Does anyone have experience of a child going straight from a Childminder setting to school?

[keenie13]

Hi Everyone,

I am brand new to Mumsnet and am looking for any comments or experiences regarding a child going straight to school from a childminder setting. I have not found a similar thread on this site so far but apologies if there is already.

Just a very brief reason for our current decision...our son, born in May 2013, will be starting school in September 2017. He is an extremely intelligent child (but I'm sure every parent thinks that!) and seems to be thriving at the childminders, mixing with older and younger children. We therefore feel it would be more upheaval to move him twice, expecially with a new baby in the house too! He knows the alphabet, numbers to 20, and can trace numbers, letters and shapes within the lines. He plays the drums with distinctive rhythms and beats from the songs that he listens to. He has a least 15 pop/rock songs that he sings continually, along with the usual 3 year olds nursery rhymes.

I would welcome any experiences where your child has by-passed the pre-school or nursery setting and gone straight to the school environment, good and bad (if any) please :-)

Many thanks in advance :-)

Not from a parents point of view, but children who have stayed with me until they start school have settled into school life well. As long as your CM goes out and about, so they meet new children and adults and learn to socialise and make friends it should be fine.

The Cm will be following the same eyfs curriculum as nurseries and pre schools, so all that should be covered.

For a child to settle well into school, it isn't about how many letters or numbers he can recognise, or if he can trace between the lines or keep a beat on a drum, it's much more about:
taking turns
lining up
doing things when the adult says, rather than when he feels like it
being part of a group - knowing what to do when things go wrong (say another child snatches something)
coping with being part of a bigger group all day
coping with noise and 'business' about him all day
moving in to the hall
eating dinner altogether - cutting up own food, carrying own tray (or opening lunchbox)
playing independently
recognising own coat / gloves / jumper/hat from a group of 30
recognising own peg or own lunch box or own PE bag
understanding there are times of the day when "we all" do this, taht or the other, even if he doesn't fancy it
sharing "your" adult with another 29 children, some of whom may be very needy

etc., etc., etc.

Some CMers go to lots of groups where the dc get a lot of this sort ofexperience (I know all of mine did) but others don't, or less so. I think that's a factor.