Baby vs Tweenie room

[Thegirlhasnamechanged]

DS will be off to nursery 3 days p/w starting when he is 13 months old (place been secured since he was a newborn as DD goes to the same nursery). Going on what we knew from DD’s time there we assumed he would start in baby room as they cater for children up to 18 months and after that they move up to the Tweenies class. We’ve just sorted his settling in sessions out and I questioned why the Tweenies room lead was sorting it to the response of “we thought we’d see how he gets on in Tweenies”.

I’m not sure how comfortable I feel about it (DH too) really. I get they have the same ratio either way but The development between 12 months vs 18 months is immense obviously. Another thing is that DS cannot walk yet - though is cruising like a good ‘un so hopefully won’t be too long - and as normal for those his age isn’t able to communicate very well, if at all. When DD was in Tweenies they had others in there who were starting potty training as the room goes up to 2 years.

We’re not going to even mention DS seemingly having pretty bad separation anxiety compared to how DD was at his age…)

Am I silly for feeling a bit like they have oversubscribed the baby room and DS is the one taking the potential fall for their screw up?

TLDR; would you be happy for your non-walking 13 month old to “see how they go” in the 18 month-2 year old Tweenie class at nursery?

Yes. If he starts walking in the next 3 weeks, he's potentially going to be a very busy boy stuck in a room with a group of children who may be at a very stage for the next 5 months.

Always better for him to be in a room for a longer period of time, the key person will really know him. It's good to have a bit of a mix of ages in a room. And it sounds like they'd be willing to change the plan if it doesn't work out for him. Do you know for sure that they haven't expanded the Tweenies room's age brackets? If he's the only very young one in a room of 22-month-olds then I'd raise an issue, but many nurseries will have rooms that care for 1 year olds at all stages.

The managers words on the phone earlier were “we wouldn’t usually start in Tweenies until 18 months but we thought we’d see how he goes on in there anyway” so definitely not changed the age brackets. I’ve sent an email asking for a better explanation as to why he’s been moved up as it really did seem as though she was making out the other children will be a fair bit older

I totally get a longer relationship with a key worker is beneficial but I also worry about the practicalities of it. At the moment he’s having 2 naps a day still and even with all the nursery worker magic in the world I don’t think they’ll manage to get him to nap on a mat with the other children. An 18 month old that just started to walk will be much steadier on their feet than DS even if he wakes in the morning being able to walk

Not sure he’ll be able to operate the self serve water stations either given he can only just manage to stand solo for 10 seconds max

My DD went straight into the 18-24 room but she was 15.5 months and running. It was the vacancy that came up, if I hadn't been happy I would have had to wait for the next one

At 13 months I'd presume it was a space thing which I wouldn't be happy.

Better for him to be in one room for longer than settle in the baby room and then be moved in a few months.

I would only choose a 0-2 baby room for this reason.

In ours it's babies and wobblers, and that's what they base it on - once they're steady on their feet they move up a room. I'd be happy trying a walking 3 month old in the wobbler room, there's more for them to get stuck into. In ours it's still naps in cots according to the baby's routine at home in the wobbler room though, I wouldn't be happy with a mat that young.

I would get the nursery to explain why they have decided that. A good nursery will be open and upfront.
DS's nursery js 0-2 in the baby room and they all get on marvellously in there, including sleeping on mats, so I wouldn't worry too much!

Our DD was moved up ‘early’ (15mo when the toddler room is usually 18mo+). Personally I was delighted, she was an early walker but a bit of a late talker, I think she found the crawling babies frustrating and her language has come on leaps and bounds since being in with the 2 and 3 year olds. Plus she’s an august baby so depending on what we decide re deferral, she may well have to get used to being the smallest in a year, and while she’s a late talker she seems who’re emotionally switched on compared to others of her age we know, so I liked seeing how she’d cope with the room and she’s doing really well.

It’s up to you and there may well be commercial pressure, I’d rather they put my DC into toddler room a bit early than get them settled with a key worker in the baby room and then move them on within a couple of months.

Sorry - what I meant to say was that while it’s up to you you may find he comes on really well in the next room, so it could work out well :)

How old are the others in the baby room? My DD moved up to next room when she was 15months and walking confidently as she was oldest and was getting bored in the baby room. She got on great in next room up as there were 4 of them all roughly the same stage as well as slightly older ones

My son's nursery has babies and tweenies together. No problem with it, the room is huge so plenty of space for crawlers and runners.
He's nearing 2 and they're about to move him to the toddler room, I'm not ready haha

DS had his first settling in session yesterday and I’m still not sure how to feel about it..

His keyworker is lovely (and DD liked her a lot when she was in Tweenies) but he is very obviously the youngest. I asked the room lead and she confirmed this and that the current youngest child they have is 15 months but they aren’t in on the days DS is in. Youngest on days DS is in is currently 17 months

They’ll try hard to get him to nap on the mats as they don’t have remit to use the baby rooms dedicated sleep room which I don’t reckon they’ll manage to do. A little pedantic niggle is that the room lead kept saying that “because he hasn’t dropped his morning nap”… well no, of course he hasn’t. He is currently 12.5 months old..

Bending the age by a month or 2 is normal and fine, but 5 months is dodgy. Probably doing it for space reasons.