Moving up rooms too soon/ emotional development?

[megcleary]

Right I am a renowned paranoid ninny so bear with me.

DD 2.8 first and so far only child appears to be fairly bright. She is nursey three days a week and loves it tells us about her day who she plays with etc. She is in a room of 2-3 year olds and is to move up to the next room near when is three in aug. Anyway she has spent today in the 3 year olds room as they say she is one of the brightest and will be moving up sooner.

I am anxious that she is being pushed up to her peers too soon and it will effect her emotionally. DH says i am worrying over nothing.

Opinions please.

& the bumping begins

Nurseries can sometimes say they want to move a child up early as they are bright - but really do it as it fits in with their numbers!

I work in a nursery, and although rooms are roughly separated by age, I think it's important to remember children don't develop at identical rates. An early walker might move out of the baby room a little sooner, a child who's not talking at all might stay in the toddler room a bit longer if they'd struggle to communicate in 2-3s.

The nursery nurses must feel your DD is ready for the next room for a reason. Unless it's simply a staffing/space issue and they need to clear some space in the 2-3 room for younger children?

Thank you very much for the replies I will check re the numbers issue when she is in on Monday, I just don't want her to suffer because she somes across so well that she is rushed along through things too quickly too suit others or maybe she is ready and I am a loon.

Boing

You know your DD better and pay the fees if you don't want her to move up tell them you want her to stay with her age group for the time being.

Some points I would be worried about

1. That after a few months some of the older children will be leaving to move up or go to school, this might be very hard for your DD as she will have just left behind friends from her previous room, she may then loose new friends all in a relatively short period of time.

Then the children from the younger room will be moving up, once again changing the dynamics in the room. Your DD may become insecure in friendships as children are always coming and going at a faster rate than she is used too.

1. Just because they feel she is intellectually mature enough doesn't mean she is emotionally and behavior wise. In an older group setting there will be higher expectations from your DD on what's expected from her which she may not be ready for.

My too ds's always went up a room about 2/3 month before their relevant birthdays - I suspect due to pressure of numbers coming up behind althought they too always said "because they're already walking/talking" etc etc. I always worried it was too soon, was horrified for the first couple of weeks and then found they were loving the new environment, if that helps at all. You have to remmeber that at this age they change so quickly - a matter of weeks can represent a big shift in maturity, new skills, etc. The first time it is hard to see this if you havent had one go through it before. I think they are pretty good at anticipating when a child is ready and tbh it's not in their interest to have a child going up a room who is not ready and will be miserable and clingy and need lots of extra attention.

August is quite a while of and I think you may find that she is much more ready then - the little taster sessions help too.

two!

I think they want to move her long before august and that is my area of concern. Some of the children who are three in the next few weeks haven't been for a visit and the just sent her up for last Friday without informing us until DH picked her up that evening. The more I dwell on it the more annoyed/worried I get.

meg surely you have the choice of it happening or not? I wouldn't be happy to pay fees to them with them dictating to me in something I was fairly against.

I have the opposite problem. At dd's nursery she is in the preschool room with a peer group of 3.5 to 4+ year olds. Three parents have insisted their pfbs -all of whom are well under three be moved up, and are now complaining that they don't play with dd and her friends and that the nursery staff aren't stretching them enough! I actually don't want dd to be playing and learning with 2 and a half year olds, but it's turned into a total rant against the ursery1 Honestly!

Thediaryof I would stop it if I thought it was unreasonable and did not suit DD, but I was just checking here if this was a problem people run into regularly.

Chatting to them today they are not planning to move her until July not in the next few weeks as was implied on Friday so I am more relaxed about it. Thanks for all the tips here.

Ask about staff/child ratios. As long as your child is 2 and not yet 3 she has to be in a group of no more than 4 children to one member of staff. Doesn't matter which room she's in, they still have to maintain this ratio. Don't be fobbed off by 'averaging' out numbers - it's a legal requirement and Ofsted will enforce it if you contact them.

in the nursery where my son is they never move one child on their own. ds moved through all the rooms with at least two or three peers who are about the same stage as him. he moved to toddler room with children who were a bit older as he was an early walker and self feeder. next move with younger ones as he was a late talker. all very well managed by the staff who know every child in the whole nursery by name.