Hellobee Boards

We moved when my son was 23 months and had to put him in a new daycare. I didn't start my job right away, so i was able to go with him to the new daycare a couple times for a few hours so he could meet everyone and participate with me there. When he started for real it was barely a blip on his radar. The new center was so much more stimulating and structured than his old one and I think that kept him distracted.

We never switched daycares, but my daughter had pretty rough transitions each time she transitioned to a new room, even though she knew many of the instructors and many of her classmates moved at similar times. Give things time - - lots of time. Transitions can take months. It's rough.

What worked best for us during various room changes:

Establishing a routine and giving LO a “job” to do. In one new room, her lead teacher would meet us at the door and welcome her and then ask LO to help her with a fun task. This got LO immediately involved in something so she was less focused on me leaving.

Establishing a leaving routine. In the toddler room, LO would go to a certain window (with her lead teacher) and I would come around the outside of the building and we would wave and blow like 3 kisses and then I would turn and leave. In the preschool room, she would give me a “big push” out the door then we would blow a kiss to each other, then I would turn and leave. Establishing – and sticking to – a departure routine was probably the most helpful thing for my daughter.

Quick drop-offs. The longer I stayed, the worse things got. Even if she was crying at the window when I left, her teachers said that she stopped crying pretty immediately and I also witnessed this is to be true with other kids/parents.

Daniel Tiger – he has some great episodes about parents always coming back, etc. That one in particular was a big game-changer for drops for us as I could reference the message and then it would be reinforced when I came at pick up.

Finding things in common with current friends/teachers/daycare center. We also did this with the transition from daycare/Pre-K to Kindergarten. LO would get sad about her “old school”, and it helped to turn the conversation around when I could bridge the two schools. “Wow, look LO! New school has the same type of flowers growing outside as old school did!” or “Hey LO, looks like that friend over there has the same backpack as some of your other friends at old school”. The first few weeks of Kindergarten everything was better at her “old school”, but within a few weeks, that had nearly flipped. I would point out similarities and my LO would add on something new about her new school. Once she brought up something new about her new school, I would ask about it / be very interested and excited about that to kind of talk up the new school.

Hope this helps!

If you move write a big number 1 on your calendar on the first day. Then write a 2 on the day a week later, and keep going up to 6. Most transitions like this take six weeks to complete but on day 10 or whatever it can feel like it's been forever. It really helps to see, "Oh I'm in week 2 and we expected this to be challenging for 6 weeks so everything is still totally normal."

We switched our daughter from a home daycare to a center when she was 2, and honestly, it was a total breeze. I worried about the same things you are, but kids at this age are pretty adaptable. I would talk up "big girl school" and maybe take her to visit the new daycare and meet her teachers, and it's totally normal that there might be some early transition issues like crying, but they tend to go away really fast. I'd do it!