Many children struggle with separation anxiety when it comes to their parents. This is pretty normal for kids. There are things that parents can do to help their children feel more comfortable and less anxious when they have to be apart, whether that is at school, church, or daycare. 

Check out these 4 ways that you can help your child with their separation anxiety–they could be the game-changer you have been looking for.

4 Ways To Help Your Child With Their Separation Anxiety

 

Talk To Your Child About Their Worries

It’s important to acknowledge and validate your child’s worries. There isn’t anything wrong or unusual with them–these feelings are totally normal. Talking through their feelings and fear, though, can actually give you an opportunity to help your child see that their anxieties aren’t as scary as they may seem.

Talking opens the door to helping your kids overcome their separation anxiety and gives you an opportunity to come up with a game plan of how to help them together. This helps them know that they aren’t alone in their fears and that you are there for them no matter what.

Don’t Enable

The last thing that you want to do is enable their separation anxiety. Don’t let your child stay  home from daycare or school or stop you from leaving them home with a responsible caregiver when you need to. 

Giving in to these worries constantly may seem like it’s taking care of them in the moment, but it’s actually just enabling them and not giving them the opportunity to grow through this stage of young childhood. 

While separation anxiety in young kids is normal, it’s also normal for them to start to slowly grow out of it as well. Don’t take important part of their childhood development away from them by enabling them.

Have a Consistent Routine

Children thrive in structure–it’s actually a core need for them. The more predictable and regular your daily routine in your home is, the less anxious your child will feel. 

An important part of this routine is the drop-off/pickup portion of your day. If you can get a good routine set leading up to drop-off that you stick to, that can help ease anxiety in little ones as well. They know what to predict, and when kids know they can count on the same things happening over and over again they feel much more calm.

Send Them With Something Special To Remind Them of You

Getting to keep something with them from home when they go to school or daycare can really help alleviate a child’s separation anxiety. This could be a special blanket or stuffed animal. It could be a special piece of jewelry or a picture of the two of you.

Having something sentimental that they can use when they start to miss you a lot can help them feel close to you even when you aren’t together.  

 

Separation anxiety can be really tough on parents and kids alike, but there are some great ways to help your children know that they are safe and okay. What are some ways you help your children with anxiety?

Finding the right preschool can determine a lot for your child’s early elementary school years, so shopping around for a quality preschool is really important. Some of the things you may look for in a good preschool could be smaller class sizes, higher teacher retention, and comprehensive curriculums; but one of the other research elements that help parents make informed decisions on the best preschool for their child is parent reviews of different preschool centers.

If you are looking for preschools around Columbus, OH, then make sure to check out our parent reviews! Here at Kare-A-Lot Preschool, we love all of our parents and kids, and we appreciate the kind words they have to say about us!

Parent Reviews for Kare-A-Lot Preschool, OH!

“My daughter goes to this daycare and within in two weeks of her being there she was walking. I love her teacher we have great communication via in person or through the brightwheel app. I feel a comfortable and safe to drop my daughter off in a clean and safe environment where she will be treated well and took care of for eight hours. Everyone is so wonderful from director to teachers. Great place to enroll your child.” –Danyelle Crosby

“Our boys (age 5 and 19 mo) have attended since 3 months old. The teachers here treat the children like gold. The young infant room teachers have been there for 10+ years and know more about raising children than I ever will. We have seen consistent development milestones reached, both physically and mentally. They helped encourage potty training. We get artwork and crafts daily. They serve breakfast, snacks, and healthy lunch and provide milk. Plenty of space for indoor and outdoor play. They make it a point to stay open as much as possible and realize that working families are depending on them. It will be bittersweet when our boys leave this place.” –Joshua Hill

“We have had our daughter here for about a year and a half. The teachers are excellent. Our daughter literally insists on giving them a hug before she leaves everyday. They have indoor and outdoor play equipment and have a great structured curriculum. I would highly recommend. They have reasonable hours and provide meal services.” –Erich Wessel

“My children attended daycare here for over two years and we had a wonderful experience. It wasn’t until we moved away and had the chance to tour other facilities again, that we realized how lucky we were. The teachers are polite, caring and friendly and also give great effort to help the kids learn. Detailed curriculum is given and followed. Highly recommend this place if you’re looking. Thank you Kare-A-Lot!” –Erin Mickley

Social Skills Kids Will Learn at Kare-A-Lot Preschool

Developing healthy social skills is a crucial part of early childhood development. Most aspects of life require us to use our social skills, and having places where we can practice and enhance those skills is important, especially so for children.

Getting opportunities to interact with other kids their age, learning how to interact with children younger and older than themselves, and having chances to navigate the social dynamics of interacting with adults help naturally hone the social skills of young children. 

Here at Kare-A-Lot Preschool, we are committed to helping children flourish and grow, and this includes helping them as they start to learn healthy social skills. 

A blog post from himama Early Childhood Education Blog explains the need for these social environments for young kids beautifully, “Children need to be in environments where they can learn skills that pertain to safety, security, and self-control, and childcare settings offer excellent opportunities for children to learn how to interact with other children and trusted adults. Because children are around other children and adults, they have more opportunities for social interactions that require and enhance effective social skills.”

So if you are wondering how much a preschool can really contribute to your child’s social development, check out these three social skills that we focus on here at Kare-A-Lot Preschool!

Social Skills Kids Will Learn at Kare-A-Lot Preschool

 

We Teach Kids How To Get Along With One Another

All kids are unique and different from each other; and while this is a good thing, different desires and ways of thinking will eventually lead to conflict or friction. But this isn’t a bad thing.

Being in situations where kids can be walked through conflicting ideas teaches them how to understand someone else’s point of view and learn how to compromise when it’s appropriate.

One of the key elements of these situations is having a kind, trusted adult around who can help walk kids through these situations and teach them how to get along, even if they don’t agree. Our teachers are committed to helping kids learn the fundamentals of getting along with others.

We Help Kids Learn How to Navigate Tough Emotional Situations

Talking about walking kids through disputes sounds all well and good, but not every situation ends smoothly with happy compromise. Many times these situations can devolve into tough emotional situations.

Preschool-age kids are at the age where they are experiencing the whole range of emotions without having a lot of tools to know how to deal with them. Feelings like anger, sadness, and frustration are a regular part of most little kids’ lives, and these emotions can be exacerbated in settings with peers.

These situations have to happen, though, for kids to learn how to work through them. Having skilled teachers helps in this area immensely. Teachers are able to engage kids, help soothe them, and talk the kids through their feelings and what to do in the moment to help calm down and move forward.

Having the chances to learn how to deal with these emotions and work through tough situations as young children leads to healthy, emotionally stable adults.

We Teach Kids How To Work Together As a Group

The foundational skills of knowing how to get along with others and work through tough emotions when things don’t go their way lead right into the next social skill we focus on at Kare-A-Lot Preschool: teaching kids how to work together as a group or team.

Learning how to work together toward a common goal is a vital foundational skill that every person needs to learn. When young kids work toward a goal with others, they get even more opportunities to practice their new skills of compromise, kindness, empathy, and emotional processing.

Kids developing their social skills is a very important part of their growing up, and a preschool setting is a great place for kids to learn them! We are committed to helping kids learn these skills here at Kare-A-Lot Preschool!

 

In our very electronic world, it can seem like all kids want to do is sit in front of a screen. But there are plenty of fun toys out there for kids that also help with early childhood development. Check out the list below of some of our favorite toys for healthy childhood development.

Toys for Healthy Childhood Development

Traditional Shape Sorter

One of the best toddler toys out there for early development is the shape sorter. The best versions of this toy are the ones that have large, uncomplicated shapes. Try to find a sorter that has four or five slots with an easy way to remove the pieces.

Shape sorters help develop gross motor skills, cognitive skills, and social skills.

Bubbles

There isn’t a child out there that doesn’t love bubbles! Not only are bubbles fun to watch and pop, but they inadvertently encourage exercise when children chase and jump after them as well. They can also be used to help cognitive development from a science lesson standpoint.

You can either buy bubbles at the store or make your own at home very easily with a recipe from Pinterest.

Bubbles are great for developing motor skills, social skills, and cognitive development.

Picture books

Reading picture books to young children is a great way to help them develop their cognitive skills! Words aren’t necessarily even the most important part of the books at this age–getting to see the pictures creates a whole new world for their imagination to process and learn about. 

Make sure you talk about the different pictures with them, point things out, and ask their opinions about the story or characters. Engaging kids like this gets their little brains thinking and your might be surprised by the responses you get from them.

Costumes

Play clothes and costumes are a great way for kids to develop their social skills, emotional skills, and cognitive skills. 

Wearing costumes and playing pretend are a great way for children to step outside of their natural world and normal routine to grow their imaginations.

This also helps promote social and emotional skills because of the playing pretend element–it encourages them to play well with others, try new things, and listen to the ideas of their friends as they create their imaginary world.

Puppets

Puppets are fun, creative, and imaginative; they help develop motor and language skills in young children, as well!

Puppets can be used to sing songs, read stories, or reenact scenarios that can teach lessons about real-life scenarios the kids may encounter. They are great ways to talk and play with your toddlers!

Puppets can be purchased or you can make your own. Making puppets is easily done out of socks, paper bags, or crocheted or knitted materials.

A high-quality childcare center has many positive effects on early childhood development. The first step to making sure your child reaps these benefits is to find a quality childcare center. 

Once you have done that, you can see these aspects of your child’s life start to flourish!

4 Positive Effects of Daycare on Childhood Development

Promotes Healthy Social Behaviors

Enrollment at a high-quality daycare center can have a profound and lasting role in a child’s social and emotional development. 

A daycare setting provides many consistent opportunities for children to develop empathy, resilience, and positive social behaviors that will serve them well as they continue to grow.

Fosters Communication Skills

When kids have abundant opportunities to interact with both peers and trusted adults, like in a daycare center, they also have abundant opportunities to develop their communication skills through observation and practice.

Caregivers are able to help give support and guidance as kids work through familiar situations and new ones, helping to teach them the foundational skills of empathy and open communication that they will use throughout their whole life.

This also allows children the opportunity to build meaningful connections with their trusted caregivers; research shows that these kinds of bonds play a significant role in strengthening kids’ communication skills as well.

Supports School Readiness and Academic Achievement

A high-quality childcare center is going to have education programs and activities that help develop a child’s cognitive growth and prepare them for their upcoming school years

An age-appropriate curriculum with attention for each child as they learn can provide the solid foundation needed for future education and can foster a love for learning.

Grant Aldrich, the CEO of OnlineDegree, says, “the early childhood education program lays the foundation for later years of schooling, even up to higher education. Studies have shown that students who attend an early childhood education program are more likely to graduate high school and attend college.” 

Cultivates Confidence

A quality daycare center will offer many new experiences for children to learn from and through as well, and this lends to a child developing their sense of their own competence as they continue to master new skills. When children feel capable and competent, they develop strong confidence in themselves as well.

These little victories will help build a child’s confidence in that they can take on new challenges and can accomplish the goals they set for themselves.

A quality childcare center has so many different positive effects on early childhood development. What are some ways you’ve seen your child flourish since being enrolled in their high-quality childcare center?

 

 

 

Quality childcare is important to parents, but not everyone knows what exactly to look for when they begin their hunt for a great childcare center for their family.

Here are 9 things that you can look for when you are touring different local daycare centers so you can find the right daycare center for your child!

9 Essential Elements of a Great Daycare Center

• Low Child-to-Teacher Ratios

Every state has certain requirements for the number of children to each teacher in a particular age-range classroom. This ensures adequate care for each child.

Having lower child-to-teacher ratios means there than state requirements means that there will be more teachers than required for a certain number of children, which will allow for even more individualized care.

• Small Class Sizes

Smaller class sizes also allow for teachers to give nurturing and individual care and attention to each child. Say state requirements say a one-year-old room should have 1 teacher to every 6 children, but a daycare center caps each one-year-old room at 4 children instead—this allows that teacher to care for each child even more because their attention is less divided.

• On-Going Training for Staff

Childcare staff are required to undergo yearly safety trainings, as well as be up to date on things like CPR Certifications. A great daycare center will be diligent to make sure these trainings and certifications never lapse and their staff is always fully trained.

• Experienced Director and Staff

Both the Daycare Director and staff should have childcare experience of some kind, whether that is years of caring for children or a degree in early childcare education of some kind.

• High Teacher Retention

A daycare center with high teacher retention is a bit of a unicorn in the childcare world, so if you find a center whose teachers have been there for the long term, that is an indicator of a very good childcare center.

• Healthy Teacher/Child Interactions

A good childcare teacher will be kind, caring, and personable. These qualities will spill over into their interactions with the kids in their class, creating a healthy and positive environment for the children.

• Higher Than Minimum Licensing Standards

A daycare center shouldn’t strive for the bare minimum when it comes to licensing standards. They should strive for excellence. Make sure you ask for health reports or other standard requirements and see how they meet them during your tours. Bare minimum should never be settled for.

 

• Age-Appropriate Activities

Each classroom should be an environment that engages the kids in it in age-appropriate activities that challenge them and help them grow. These can be crafts, games, toys, lessons, or reading time that caters to each age group’s learning abilities and understanding.

• Good Health & Safety Practices

Clean facilities and proper safety practices are essential for every childcare center. Having clean cooking facilities, proper training, and health and safety protocols are all important to creating a safe environment for children to thrive.

 

As you shop around for the right childcare center for your family, keep these 9 things in mind and find a center that checks off all of these boxes.