How long did it take your child to adjust to preschool?

[Flor]

Ds just turned 3. Before this, my mom has watched him. She has some health problems, so can't do that this year. He just started a nice Montessori program. He seems to like the school and his teachers, but we have had a HORRIBLE week. He is emotional, mean, hysterical, tired, off and on, up and down all week. We are all wiped out. How long did it take? When did you know it would/wouldn't work?

[lauren]

My son had these issues in k-garten. It took about a month for him to get back to equilibrium. It all depends on the childs' sensitivity and temperament I think.Try to reduce any other demands on him after preschool (afterschool classes and such) and bring life down to the bare minimum. Provide lots of exra nurturing. He is young;; some time may help him a lot.

[CarrieMF]

My 3rd is in playschool and from what I've seen/heard it takes about 4-6 weeks, but it depends on how long and often they're going.

Here 3yo's go once a week for 2 hours, 4yo's go twice a week for 2 hours. A child that goes longer and more often may have a harder time adjusting since they're probably quite tired and can be overstimulated. OTOH they may have an easier time adjusting becuase they're there more often.

My oldest had I think the hardest time adjusting it was into Nov/Dec before she was fully okay, but she was also taking ballet and a girl there(who we knew outside the class) would run up to her and tackle her. Out of 6 ballet classes Tirza participated in 2. It affected her at school. She had ballet on Mon and school on Tues. The 1 day a girl hugged her and Tirza freaked out over what Rachel had done. Rachel is a very mean and aggressive child and now that they're 8 Tirza still doesn't want to have anything to do with her.

Asha was the easiest, she told me to go.lol

Nadia I was concerned about because she has so many SID issues. There was no crying when she was dropped off(about 4-5 other kids were) but she usually was when I picked her up but the singing bugged her. She took around 6-8weeks to adjust.

[Flor]

Well, he is going 4x a week, from 8-12 then my mom watches him on Fridays. I get off work at 12:15 so I am home right after that. He really seems to love school and his teachers, but at the same time, feels horrible about being away from us. He seems so wound up,he is having trouble settling down for naps and even bed time, so he's hardly sleeping, but he'll sit up and bed and say, "Let's talk about my school again!" It is a friendly, warm program with only 6 kids and 2 teachers. It is gentle, and I feel good about leaving him there, but he misses us so much. :

[CarrieMF]

to get him to sleep, perhaps it's time to cut out naps and instead you could spend that time with him talking about what he did at school.

[Flor]

We are working on the nap thing. He is almost but not quite ready to drop naps. If he skips a nap, he crashes out at 6 pm and wakes up as I am ready for bed.

[velochic]

We went to meet the teacher day last year the day before classes started. Dd was 3 and her language immersion program is full time. She cried at meet the teacher day because she couldn't stay for school. She has loved every minute of school since she started.

I, on the other hand, have a hard time with it still. No adjusting for her at all.

[aprilushka]

I have the same problem. DS went to meet his teacher yesterday and three of his new classmates and he didn't want to leave (we were there for about half an hour). In fact, he threw the biggest temper tantrum he has in months-- and this is an American preschool and he doesn't speak English yet.: We didn't give him enough warning (ie, five times instead of two) we were going to leave which is part of it, but I didn't anticipate him having that big a reaction!

Hopefully when he gets his full three hours of school when the normal schedule starts he'll be more willing to go.

And just before that DH and I had a big argument about whether he "needs" it this year (he's 3). I argued he should go because DH, who is the SAHP doesn't really work on learning that much, won't do English at all AND we do all Russian pretty much at home anyway and I don't have time for English teaching after work, and I want him to be at the same English level as native English speakers when he goes into kindergarten. But I also argued he would love it and would be happier having the regular weekday interaction with other kids-- he so much looked forward to Russian Saturday school last year when we did that for a while and to Gymboree when we did it this last summer. We only can get him together with his Russian speaking playmates on the weekends. I was definitely right on him wanting to go, at least so far.

Maybe though after having a regular three day week, plus Russian class for two hours on Saturdays, he'll have a more mixed reaction since he'll be away from us for longer than he's been before.