Tips for easing transition to new daycare?

[vanillacourage]

DS1's current school doesn't take infants so he and the baby need to go someplace new. He starts next week. He has a tough time with change and I'm worried, especially about drop off.

I'm taking him up there tomorrow to do playground time with his new class, and again on Thursday for longer for playground then back inside for classroom stuff. Any other tips?

[MamaMaui24]

I only have one and he's not even in real daycare yet, but... what about building it up as a super important job as big brother to help little brother at daycare. He can tell little brother what to expect, talk about how much fun it will be and all the friends they'll have. And if he gets sad/scared, he can visit little bro? (I don't know... I don't have a toddler!)

Good luck. The play time with you there should be good.

Good luck!

[starlily]

Expect the transition to take longer than you think it will. It took my daughter a full month before she.stopped crying at dropoff when we had to switch her at 14 months old.

[ijack]

Are you going to stay with him the first time he goes? I would try that for sure. And lots of talks about it!

[Deleted]

We switched daycare centers when DS was around 17 months old. We didn't have the luxury of easing him into the new place, as the change was very sudden (due to a toddler getting out the front door at his old daycare and walking to an intersection before they realized she was gone!) and we were both very busy at work. Thankfully, we have a pretty laid back kid, and he did really well with the transition. He has made little friends at his new daycare and is really happy.

That said, he does cry about half the time at drop off, but this is something that became common when he hit 2. He is a little ball of emotions right now. He calms down pretty quickly, though.

Our new daycare is great and they keep the kids really busy, so I actually think he has more fun at the new one, and that helped him adjust. Oh, we did send his favorite stuffed animal from home to daycare to use at naptime in the hopes that this would comfort him during the transition.

ETA: The first week or so, whichever parent dropped him off would stand outside the door of the class to see how long he cried. Even in the first week he would calm down after maybe 2 minutes. The teachers were great at distracting him.

[Deleted]

I just noticed that your DS is four, so my reply probably isn't very helpful. Good luck - I'm sure he'll do fine!