Nursery behaviour vs at home behaviour

[Stripeyclock]

Hi all,

I have an almost 3 year old DS. He's been going to nursery two mornings a week for a about five months now.

Recently he's had a spate of bad behaviour at nursery, not doing what he is told and running around. He apparently gets really excited when in the sandpit and threw some sand in the face of another child, on purpose, twice, as an example.

He is a strong willed child and does misbehave when at home, but it never seems to be this bad or as regularly as it appears he does when he is at nursery. I think we are fairly good at discipline. He faces consequences when he is naughty such as time outs. We also try to positively reinforce his good behaviour with praise. Overall, he seems to me to have pretty good behaviour when he is with us, good for a nearly 3 year old anyway.

I'm getting really concerned about him getting a reputation as a naughty boy. I'm also worried that the nursery staff will get the impression that we don't discipline him at all.

I've tried giving him a warning to behave himself before he goes in to nursery on a morning, but I don't know how effective that is.

Does anyone have any ideas of how to approach this?

[ilovecolinfirth]

Has he got any siblings? If he's an only child he may only have the opportunity to get over-excited by other children at nursery and not at home. Hence poor behaviour at nursery only. He is only 3 though and will grow out of it. I'm sure the nursery have plenty of other high-spirited children there and don't think of him as a naughty one. Just keep putting your own sanctions in, and keep working with the nursery.

[MummyMeech1]

This is so similar to what I'm experiencing with my 3 yo at his new nursery. He is usually a lovely kind, gentle little boy but since starting full time in September he's hit children on a couple of occasions, thrown sand and climbed on the windowsill to throw toys out of the window! He was at his old nursery (we've just moved following marital separation and are living with parents) for 7 months and they were always telling me what a lovely boy he was, he hit other children once in the 7 months and sometimes climbed on the table or didn't listen. His key worker sobbed when he left and it was evident she really did love him. Conversely, most of what I am told about his day is now negative and DS often greets me saying he's been naughty. At home he is generally still lovely although he has his moments (few and far between for his age though) of hitting me (not hard) or refusing to tidy or put clothes on, easily fixed with lots of positive reinforcement. The nursery staff don't appear to be enthusiastic about anything he does, he drew a number nine last week and when DS showed me the room manager didn't seem excited or pleased in the slightest! I'm seriously considering changing nurseries but don't want to put him through the upheaval....

[BrandNewAndImproved]

Dc are completely different when they have one on one attention.

My dc are completely different people when not around each other even now.