What age did your child start nursery?

[Devonlover]

I'm really new to this, but my DS is 8 months, and I'm looking at him starting at nursery maybe next spring, so he'd be around 12 months or so. At first, I'm thinking of 2 or 3 sessions a week (either a morning or afternoon - not sure), so I can get some work done (I work from home which is pretty impossible at the moment), and also to give him a break from me... Will he get something out of it at a year old, make friends etc, or will he still be too young? Would a childminder be better, gentler maybe? he's quite a robust big boy and very sociable so I'm thinking he'll be fine, but any thoughts?

I know everybody's different in terms of what they think is right but I'd be interested in getting opinions on what's a good age to start nursery. Oh, and is there anything I should be looking for specifically?

Thanks

DD was 1 and DS was 6 months.

CM (2 days per week) from 1-2.75 and then preschool for 2.5-3 days per week.

I liked the idea of a 'home' environment when they were smaller and then moving to a more 'formal' setting as they got older and were already potty trained etc

Age 1-2.75 that should read...

Ah yes, potty training... first time mum and still not really thinking of all these things to come - how does this work at a nursery? does it throw them out of routine or is it a help to have someone else give a hand, so to speak?!

Not sure about nursery, but with my CM they were always just as good as they were at home. My CM also taught them how to hold onto the buggy when walking down the street and other useful life skills

DD was 20 months when she started nursery - we were able to have one of us at home with her til then, and felt that we'd like her to be able to have some basic words so that she could tell us if she was unhappy. But not everyone has that luxury. She was shy and barely spoke there for months - but she was happy to go and would talk about it a lot at home. She started off 2 mornings a week - she's now almost 3 and goes 2.5 days a week.

I would talk to them about potty training as this varies - I didn't ask and our nursery didn't support potty training until the children were trained at home (therefore we had to take a week off everything to do it!) -

DS has been full time since 7months now 3.5.
He's got loads out of it in the time he's been there. He's made some amazing friendships even from a quite early age and compared with friends children of a similar age learnt to share and play with other kids very quickly. He's bright articulate and seems to have got a lot out of the experience I think it's harder on me than him and that helps on those inevitable days when I wonder if I've done the right thing.
It's a great nursery tho - I'm not sure how much I'd enthuse if it hadn't been so good.

Oops forgot to say Potty training was fine... I'd discussed with nursery before we got that far but they were willing to be flexible with whatever method / routine we'd started. It might of been made easier by them having him full-time but we had no issues come evenings / weekends. Touch wood we were lucky that it was a relatively painless process.