try and organise an informal meet-up of parents and children so your child will have a familiar face or two on the first day of nursery.