Trasition days

Hi Everyone!

I'm looking for your thoughts on transition days. I have done them in the past, some kids I find them beneficial, and sometimes I think it just confuses the kids as it's usually a shorter day or different hours. I'm starting a new 1 year old this week and I offered transition days as I always do, but I also let mom know my thoughts on them... sometimes they work, sometimes not. Mom's response was that she felt they were more for her then her child. It gives the child a chance to come while mom's still home rather then having trouble on the first day and having to pull her out of work.

Any thoughts? Do you offer them? Is there a way you do them that you found works really well? Or are we really just interupting our days so mom feels better about the new daycare?

I offer the parents the option of transition days just for the simple fact that it makes the parents feel a bit better about their child starting daycare, and for the child to get used to being away from their parents. All the children I have taken into care had not been away from their parents very much so it allows both to get used to not being with each other before they start care. However, I normally do it the week before care starts so there really isn't a break in between the days. I normally do like a Wed-Thurs-Fri then start care on the Monday type thing. I do think it is more for the parents then the child, but so far, all the children have taken the separation/transition pretty well. I'm about to start two new kids next month and I am offering transition days.

I prefer them specially with infants who've never been in group care before ... as mentioned both for the PARENT piece of mind and than so that the first day is not a 9 hour day of 'screaming' if they are a screamer .... however I generally prefer them to all be consecutive days typically the week or two depending on how much time we have before they have to 'start full time' increasing the time left here alone longer as they are doing 'better' ... so first day plan a drop off from like 8am stay to 10am type thing and next day do a little longer and so forth.

Older kids I typically do 1-2 play dates with the parent present and than start cold turkey cause they are easier to 'reason' with that a infant is!

I offer 1 trial day, not a transition day. It can be a full day solo or a few hours with mom or dad around. This day is free of charge but if parents want more than one day they then pay drop in rates. I personally don't see a point in it as it does nothing for the child but the parents LOVE IT so I keep offering them. I really do see them as for the parents benefit rather than the childs. It allows the parent to get used to thier little sweetie going to care for the first time or in the case of an older child switching care it gives the kiddos a chance to report back to mommy if they like it or if anything "strange" happened.

I let the mother stay for an hour the first day and a very short time thereafter depending on how the child is fitting in. I had a really bad problem with a little girl who was having separation anxiety from her Mom and I let her stay extra because she was still on mat leave and I really can't say if that helped or not because this little girl took a couple of months to feel at home.

But I always start the children on short full days, usually from 9-3:30 if possible and 1 day the first week, 2 days the second week, 3 days the next week and so on. I want the child to start full days so they become accustomed to the full day routine.