How do you prepare your child for the first day of school or nursery?

[SorchaMumsnet]

Mouse doesn’t like school... she loves it! If your little one is starting school or nursery soon, Mouse's Big Day is the perfect reassuring picture book to read together.

It's a big day for Mouse – her first day at school! But she doesn’t want to go. Not one bit. Luckily there's a class full of new friends waiting for her, and Mouse is about to learn just how brilliant school can be.

In Mouse's Big Day, you will meet the cast of adorable animal characters from Twit Twoo School, drawn by the award-winning and bestselling illustrator of the What the Ladybird Heard adventures, Lydia Monks.

Get ready for school with these Mouse's Big Day activity sheets

For a chance to win a copy of the book in a bundle of gorgeous picture books (worth £100) from Macmillan Children's Books, including The Detective Dog and Little Red, just tell us - how did you or how do you plan to prepare your child for the first day of school or nursery?

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This discussion is sponsored by Macmillan Children's Books and will end on Thursday 31 August

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Visiting the nursery and talking about it

My daughter moves up to preschool in a couple of weeks. She's had a couple of settling in sessions and we talk about it a lot. She sees it as a huge adventure.

I told her all about it and make it sound really exciting, we made her feel really grown up and told her all the exciting things they would do. Luckily she has always been quite confident and eager so it wasn't too much of an issue.

My youngest was even easier she saw her sister going and she wanted to go too, so she was really excited and didn't even look back to say goodbye!

Firstly we got some books from the library about starting school and read through those, we visited the site of the school a few times in passing (just pointing out where it was etc) and finally he had 3 introductory sessions in the July before he started, and once September came he did mornings only for a week so it didn't seem like too much at once.. now he loves it!

I think its just important to be positive about a new start, but also not to make a big deal about it. Its better if children can learn to take things in their stride and sometimes its adults who make more of a fuss and make the kids worse!

With my eldest I spent time talking about all the lovely things he would do at nursery/school , the boys and girls he would play and learn with.I had a very happy and excited little boy.With the middle and youngest child I didn't have to do much as the eldest was always telling them all about the fabulous times at school so they were looking forward to this exciting time ahead of them

I absolutely love the way the schools do a slow introduction these days and taster days are good too. My local school offers a gradual build up for children from the local nursery. I will chat and read and even walk the walk to school. We will have packed lunches and a school bag when we do our little pre-school days.

We had a look around beforehand, talking to some of the staff and seeing the classroom DGS would be in. We enjoyed looking at the equipment in the playground, the art work and bright posters on the walls. We talked about it a lot afterwards in conjunction with reading stories about starting school. We played schools too and stressed how at the end of the day it was 'hometime' - oh, and that we went to school the next day too as some children apparently think, after day one, "oh right, that's it, been to school now!"

Lots of story about going to school for the first time. Talks with her about what happens at nursery, also she had a wee visit to it which helps so much. Will be starting a bedtime routine with her from tomorrow

my daughter had a few sessions before starting full time, i found that getting her involved in buying uniform etc helped her get more excited rather than nervous

My son's nursery had an under-3 group once a week which I took him too for a bit before he started. So when he did start he was comfortable with the staff and environment. In the few weeks before we started talking about him staying there by himself, but focusing on how much fun he was going to have with all his friends. He has never been a particularly clingy child, so he took to it straight away - we were more upset!

We drive past her pre school nearly every day and shout hello to it. We've been counting down the days and she's just really excited about starting on Wednesday.

Before school broke up my daughter had play and stay session at her class with new class mates. The nursery teacher is due a home visit first week and then her settling sessions will begin we are also preparing her school clothes with her siblings so she feels part of the process with her elder siblings. We will also start with saying hello to her nursery teacher in the morning or after school for her to become used to where I am going to pick her up and take her to the park where her afternoon dropping off will take place for her to get used to where she will line up.

We got everything ready the week before and started with 'school' night sleep and getting up early.

The settling in sessions have helped. Lots of talking about it too :)

build up is important so it doesn't come as such a big upheaval when it arrives. Each day, starting the week before, we sort 1 thing per day - clothes, bag, and other things to take with the final item on the list being to actually go. Builds the excitement.

I prepared my daughters by taking them to toddler group in the early years classoom once a week to get them used to the environment.

Tried to keep it as low key as possible and this way they thought it was no big thing (it was me that shed the tears when I got home!)

We have been having school role playing sessions with all her dolls and teddies, she has tried on her uniform, we have had a trial morning routine.

My 4 year old starts school this September. We've been preparing by all getting up at the same time in the mornings to make it easier when school starts!

Thanks for all your tips for starting school/nursery - and if you've got a new starter this week, hope it's gone well so far!

Congratulations to @LovelyBranches who is the winner of the picture books. Pop your details over to [email protected] so we can get your bundle sent out to you :)