Going to school for the first time is surely for the child, the first separation from home and that will not be easy for him. Getting him to assume this important change in his life optimally requires a certain amount of patience and conviction on the part of the parents and other people who are in charge of his daily care.
- Prepare the child before starting: It is important that the child acquires the feeling of familiarity; A visit to the center days before starting will help your child to recognize objects and spaces, so that the first day he has to stay longer at school will not feel so strange.
- Trust: It is essential that both the parents and the person in charge of taking the child to school each day, transmit the feeling of trust towards the center. Any expression of doubt or disagreement will be detrimental to the child’s own tranquility and therefore, to his adaptation.
- Continuity in attendance at the center : Although it may be hard the first days, it is necessary to create in the child a sense of security and routine so that he can internalize that attending school is something good, fun and everyday. Once the child has entered school, it is essential to try to avoid absences because these interruptions make it difficult for them to adapt to nursery school. Ideally, in the event of illness, children should be reinstated as soon as possible.
- Respect the schedule: Adapting to the infantile school both physically and emotionally of the child requires being constant in the schedules to consolidate their daily routines.
- Shorten goodbyes: Saying goodbye to the child should not become a drama under any circumstances. The ideal is to make them very affective but brief and, if possible, do them outside the classroom for their own good and that of the other children.
Be positive about entering the school
- Explain what their stay at school will consist of: It is very important for them that you explain to them
in a calm and safe tone what they are going to do at school, so that they can understand why their parents leave them in a place that is not their home and where they will not be accompanying them. A brief message like: “you are going to play for a little while at school, with new friends and lots of nice toys and stories, but soon we will come back for you to go home” will be enough for the child to be curious about the news offer and forget a bit the drama that separating from his trusted people represents for him. - Stay firm: It will be a full-fledged endurance test for you, stay firm in the face of their cries and complaints. It is very important that you convince yourself that the decision you have made is the correct one, that it is an enriching experience for them and that the center you have chosen offers you total confidence. In this way, you will face the moment of farewell with the conviction necessary to not allow yourself to be manipulated by the children even if they do a drama of the moment.
- Avoid negative comments: Yes, both at the entrance and at the exit of the center, comments such as: my poor thing escape you! What a pity! Oh, my child, you are lost!
- Verbally reward the child when he enters or leaves school without crying: When the child has understood that you are not abandoning them, that going to school is something fun and safe, he will begin to attend the center happy and will hardly give you a fleeting hug goodbye , to run off to meet his new friends. At the exit, they will be very happy to see you but on some occasions, you will have to convince them to stop playing to go home. It is time to congratulate the child for how brave he has been and for having achieved the adaptation to the nursery school in what, surely, will be the beginning of his school life.
What to do if problems arise?
We are aware that not all children adapt equally to the same situations, so we anticipate the possible difficulties that you may encounter during this period of adaptation to nursery school.