ADVICE RATING |
 4.70 (Highly recommend) from 10 votes (238 Visits) |
Whether you have pre-school, kindy, or nursery I believe it is necessary for a childs social development for them to go at least from the age of three.
I was desperately bored after the birth of my daughter, and decided (as a single mother), to go back to 
work 2 days a week in order to relieve that. E was 11 months. After a year I stopped for health reasons, but I kept her in nursery and changed it to be one nearer to our home. She loved it. It was a place for her to be social and in her own place - a place where I was not.
With changing government guidelines there were differences about how much they could encourage her to draw and develop her motor skills, but since she was only in two days a week i was able to spend time at home doing drawing, writing and practising alphabet and numbers with her.
The hardest thing when sending your child to nursery is the tears the first few times as they adjust to being away from you. But as soon as you are out the door - usually in less than 10 minutes the tears are stopped and the appeal of the toys and activities is to great. There are children who are more clingy for various reasons, and there are certain days when the child is feeling insecure or unwell and so will want extra cuddles from mummy or daddy.
As long as you know with all your being that this is the right thing for your child you will be fine. Also having a place to be at each day makes it easier to leave and ignore the tears, that you know in your heart will stop as soon as you are out of earshot - stop sometime just to listen.
Finding the right nursery also makes a great difference, but with E it was personality differences with her teachers that made her happy or sad on a day. This is something we cannot anticipate, and when I chose to move her to a more convienent location as I mentioned above she was immediately happier, from that very first day! The difference was unanticipated, but I couldnt have done something that i thought would be damaging to her that turned out to actually benefit her tremendously.
I am not promoting changing nurseries/day care. It can be unsettling and disturbing for the child. However, in this instance it paid off.
Peace
EF.x 
(September 2006) (
