Returning to nursery

We are all thinking about the best ways to support the children in coming back to nursery. This week’s post is all about how you can prepare your child for the transition out of lockdown and back into nursery.

• Share any information you can with us that might help us to support your child back when coming back to nursery e.g. a new favourite song or way to play could be really vital information for us.
• Really listen to what your child is telling you about how they feel, be that through speech or just through their actions and play. Clarify the answers to the questions they’re trying to understand and reassure them where we can about their worries.
• Help them to learn emotional language. Describe how you feel; help them to name different emotions; comment on the emotions of others e.g. characters in stories; read stories like ‘Baby Faces’ for younger children and ‘The Colour Monster’ for older children. Play games like emotions peekaboo and support your child to represent different emotions through drawing, painting and any other form of self-expression like playing with instruments. Here are some simple signs you could also teach your child.
• If there are two of you with your child at the moment, try to get into a habit of leaving your child with each other before they return. If you’re unable to do this, practice leaving and returning from and to your child from one room to another.
• Talk about coming back to nursery and what might be different such as drop off at the door and team members wearing masks at the door.
• Adjust your morning routine to reflect what your morning routine will look like when they come back.
• Walk past the nursery and wave at the nursery.
• Show your child pictures of themselves at nursery on the Famly app.
• Look at pictures of the nursery team on our website.
• Read stories about going to nursery.
• For older children, do a countdown to when they start back with us and plan something special for their first day back.
• Prepare yourself for the emotions you might feel about them returning.
• Try to say goodbye on your child’s first day back in a loving, clear and concise way rather than a long, lingering goodbye.
• Let us know any ideas you have on how we can support your child.