How much settling in

[DangleDonkey]

Hi all,

My baby girl will be starting nursery at the start of September, a few weeks before her first birthday. I'm trying to work out how much settling in to do with her.

We're on holiday from 12th to 22nd August so if we just did settling in when we got back, she'd go in 7 times before starting properly what with weekends/ the BH.

We could start settling in before the holiday for... however long really. Would it be strange for her to go for a couple of weeks, have 10 days away, then go again? Would she have forgotten and it'd have been a waste?

She'll attend nursery all day Monday and Wednesday afternoon from September. As for the settling in period, nursery seem quite flexible so we can go in for increasing amounts of time and leave her with the staff for increasing amounts of time as well.

Just not sure how much to do!

In our nursery the average settling in days is 4, first one half hour parent stays, 2nd 45 mins parents stays 20 mins then waits in sitting area outside room, 3rd 1 hour alone 4th 2 hours alone thats normally enough altho there have been cases where child needs more settles first. I would wait till after your holiday less confusion for your little one.

Ours was an hour with parent staying, 1.5 hours on their own, 3 hours on their own over a meal time. It was fine.

I wouldn't overthink it and drag it out for weeks. Start after your holiday for sure. We did sessions much closer to the start date second time and that was much better.

Also assuming that you're going back to work, I would have her "official" start date about a week or so before you actually go back if you can. It's harder for you than it is for them generally.

We are currently doing our settling in at the moment.

First was an hour and I stayed, then it was an hour on his own. Today he has 2 hours on his own.

They said that after today if he's ok I could leave him for the full day but I feel like 2 hours to a full day is a big leap so I'm gonna leave him for a half day tomorrow and then decide over the next couple of weeks when to increase to a full day.

He will only be going 1 day a week but I don't start back at work for another 5 weeks so plenty of time to do some half days if he needs them.

A couple of sessions the week after you get back will probably be fine. I wouldn't start then have a holiday break.

7 seems a lot so I think after holiday is fine.

I offer 2 x 2hrs free, anything more and parents pay. Some like to really eek it out!

My DS starts in August. 1 x 30 minutes session where I stay and he meets the other kids and staff, 1 x 1hr session where I drop him off and pick him up and then that's it, he starts 4 mornings a week. If he doesn't settle then I'll do another couple of shorter sessions first but this is what's advised/recommended by his nursery.

We used two different nurseries for our two but settling was the same - hour session with me there, hour session without me, two hour session that included lunch without me then they started.