Parents of nursery children and parents to be of nursery children, a few questions you could answer for me .....

[cookielove]

I've been working in a nursery for many years and have really enjoyed my time, and while i have always believed in interaction with the parents to be vitally important in creating a home for home experience, i feel my nursery is lacking in giving out information before the child enters our setting.

We give out a leaflet/booklet/price info/term dates, but thats it. Is that enough?

We also give them tours of the nursery, and when children are accepted settling in sessions e.t.c

I've been thinking when the parents initially apply to the nursery we should give them information of how to help there child settle into a new setting, something on the lines of:

• settling - taking your child to social events - so they become accustomed to different children and adults e.g. play places, the park, classes e.t.c

• sleeping - be aware that the sleep room won't be very dark, and there may be some noises, this may disrupt your babies sleep and if your child is already sleeping through noises at home it may help in the long run (this point needs to be re worded but you get the idea)

• other children
• feeding

Offer information for all these areas, and probably a few more.

So what do you think, would your have liked to received something like this, or like to if you were to use a nursery?

Thanks

My DC nursery is really good with this. I was given a booklet with their full menu, timetable of the day, behaviour policy, potty training policy, sickness policy, how they go about integration from the baby to the toddler room, explanation of the role of the key worker.
Their sleep room btw, is entirely separate, kept dark and quiet. It is one of the reasons I chose this nursery.

I think that the 'extra' bits you have suggested would put me off TBH, sounds patronising about socialising my baby and you are basically telling me that your nursery setting will not be optimal for settling my baby to sleep.

I know that isn't what you mean, but it's how it is coming across.

I got everything I needed to know through visiting and watching the staff interact with the children.

Our nursery did give menu information.

I would have liked this. My DS's nursery is lovely and he is very happy there, bu unless you ask the questions you don get the info. And sometimes they seem surprised that you want to know.

Things like, when they transition between rooms, how does the routine change? Detail on food, no just the menu but how us it prepared and nutritionally balanced, where is it sourced? The nursery policies which they have available if you want to see them.

Re preparing them for nursery, I think helping with a good understanding of what the environment will be like is important. I didn't get a leaflet or anything, but spent a few hours there with DS initially, so I got th picture.

Agree entirely with Nagoo.

What I love about the nursery I am using (for the second time) is the daily communication. It is never rushed. They tell me little anecdotes which reinforce that they really know ds.

Yama - we have a communication form at the end of the day that relays sleep, eat and nappies, however we engage one on one with are parents during drop off and pick up gaining info and giving info on the children we care for.

I don't want to imply that we don't know the children within are care.

I wasn't trying to be patronising, i just wanted to give the parents a heads up on how they could better prepare there child for the change that is nursery life.

Agree with Nagoo too. We were given all of the policies, menus etc, but when I asked about what changes I might need to make to DD's routines and did she need to be able to self settle for naps (she didn't at home) they said don't worry about it. They are the experts in getting babies to eat, sleep and socialise and it really didn't matter what we did at home, she was always fine with the nursery routine. Telling me to get my child out to classes etc is quite patronising, I think parents either do it or have valid reasons not to.

Actually Cookielove your advice about taking babies to groups may not be appropriate for every baby. I took my dd to a few weekly groups during my mat leave and ds to none. Ds settled in fine to nursery within a few days whereas dd took a few weeks.

I get a form with regards to food, sleep and nappies but to be honest, I don't look at it. I am much more satisfied with the verbal report of ds's day.

Why don't you survey the parents at your nursery. Surveys are a good way of ascertaining good practice and identifying areas for improvement.

Personally I would find the information a little patronising and I may even find it a little off putting, when DS was staring nursery they asked me about him, his routines, likes/dislikes etc and I felt reassured that they would fit things round him, rather than he would have to fit in to nursery, if that makes sense?

I think giving as much info as possible is a good thing but parents don't tend to feel like they're being told what to do.