Settling in with childminder

[Jspoony]

Hello. My dd is starting with a childminder in a few mnths, for 3 days a week. She will be 11mnths old when she starts. Prior to that I am planning to do a settling in period. Any suggestions as to how long I should do it over, and how to build up the time spent with the CM?

it depends on the time the CM has available too

I like to do a couple of coffee sessions with the parent and child present, then an hour while the parent pops to the shops/gets a haircut/does something lovely to distract themselves, then build up, following the child's growing confidence, say 2 hours, 2 hours plus lunch, 4 hours, 4 hours, 4 hours, a full day then start

But I have low numbers, deliberately, and can accommodate quite a lot of settling-in; another CM might have limited time/spaces

The CM will have an idea of how she can help your baby settle in - give her a ring and chat; she will be delighted to put your mind at rest

Best of luck with returning to work

My DS settled in over a 4 week period, going one day a week for 1 hour, then 2 hours, then the morning and finally all day before I started work 2 days per week. He was fine, he was younger though(7m).

I had a very short induction with my childminder. I am a teacher and moved to the area shortly before school started. I dropped my DD off on the Tuesday morning, and phoned a couple of hours later to see how she was doing. Everything was fine so the childminder had taken her to the play area. She went there for a few hours on Wednesday and then had a full day Thursday and Friday. I started work on the Monday. She was 10 months.
It worked for us but I don't really recommend it.

I offer 2x1hour session with parent and 2x2hour alone, free. Any more and I charge, if I have room and it does not take me over my numbers.

Thanks for all suggestions.

I am going to back to work beginning of Jan, but the CM is not working the week before (between xmas and NY). I was thinking of doing a 3 wk settling period, building up the time spent similar to as you say Pamplemousse. But then there will be a week break before she officially starts. Do you think that matters?

One reason for my short induction was the childminder was on holiday for the two weeks before and we both felt a week long induction followed by a two week holiday wouldn't work.
In your situation though I would have thought 3 weeks then a week off would work but maybe try and make the first couple of days in January shorter.