best ways to get ready for preschool?

It's still a bit early, but I'm wondering about how to get the kids ready for school. My main concern is separation. I'm a SAHM, the kids have never had a babysitter other than my mom (I know, we are very lucky!), and their only separation from us has been spending the morning-early afternoon at her house, and spending a couple hours at the gym's childcare. So being dropped off at a new building with a new teacher and group of kids will be a huge change for them.

I've started talking about school now and then, trying to keep it upbeat and casual. Andrew (as usual) doesn't seem to mind, but Ivy seemed a little nervous - "And Mommy, will you come and pick me up if I feel sad?"

So - what are your favorite books about the issue? Any other ideas to get them comfortable with it? TIA!

 

There is a really cute Arthur book that we took out of the library a couple of week's ago "DW's guide to preschool" -Marc Brown.

 

There is a Dora one as well. I know they make it for the Tag Reader, but you may be able to find it as a regular book.

 

I remember the Arthur book was very good!

We have drop off child care centers around here and they run like a pre-school but you pay per hour and can drop them off anytime. We have one called Kids Camp... Maybe something like that for a couple hours the week or two before, just a thought. Good luck!

 

I'm beginning to think along the same lines myself now that Sept is approaching and my twins will be starting. I know the other 'seasoned' moms on here will have great advice, but I also found the reviews on Amazon to be quite helpful.

This is one that comes highly rated:

My link

'My First Day at Nursery School' by Becky Edwards

 

We're getting ready to start as well. We have been reading Llama Llama Misses Mama, it is where he goes to school. Pretty cute. I know our preschool eases them into it, I think the parents stay the first day, then the next they stay for part, then the kids are on their own. Will yours do the same thing?

 

My DD's just started pre-school in June. We have never dropped them off anywhere. They have a nanny 3-days a week and are always home and/or the park. I didn't do any prep other than showing them their lunch boxes and talking about school a lot. The first few times my one of my DD's cried a lot and when I would talk about school "we are going to school tomorrow!" She would say "no school!" and fought me when we arrived!
My husband discussed this with a co-worker and he gave us great advice which worked for us! He told us to just get them ready and off to school like its part of their normal routine. So on the third day I gave them breakfast, put them in the car, walked up to the school and arrived in their classroom. NO tears! Until I tried to leave, but I just kept doing that for the next time and it worked. GL!

 

We were in the same situation as you guys... SAHM and only my mom/MIL have babysat. Last year my two started preschool and what I found to be the most comforting to them was talking about it to no end. :wacko: I started about two weeks before and mentioned it every morning... how we'd wake up, eat, dress and leave... etc. I would tell them the whole routine of how it would go. My two like routine and to know what's happening... so this, I think, helped them. They knew what all would be happening. Of course, my ds still had a few tears but that ended after a few minutes (for the first two or three days) and they now LOVE it. I think us parents have a harder time then them.

 

We're in the same situation as you, Holly. The girls have had limited daycare experience and have been kept the majority of the time by my husband, close friends and family. I am really worried about the first couple of weeks of school, especially since they will be riding a bus, etc. We've been reading books as well. I really like Franklin Goes to School because he's all nervous about leaving his mom and dad and not knowing what to expect and then learns how fun school really is. We also have a couple of other going to school books that we are reading as well, but I do like the Franklin one the best. We've been really talking about it, and of course bought them backpacks, and today bought them their lunchboxes, and trying to involve them in all the buying stuff for school and that has seemed to really excited them. So pretty much just trying to make them feel like they are such big girls and going to big kids' school. We only have three more weeks and then they'll be in school. Can't believe they are getting so big! :cry:

 

My kids have major separation anxiety issues, but did really well when starting preschool. I expected drama but they were totally fine. We read The Night Before Kindergarten, but everytime it said "Kindergarten" I said "Preschool." In the book, there is a boy and a girl, so I called them Ben and Hannah. We talked about how you can't bring your stuffed animals and blankets to school. We talked about how the parents are all sad, but the kids are not. (They thought that was funny.) Anyways, not a preschool book, but with a little creative doctoring, the kids were prepped!!!

 

This was my experience exactly. I just really talked about it a lot in the weeks leading up to it. Our preschool eases them in pretty gently, too, only a half hour the first day or two, leading up to longer times gradually. We had some tears but got past it fairly quickly & they love going now.

 

Our library has reading lists for back to school or starting preschool. Check with yours maybe they have one too.

 

As a former teacher I a good book to read is The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. It is about how a mother raccoon kisses her babies hand so if he is sad he can just get kisses that are saved. It is really cute. Get it from your libabry I am sure they will have it.

I agree, start talking about it. Tell how big they will be, how much fun they will have. Tell all the boring things to do at home compared to the fun things, new friends, toys, crafts, snacks, etc.

I am sure you could take them by to see it before class actually starts so they know what to expect. Do they have any cousins or family friends who can tell them how great school is and now they can be big like them?

 

Hi,
My girls are now 5 and we are going through a similar process!! I actually wrote an article about preparing your child for preschool so here it is! Hope it is helpful.

Preparing for Preschool

 

Thank you so much for all the ideas!

They'll be going to school 5 days a week. It's a half day program (~8:30-12:30). We're really excited about the school, but they are not so very terrific about easing kids into it - we get one orientation visit (parents and kids together) a couple days before the first real day of school, and that's it. I think they will be happy there - we visited a lot of schools, and most of them had us separate from the kids and leave them with a class for a bit, and this was one of the two places where they didn't even notice we were gone, they had so much fun with the environment and the teacher. It's still a very big transition, though. So I will definitely be checking out those books - and talking it to death too, of course.

(And let me just say that I CAN'T WAIT to have those mornings off! :woo: )