Toddler Milestone: Starting Nursery
Another milestone for our little toddler: starting nursery! A magical time for new friendships and social development in toddlerhood.
It’s an exciting day in our household: Lady Yeya is starting nursery! After spending 365+ days together, Lady Yeya is off to nursery. We couldn’t be more proud or excited for her. To new adventures in toddlerhood!
Kenz and I were both surprised that I wasn’t as emotional about Lady Yeya starting nursery. I remember as if it was yesterday when Lady Yeya was settling into a new routine with the nanny-share after a year-long maternity leave. I felt guilty and nervous about juggling work and motherhood, leaving my one year-old in our nanny’s care at such a young age. But today, I felt happy. She and I were both ready for this milestone.
I wasn’t sure how Lady Yeya would react with starting nursery after spending every day with us for the past year. She is a confident and happy child, but naturally, we were unsure about the transition to nursery. To ensure it was all stress-free, we did a lot of preparation in advance of her starting nursery this week. Much to our delight, there were no tears and no drama at drop-off or pick-up. Phew!
Starting Nursery: Preparation for a Stress-Free Success
Talk Positively about Nursery: About a month leading up to her first day, we spoke positively but in a low-key way to avoid any suspicion about nursery. We also talked about all the fun things she gets to do at nursery. She will meet new friends, have story time, sing along, do arts and crafts, and have lots of playtime. Lady Yeya did express to us that she was a bit scared to go to nursery by herself. We gently reassured her that there’s nothing to worry about. Nursery is going to be fun!
Settle into a New Routine: It will be a new routine for Lady Yeya after a year of sleeping in until 8:30am and having leisurely mornings of reading books and playtime. As all parents do, we talked about her new routine and even walked to her new nursery a few times. Nursery is for big kids only. We will drop her off and then pick her up later in the day.
Practice Toddler Skills: This is a good time to practice essential toddler skills such as unzipping and taking off their coats, tidying up toys, taking themselves to the potty, and washing hands. I am not diligent about having Lady Yeya pull down and up her trousers when she uses the potty at home. It’s faster if you help your little one especially when you’re rushing out the door. It’s a good time to practice these essential toddler skills, especially their listening skills.
Organise a Small Playdates: Luckily, Lady Yeya knows several friends already attending her nursery but will be in different rooms. I didn’t want her to feel shy around new friends. Therefore, it was important to us to organise a few 1:1 playdates the week prior to starting nursery. This way I get to meet some of the parents and Lady Yeya recognises some of her new nursery friends.
Give a Small Gift: To celebrate this milestone, we gave Lady Yeya a “big kid” gift that she can use for nursery: a new kid-sized blue Hershel’s backpack with pockets for her iPad and water bottle. She was very excited as I labeled her name on her personal belongings.
Expect some Unexpected Incidents: This is a big transition for a toddler. I was expecting some unexpected feedback. Firstly, I was not surprised to see her wearing her spare trousers at pick-up. A new environment, new nursery teachers, and new friends can result in some regressive behaviours including pee accidents. Unfortunately, Lady Yeya wet herself. She told me at pick-up that: “I pee pee in my pants because there was no teacher to help.” She then added not realising that her Key Person, Miss D, who she met last week during settling-in was on annual leave: “why did Miss D hide from me today?” Bless her. If you receive less than ideal feedback, the best thing to do is speak to your toddler about it without overdoing it or shaming your child.
Happy Kids, Happy Mummy, Happy Family
So far Lady Yeya seems to be enjoying nursery. She is always happy and smiling at pick-up, excited to tell me about her day. I am very pleased, and even more pleased to enjoy some time for myself! It’s true what they say: happy baby, happy mummy, happy family!
