A child’s adaptation to kindergarten is a period of getting used to a new place and team. The adaptation process can last from two weeks to a month, so during this period, parents are recommended to be especially attentive and patient with the child, and LeapKids Happiness Academy specialists are always ready to help you.
How to help a child adapt to kindergarten faster?
Adaptation to kindergarten at the LeapKids Academy of Happiness is easy and carefree, because all the conditions for a comfortable stay of the baby are created here, the best specialists in the world work, and there is psychological support during the adaptation period not only for babies, but also for their mothers and fathers. because we understand that this is a rather long process and it is very important how the parents treat it. If the mother worries excessively, says goodbye to the child with tears in her eyes, then the baby will also worry. Therefore, be patient and confident that you are acting for the benefit of the child, and we will help you with this.
Adaptation at LeapKids is the first step to a child’s satisfaction with being in kindergarten. How long the parents will be calm at work depends on how the adaptation will take place. We understand that adaptation is a complex process of adapting a child at all levels – emotional, physiological, social, psychological, mental. Young children have their own, specific, stages of psychological and emotional development inherent only to this period. Among them:
- sensorimotor activity (sensation and perception)
- exaggerated property of processes of excitation over inhibition
- increased emotionality
- imitation of adults
- vulnerability
Therefore, their ecological adaptation to new conditions means taking care of their physical and mental health.
For 5 years now, we have been starting a new school year with adaptation – first we introduce the parents and the child to the premises of the kindergarten, playgrounds and educators, then the educators establish contact with the child in the presence of his relatives (this continues until the child does not let go of “his” adults – day, week or several weeks). Gradually, the time the child stays in the kindergarten increases from a few hours to bedtime, and then to dinner.
Our main task at this time is to maintain the child’s interest and enable him to cope with his experiences. And in kindergarten, a child can have a lot of feelings about separation, and about friendship, and about the need to follow norms and rules, and about the reluctance of others to share or give in, and about homesickness, and about various children’s fears.
The step-by-step strategy for adapting a child to kindergarten will take at least two weeks and looks like this:
In the first week, leave the child in the kindergarten for 2-3 hours to play with other children and, if the child wishes, to eat, gradually increasing this time.
When the baby gets a little used to it, next week offer him to sleep in a group, warning that you will definitely pick him up immediately after sleep (and in no case do not break your word!) After the baby agrees to sleep in the kindergarten, consider that most the path to its adaptation has been completed.
During adaptation to kindergarten, try to protect the baby from stress and changes – stability is important to him now. Therefore, it is better not to combine moving, a trip to the dentist, to a new sports section, holidays, excursions and other activities that excite the child’s nervous system with the adaptation period.
Try not to leave your child in the group for the whole day. The time will come when he will start to trust the teachers and will find friends in the kindergarten and will tell himself that you came for him early.
If possible, surround the child with familiar things. Let her sleep in homemade pajamas with her favorite toy, take a set of her favorite baby clothes for a walk.
A great way to help a baby’s gentle entry into the children’s team is fairy-tale therapy. Come up with a fairy tale for the baby about how the little rabbit was afraid to go to kindergarten, did not want to let his mother go. But then he made friends with a squirrel and a hedgehog and realized that playing in the garden is very interesting and fun!
Adapting to the LeapKids Happiness Academy is easy and pleasant. In addition to adapting children, we adapt their parents to kindergarten. Because when the mother is very excited and scared, then the child has the feeling that he is being sent to a very dangerous place. Alleviating parents’ fears and getting rid of guilt is the main task of a kindergarten psychologist. Come see us and see how it works.
Do you still have questions? – Fill out the form on the website or call us at +38 (044) 364 0 444, we will provide you with detailed advice and offer a time for a tour of the kindergarten!
