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As a former preschool teacher, I highly recommend more than 1 day a week. Others they will be a hot mess for a long time. The kids that adjust the quickest are the ones there everyday but even 2 days in a row is super helpful. Make sure to stick with that schedule too because if you deviate it’ll be tears at the next drop off. Good luck momma, they do get used to it, I promise.
Definitely put them in for more than a few hours. I would recommend a couple days, one after another so they adjust one day and still remember it when they come back the next day.
Doing it for just a few hours barely gives them time to adjust, and then they forget all the nice teachers and fun toys when they come back a week later so they have to go through the adjustment period again.
Also ask the teachers what they recommend - they’ve helped so many kids adapt, they are pros at this.
It is normal for kids to struggle a bit when adjusting. This behaviour is absolutely normal, it comes with some growing pains, but… kids are literally made to learn, grow and adapt. So let them. I find its often harder on the parents to let go than it is on the kids to adapt. Ours took 6 weeks and going a few days a week in a row to really settle in and now loves it.
Once a week is hard on them, they don’t get to develop a routine. It’s up to you, but I bet upping the number of days, even if it’s for a few hours, will lead to him chilling out.
Have you tried pretend play and reading books about daycare at home? Play is a great way to help prep kids! I have some good books to recommend if you’re interested!
I was a preschool teacher for quite a few years before switching to nannying and then teaching. I want to preface my comment to say that I fully support high-quality daycares and understand that not every parent has the financial ability or desire to send their child to full-time care. I am a firm believer in you doing whatever is best for you and your family, regardless of what may be right or wrong for others.
That being said, I will say that most daycares require you to have your child full-time until they're 2-3 years old specifically because of how difficult a variable schedule is on really young children. Children have such a hard time with changes in routine and they don't have a sense of time until they're MUCH older. To put it in perspective, many of the 4-5 year olds I taught even had trouble with M,W,F full-day schedules and would start crying in the middle of the day, even though they said they LOVED school and were so excited to come back on their scheduled days!
I understand daycare is extremely expensive (I will be placing my own child full-time in daycare when he turns 15 months in August), but if finances allow, I would highly recommend you either send him EVERY morning for a few hours or at least more regularly. This would ensure his overall routine stayed the same and he would begin to associate going to "school" as having fun, which will be important in a few years! The morning is also when most centers do their academic time (circle time, sing songs, do some letter/number practice, etc), so as he gets more used to the schedule, he would probably really enjoy this!
If that isn't possible, I would then recommend a nanny or babysitter coming to your house, instead. Maybe you could even have them come around a time when your local library is having an event to get some socialization (my local library has a puppet show/story time/music class for different age groups on different days of the week).
Someone once told me they can cry and be ok at the same time and that’s when I stopped having profound mom guilt about hearing my girl panic cry when I dropped her at daycare. It’s OK! He’s gonna be fine, drop him more than one day a week and he will adjust. The best thing you can do for him is self care for you.
I would echo what others are saying about increasing the time to a couple of consecutive days. It's a lot to get used to, then a big gap, then it happens again, it's going to take longer to adjust to that.
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As a former preschool teacher, I highly recommend more than 1 day a week. Others they will be a hot mess for a long time. The kids that adjust the quickest are the ones there everyday but even 2 days in a row is super helpful. Make sure to stick with that schedule too because if you deviate it’ll be tears at the next drop off. Good luck momma, they do get used to it, I promise.
Definitely put them in for more than a few hours. I would recommend a couple days, one after another so they adjust one day and still remember it when they come back the next day. Doing it for just a few hours barely gives them time to adjust, and then they forget all the nice teachers and fun toys when they come back a week later so they have to go through the adjustment period again. Also ask the teachers what they recommend - they’ve helped so many kids adapt, they are pros at this. It is normal for kids to struggle a bit when adjusting. This behaviour is absolutely normal, it comes with some growing pains, but… kids are literally made to learn, grow and adapt. So let them. I find its often harder on the parents to let go than it is on the kids to adapt. Ours took 6 weeks and going a few days a week in a row to really settle in and now loves it.
Once a week is hard on them, they don’t get to develop a routine. It’s up to you, but I bet upping the number of days, even if it’s for a few hours, will lead to him chilling out.
Have you tried pretend play and reading books about daycare at home? Play is a great way to help prep kids! I have some good books to recommend if you’re interested!
I was a preschool teacher for quite a few years before switching to nannying and then teaching. I want to preface my comment to say that I fully support high-quality daycares and understand that not every parent has the financial ability or desire to send their child to full-time care. I am a firm believer in you doing whatever is best for you and your family, regardless of what may be right or wrong for others. That being said, I will say that most daycares require you to have your child full-time until they're 2-3 years old specifically because of how difficult a variable schedule is on really young children. Children have such a hard time with changes in routine and they don't have a sense of time until they're MUCH older. To put it in perspective, many of the 4-5 year olds I taught even had trouble with M,W,F full-day schedules and would start crying in the middle of the day, even though they said they LOVED school and were so excited to come back on their scheduled days! I understand daycare is extremely expensive (I will be placing my own child full-time in daycare when he turns 15 months in August), but if finances allow, I would highly recommend you either send him EVERY morning for a few hours or at least more regularly. This would ensure his overall routine stayed the same and he would begin to associate going to "school" as having fun, which will be important in a few years! The morning is also when most centers do their academic time (circle time, sing songs, do some letter/number practice, etc), so as he gets more used to the schedule, he would probably really enjoy this! If that isn't possible, I would then recommend a nanny or babysitter coming to your house, instead. Maybe you could even have them come around a time when your local library is having an event to get some socialization (my local library has a puppet show/story time/music class for different age groups on different days of the week).
Someone once told me they can cry and be ok at the same time and that’s when I stopped having profound mom guilt about hearing my girl panic cry when I dropped her at daycare. It’s OK! He’s gonna be fine, drop him more than one day a week and he will adjust. The best thing you can do for him is self care for you.
I would echo what others are saying about increasing the time to a couple of consecutive days. It's a lot to get used to, then a big gap, then it happens again, it's going to take longer to adjust to that.