The seven best tips to help children adapt to kindergarten or nursery school

We are in complicated days for many children and for their parents because they are days when children are beginning to go to daycare for the first time and days when they are making the period of adaptation to this new life that they will lead from now on.

There is no magic recipe that makes children enter happy and happy daycare, but there are some recommendations and guidelines that can be followed to try to help children make this complicated process better or so that at least They feel understood. Next we will explain how (try) help them to live better the period of adaptation to the nursery.

First, put on your skin

The first thing is to put on your skin and understand them. Think of a child who separates from his parents for the first time and leaves him in a place that is still unfamiliar, in the care of a person he does not know, along with a handful of children also unknown, and many of them crying desperately . Anyone, even many adults, would give tremendous anguish, right?

The changes are difficult to manage, especially for young children. Therefore, it is important that support them, accompany them and help them adapt to the nursery in the best possible way.

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The adaptation period begins at home

I do not start the day they step on the classroom for the first time, but we can prepare them in advance of the start day of classes. Some have already started the adaptation period and this advice may come a little late, but even if they have already started, you can continue working at home. This advice is for children who already understand a little what is happening, who already know the symbolic game, through which they emulate daily life with their dolls or representing characters.

The idea is represent life in the nursery with dolls so that they anticipate what will happen. It can also be done by representing characters, the child playing for himself, for example, and mom or dad playing the child educator.

Stories with stories with which they can feel identified are also a great tool to help children with the beginning of the course.

Accompany you during the adaptation period

The child does not have to keep the feeling that we "abandon" him in a new place and with new people, but that we accompany him to meet them. The periods of adaptation of nursery schools are usually ridiculous, in some cases nonexistent and there is also the problem of conciliation, which although parents want they are not available for a very long adaptation.

If the child recognizes the new place and knows the new people with their parents, supported and accompanied during the first few days, it will be easier for them to enter into trust with that circle than if we leave it there and make it alone.

Sooner or later he will end up knowing them, both the child who has been accompanied first by his parents and the one who has not, but surely for the former he will have been less traumatic. That is what it is about.

The security provided by the parent company will help you better adapt. The closeness and affection of parents always helps a better understanding of the world around them. As they grow, they explore the world, little by little, in a more autonomous way.

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Give them the time they need

A person does not adapt to a new environment, a new place and new people in two hours or two days. The children either. The purpose of the adaptation period is for the child to get to know the new environment, his new caregiver and his new friends so that end up feeling that he is in a safe, non-threatening place, even when his mother or father is not with him.

Some children have enough with three or four minutes to get along, other children may need up to a month and there are children who can be a whole year (in this case, rather than adapt, we could almost talk about resigning). The case is that the ideal is that the first day we enter with the child and be with him, knowing the new environment.

That first day the caregiver can meet the child, establish contact with him and the parents, all together, create a climate of trust in which the child can see that he is a person who can be part of his circle of people of trust.

The next day the parents could also enter with the child, creating the caretaker some dynamic in which they participate, but excluding the parents, who can say goodbye to the child for a little while (“I go out here for a moment”) if you stay calm or stay If that is not the case.

And so, little by little, the child must spend more time with the caregiver and less time with the parents.

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There are nurseries that on the second day no longer allow parents to enter (many children will take it badly, because they are totally inflexible) and there are nurseries that have open doors, that is, that allow parents to do the adaptation period as they consider better (I stay several days for a while and when I see that he plays quietly I say goodbye to him, I stay with him for a while, I see how he plays and then we both go home, etc.).

Say goodbye to the child, do not disappear

Some parents believe that it is better to leave the child in class and disappear while something or someone distracts them to avoid crying goodbye. Contrary to what one might think, this behavior is totally counterproductive and generates a lot of anguish in the child.

Imagine that a family member or friend takes you by car to a place you don't know, opens the car door, lowers you, puts first and vanishes. You do not know where you are and people appear above you who do not know anything. You do not know if your friend or relative will return or not for you or when, even if you will see him again.

I want to tell you that It is best to say goodbye to the child and explain what will happen so as not to cause an anguish added to the fact of separation.

“Goodbye, my love, you will stay for a little while in school with your teacher and your friends. They will go out to the playground to play, sing songs and then mom and / or dad will come later to pick you up. ” A big kiss and goodbye. And you see. If you stay lengthening the farewell too long, you will only be able to lengthen your suffering (it is also not worth spying through the class window, at least make sure that you do not see yourself).

It does not mean that with this the child will not cry. Even if you say goodbye to him, he may cry, it is inevitable (in addition to normal and healthy) that he feels anguish when he separates from his parents, but at least it is not despair to see that they have left you in a hostile place and your parents disappear as if magic art

With the passing of the days, each day doing the same routine, the child will enter class more or less happy, but you will be sure that mom and / or dad will come back to pick you up to go home.

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Positive attitude

Both the first days of school and the previous days, we must talk about nursery school, teachers and new classmates with a positive attitude. Optimistic phrases like "you will have a great time", "you will meet many friends", "you will play, sing, paint and have a lot of fun" usually help a lot.

You should also know the school, your class and your teacher before officially starting the first day. With all this positive preamble, the child will recognize faces, places, toys, corners of the class and when they go again you will feel more confident and secure.

Talk about school as a place to "have" to go because there is no choice, alone, a lot of hours, separated from dad and mom, obviously, it is not much help.

Patience and understanding

Each child has their own rhythm, we always say this, both to start going to the bathroom alone and to adapt to new situations. One child may have cried like a riot on the first day and the next day between happy, while another will be a couple of weeks crying stuck to the legs of his mother or father. None is better, or worse, just each one takes it their own way.

The fundamental thing is have a lot of patience and understand the moment they are going through. It is also difficult for us to separate from them. Talk to your child and allow him to express his emotions, to tell you what he has done, how he spent it in school, etc.

The stories that have to do with the theme of the school and the return to school can be of great help so that they feel identified with the characters of the story as well as resorting to the symbolic game or the plot line to help them get in position.

With all this I try to tell you that in the short or long term almost all children end up adapting to the nursery (this is the argument they give in many schools with ridiculous adaptation plans), but the key is to make it as bearable as possible, get a better adaptation of children to nursery school.

In short, it is about getting involved in their emotions and feeling the company and unconditional support of their parents in the great steps they take and will take throughout their lives.

We hope these tips help you "survive" the period of adaptation to the nursery As easy as possible, surely many families who read us are in this situation these days and hopefully they will be useful.

In addition, I leave you one last tip: immortalize the first day of school with a photograph, when they release their babis or their lunch bags ... They grow up so fast! And in a few years we will see those images together and (almost) we will have forgotten that we did not have a good time then ...

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Photos | iStockphoto, Lina Kivaka Pexels and Carole LR on Pixabay

Video: Helping Your Kindergartener with Separation Anxiety (March 2024).