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[quote=Anonymous]My kids were/are in full time daycare, so even though they didn’t have to get used to being away from home/parents/nanny, it was still a change. My older kid has always struggled with transitions, so I went all out on prep.

We got a couple of books on preschool starting late spring/early summer, and we talked about how she’d be going to preschool instead of daycare in a few months. Not everyday, but once we introduced the idea it came up every so often. The books were really more for kids who haven’t been in a childcare setting before, but they were still helpful because we were able to talk about things that were the same as what she was used to in daycare. “Look, in this preschool they have a hook and a cubby for their things. You have that at daycare. I wonder if your new preschool will have a hook or a cubby or both? Or something else? But they will definitely have a place to keep your things.” We had a lot of conversations about what will be similar and what will be different.

We walked by the school a lot so she got used to seeing the building and knew where she would go.

The week before there was an open house and she got to meet her teacher. I asked her before if she had any questions and we asked the teacher together.

At the open house I took pictures of the classroom, and also random stuff like the bathroom and the stack of cots for nap time, also the playground and the entrance door, and had those printed out and in a little cheap album for her to flip through. She loved it and looked at it a lot before school started.

It was fine. The first month or 2 was still hard at home but she loved school and was never upset at drop off or anything. Some kids were. It’s fine. Even the kids who cried every morning didn’t cry every morning all year.

My kid is very social and makes friends easily. That’s how she was in daycare and at the playground, so that’s how she was in preschool (and stil is). Your concerns about how your kid will be around other kids makes me think your kid doesn’t have much time with other kids or you don’t see your kid around other kids very much. I think that’s a good thing to try to do in the coming months - how your kid is with others generally will likely carry into preK.

My kid is 6 now and still talks about her best friend from daycare who she misses. We haven’t seen that girl in 3 years (play dates fell through and we stopped trying). But she has made new friends easily.

My younger kid starts preK this fall and we’ve been prepping for a while because he started asking months ago when he’ll go to school with his sister instead of daycare. But we’ll probably take a softer version of the same approach to preparing him. He has an easier time with transition.

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