Helpful information for parents and carers from Raising Children Network.
Before your child starts Rainbow Cottage
You can start getting your child ready for Rainbow Cottage in the months and weeks before the first day. Here are some tips.
Visit the centre
Many early learning centre’s offer orientation visits. During these visits, your child can see and experience what they’ll do at, who they’ll meet, and what happens during the day. With permission, you could take some photos of Rainbow Cottage to show your child before they start.
Talk about centre
You can talk about the things your child will do at. For example, ‘Stella, do you remember we saw blocks? You’ll be able to build with them as you do at home. You could look at photos of the preschool and talk about some of the things that are different from home, like the toilets and playground.
Follow your child’s lead with talking, so that your child feels comfortable talking about the centre, but doesn’t hear about it too often. If your child doesn’t seem interested when you talk about care, don’t push the conversation.
Keeping things low-key can be a good idea too. If you say ‘Isn’t it exciting that you’re starting day care?’, your child might start to feel more anxious because it sounds like a big deal.
Read books about day care
Here are some good books for children about starting day care:
- Tom goes to kindergarten by Margaret Wild
- First day by Margaret Wild
- What to expect at preschool by Heidi Murkoff.
Source: https://raisingchildren.net.au/preschoolers/play-learning/preschool/starting-preschool
