How Parents Can Support Their Child Through Childcare

Starting childcare is an exciting time in your child’s life. Your child will make new friends, learn new skills, and develop a lifelong love of learning.

But starting childcare can be an adjustment, and it’s important to take the right steps to ensure a smooth and easy transition. Here’s how you can support your child through childcare.

Prepare your child

Before your child starts at a childcare centre, help them understand what to expect, and begin to prepare them for changes in routine.

Talk to your child about their childcare centre. Try to focus on the positives, and introduce your child to centre schedules.

If you know that meal times or sleep times will change once your child starts attending childcare, begin to introduce these changes at home. This can help your child become confident with new routines.

Make sure that you’re prepared

Just as important as preparing your child for childcare is making sure that you’re prepared.

Plan ahead to determine how pick-up and drop-off will fit in with your work schedule and other responsibilities. Allow plenty of time to avoid rushing in the mornings before arriving at your child’s centre.

If your child’s centre does not provide food, or if your child needs to bring other items to childcare with them, organise these things in advance.

Allow for quality time

When your child starts attending childcare, they may be spending less time with you, so it’s important to allow for quality time outside of childcare hours.

At pick-up time, ask your child questions about their childcare centre and the things that they are learning. When your child isn’t at childcare, make time to spend with them, building on the skills and interests they’re working on at their centre.

Spending quality time with your child can help to ensure that they feel confident and secure both at childcare and at home.

Talk to your child’s educators

Your child’s educators are experienced in helping children adjust to a childcare environment.

Talk to your child’s educators about your child’s interests and any concerns you may have. Ask questions about the routines at your child’s centre and about learning that you can continue to work on at home.

If your child is finding it challenging to adjust to childcare, their educators may be able to offer suggestions to help.

Be consistent

The key to a positive childcare experience is good routine, so try to establish this early on in your child’s early education journey.

You can introduce routine to your child’s life by being consistent with drop-off and pick-up times and even by asking similar questions at the end of each childcare day.

Try to also establish clear time management routines that help prepare your child for a day of learning at their childcare centre.

Still looking for a right childcare centre for your child? MyXplor offers location-specific childcare listings to help. For example, a parent based in Gosford, New South Wales, might visit the Space MyXplor Gosford listing to find a local childcare centre.