Our daycare doesn't have set transition points until you hit preschool age, but it goes by milestones/development. I delayed DD's first transition because timing was bad (DH was deploying the weekend before so it was too much all at once for both of us). She transitioned two weeks later and I was ok with that. I think I'd do it but request that it's after you're back from vacation.
I'd transition. She will get bored and will thrive even more with older kids. Our daycare does a really good job working through transitions. They slowly transition. So the first day it might be eating breakfast and if they do well they'll stay longer. They slowly increase the time in the new room each day.
I'd probably transition now too. Feel free to take my advice with a grain of salt since Z doesn't go to daycare right now. But at nearly 10 months right now, he is right on the cusp of walking. He actually prefers to watch and follow the older kids rather than ones his age and younger. I think if we were in your situation, he would get bored being in the younger room until next spring.
Even though I agree it's too early I'd rather transition now vs. at 18 months.
My center starts the toddlers at 15 months, and I had hoped (and expressed interest in) having DD start in that room at 13.5 months when we begin going to daycare, vs. having her start in the older infant room and transitioning after 2.5 months. But they told me that licensing wouldnt allow her to start early in that room, so we would have to start in the older infant room. I wanted to even more after visiting the daycare with DD and seeing that the room was really 5-15 months rather than the 8/9 months being the youngest. I feel a little weird about having her be the oldest and only walker. Although they told me that 2 other 13 month olds would be starting around the same time and I am hopeful about that.
Would your DD be the only one her age if you transition now? How far apart would she be from the current youngest in the toddler room?
Just to be clear, she's going to transition to toddler at 18 months +/- 3 weeks no matter what we do now, because that's the age where ratios will change. The question is just whether she spends the whole infant period in her current class before that 18m transition, or whether she splits her infant time between two infant classrooms (a younger and an older infant) with an added transition now.
In her current class, there's Hobbes at 9m, an 11m old with delays who should move based on age but parents don't want to, and a 7m old. Based on spaces, one of the three of them is going to move, the other two will stay. I don't know the specifics of the 11m old's situation, but I would say from watching her that Hobbes has recently surpassed her in mobility and perhaps also in social development. Then there are 5 more babies that are appreciably younger that are definitely staying.
As it turns out, we might not end up moving her. We talked to Director at length last night at pickup, and apparently 7m old's parents feel strongly that they want their child to be constantly challenged and the youngest of a group whenever possible. They feel so strongly about it that they had previously approached Director about an early move up. That is really young though. I am not sure yet how Director will move the kids, because there are 3 families involved, and there's some musical spaces going on. I feel better after talking to the Director though, that either way will be ok. If Hobbes moves, she'll be with peers that push her a little more. (I am not sure how old the youngest kid in infant 2 is, but I think 11-12 months+.) If she stays put, she will be one of/the oldest for a while. Either way in May when she goes to toddler, she'll be the youngest and be with those same peers that are in infant 2 now. SaveSave
Our daycare doesn't have set transition points until you hit preschool age, but it goes by milestones/development. I delayed DD's first transition because timing was bad (DH was deploying the weekend before so it was too much all at once for both of us). She transitioned two weeks later and I was ok with that. I think I'd do it but request that it's after you're back from vacation.
That's really the heart of the difficulty. There is no "request that it's after vacation" option. Our daycare has a hard and fast requirement to transition new toddlers at 18m +/- 3 weeks (and a softer transition out of toddler at 3 years +/- 3 months). That gives very little flexibility. The spots in the infant classes are driven by when kids absolutely must move from infant to toddler. The almost-toddler whose spot Hobbes would move into in infant 2, can't wait to transition out until after our vacation.
My bad, I meant infant 2 when I asked about your toddler room age. If the youngest there is 11-12 months that doesn't sound too bad to me, but understand it's annoying to have more transitions than necessary/anticipated. Hopefully either way they figure it out soon so you're not in limbo!