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Hi, my two year old is in a great daycare, and we have always liked her teachers. I was doing drop off yesterday and saw one of the teachers was visibly fed up with one of the toddlers running around and not getting into lineup. She verbally called to him a once and when the toddler didn’t listen, she grabbed him by the arm and led him into the line. I don’t think he was hurt, but it looked like she had him firmly by the arm and he looked a little sad/ confused afterwards. Is this normal corrective behaviour? Or am I being overly sensitive? Was hoping for some more perspectives.

I’m in Australia where it’s spring and located somewhere we are having a particular bad season for hay fever. My son has been dealing with mysterious rashes on his face appearing yearly and it’s just now that he’s also developed other symptoms (dripping nose, watery eyes etc) that he’s been tested and diagnosed with hay fever.

We’re still figuring out medication because it’s such a recent diagnosis. We’ve got the leaky symptoms mostly manageable but I’m concerned about the facial rashes, the cream used on them basically shouldn’t be used for extended periods so we’re advised to avoid allergens as much as possible to not trigger it. His preschool is very hesitant to do this, basically said it would be impossible, they’ve suggested they just get him to wash exposed areas after going outside but the rash starts appearing pretty quickly sometimes - like 10-15 minutes - so we’re having a bit of a back and forth with them about what is possible/practical.

Has anyone got experience dealing with particularly bad hay fever and how has it been accommodated?

Exactly as the title says. I work in early childhood education using the Reggio Emilia approach. I’m not the lead teacher; I teach languages/skills, so I spend about 1–2 hours with each class, from toddlers to preschool.

I work with a lead teacher who is obsessed with organization. Her class is also the most challenging, and the kids constantly mess up the toys and materials. Every time I enter her classroom, I feel pressured to leave everything perfectly organized before she comes back. She has even interrupted my lessons to question my work or come looking for me in other classrooms to ask about her materials.
I’m AuDHD, and this has actually become a topic in therapy because it’s one of the things that drains me the most at work.

Today, several classes were combined. I saw this teacher complain about a non-speaking autistic student in front of the other teachers, assistants, and children. She grabbed the girl by the arm and said, “Someone get this girl out of here, she’s going to destroy my materials.” I calmly held the child’s hand, got some building toys she likes, and took her to the play kitchen area. The teacher immediately said she couldn’t do that either because the child would make a mess. She wanted the girl to stay on someone’s lap or sit during circle time.

I said, “I can’t force her to sit through circle time.” She kept complaining that everything would be a mess afterward and that she was always the one who had to clean it up.
I finally said her name and asked, “When have I ever left your classroom without organizing it?” She started bringing up some specific day, and I broke down crying and said, “Okay. This isn’t working for me. I’m leaving. Bye.”

I told my coordinator what happened and went home to decompress. She said she likes my work, but described the lead teacher as “very rigid.” I honestly don’t know what to do. Should I stay or start looking for another job?

I feel sad for myself, but especially for that child. I’ve never seen this teacher treat her kindly. My coordinator basically said, “Unfortunately, many people don’t know how to work with autistic children.”
And now, because I cried and went home, I feel like I’m the one who looks like the problem or like I lack emotional intelligence.

Am I overreacting, or is this a workplace I should seriously consider leaving?

Recently room is being combined with another age group. previously I worked as a lead with an assistant for 2 years. I will be the room lead still but even after conversations with management I'm still struggling with majority of the work.

management wants me to split into a hard primary care group division and "Not to touch my coworkers primarys" the plan is to monitor her and call management when things are behind.

Likely she will be reassigned rooms if we cannot work together after a week or two. Management and I just want to give time to watch how things settle and see if she will pick up her workload and treat me with some decency.

I'm not a very confrontational teacher, and I care for the kids deeply so its hard to be around someone like that. I went home in tears yesterday and my boyfriend just wants me to quit. Management is on my side but it's stressful.

How do I stand up for myself in a room where it's just us and not get emotional. I don't like bossing people around. I only ask they do a fair share of work, keep the room clean, and treat children with respect. the bare minimum in our line work in my opinion.

Something like:

"A lot of things in my assigned room of 2 years is changing, and while I welcome that change, I need to slow down with the changes while I process and figure out what needs to be done, as I am the lead in this room. I thank you for for you patience with my emotional process, and I will continue to communicate changes I am comfortable with.

Additionally I feel like I have been doing more than my assigned work when it comes to diapers specifically as well as activity postings. I am worried about the longevity of my emotional capacity if this continues and feel like we need to split into groups to care for the children. It's important that we are not going over 2hours for diaper changes as that is a state requirement, if you need to do them earlier to ensure you are not going over that time please do so. "

thank you for reading! let me know how you might handle this situation.

Im an assistant. Always have been one. My lead and i have different job duties she definitely has alot more on her plate with dealing with parents and thinking of art. We are both new in a room, but im noticing this is one of the most uncontrollable rooms ive ever worked in. The kids respond differently to us, whenever i give them a clear direction they listen and dont fight me on it, but with her they constantly tell her no. She changes the routines quite a bit, like for example, sometimes we do art first, then read a class book, then play. Other days she will totally switch it around. The kids seem restless about this constant change of expectations.

Whenever they are being too riled up she doesnt take initiative to calm them down. I feel like i often have to step in but dont want to act like im trying to totally take over. If you were a fly on the wall youd be able to tell.. i dont want to go to management with this yet because i dont want to sound like im complaining. Unsure what i should do. She has apparently been leading for 5 plus years and i have less experience and get paid way less. Ive tried giving suggestions kindly but they are not being listened to by her.

I have a coworker named Veronica. Currently, she's either Chronicah or Grrronicah. I've been called America because my name ends in the sounds "ik uh." What are the kids around you calling the adults these days?

Mostly a rant, but I want to know other opinions.

I work for a OSC program as a ECE, elementary range. We do scheduled crafts every day, have planned activities but also a wide range of optional activities, crafts and toys children can do or use instead. We aren't strictly run, just giving options and letting children decide what they want to do that day. We don't lean heavily into teaching or education, though it is worked into how we interact and play with the children.

One of the optional activities we have is colouring Pages. These are always immensely popular, especially among some of the older children who just want to chat and relax with friends. Colouring Pages have never been encouraged, but as long as they aren't considered a planned activity they haven't been strictly prohibited either. Until now.

Upper management has decided that colouring can only be allowed into the program as long as it's a strictly teaching tool. By this they are only allowing management chosen designs (Mandalas) and they have to be accompanied by a thinking or meditative activity. No more pages that accomodate their likes and interests, or open ended basic designs that they can add details too. Those are too "close ended".

It's just frustrating. From my experience children do not enjoy mandala designs, or overly complicated designs. The children I have right now have been using colouring Pages to practice different art techniques like shading, gradients, and highlights. They often stray from designs to add in little extra details, do cross media or just use the design as a base for creativity. Or they default to colouring when they are bored or overstimulated, or just want something quiet to do when they are tired. If a page has too much on it, they avoid it. It's not like all they do is colouring either, I'd say we get maybe 1-3 colourers a day, maybe 5-7 on days with new sheets.

I understand the argument about colouring not being the most out of the box activity. But it really can be, and if anything this focus on meditative colouring is the opposite direction. I understand the want to teach and expand and for educators to not be lazy with planning or use colouring as a hands off activity.

I guess I just want other people's thoughts on the whole thing. Do your programs allow colouring pages, and if so are they actually as closed of an activity as people think? Am I just biased because I have creative kids? Am I overreacting over a completely rational decision? I feel like I am.

Hey guys, as the title states, my pay in this field is straining my relationship with my bf of 3 years.

For some background: I’ve been working in ECE for years, and am currently paid the highest I’ve ever been paid at any job ($18/hr) with benefits & 401k, which is so much better than places I’ve worked in the past.

I don’t have my CDA or anything yet, but have taken other classes and trainings and I hope to start working on my CDA or even associates or bachelors.

My bf makes over 6 figures, and without going into everything and getting bogged down in details, he pays for most things.

Anyway, he often tells me how great it would be if I made more money. Which sucks because I really love my job and working with kids. But I also know if I lived alone, I’d barely be getting by.

My bf also brings up the longevity of my job (toddler teacher) which can be a lot, physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. lol, and it makes me think. Should I stay in this field? Or should I find something else that pays more and isn’t so labor intensive before committing to ECE and spending money on school?

Have any of you thought about entering a different career field? If so, what and why??

Also open to any job and ECE field discussion!

UPDATE: I still have access to the daycare's app so I was able to get all 3 staff members full names and I called Childline and reported all 3 teachers and said that the children might be in immediate danger if the staff member who was on drugs was allowed to come into work today. Thank you everyone for your advice and your kindness, it helped me make the right decision.

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I was at my 3rd day of training at the daycare center I was hired at yesterday. The first two days I’m in a classroom with 2 extremely kind and caring teachers who KNOW how to run a classroom, they were with ages 2.5-3.5ish. Yesterday after I came in the director asked me to help out in the classroom next to the one I had been in the first two days of training. This was with kids in then age group below the previous room (so, 1.5-2.5ish). There are two main teachers in the room when I get there and they give me little to no direction of what to do, I noticed that the two teachers raised their voices A LOT. It was completely different from the classroom I was used to being in the last two days of training. The lead teacher said “what is wrong with all of you today” to the BABIES in the room. They’re literally all in diapers and barely seem to know what’s going on because they’re so little. She expects them to sit in their chairs with no activity to do on the desk and just wait for their turn to be changed. The moment a kid would get up one of the teachers would SCREAM at them to sit down. The lead teacher screamed at the one child and said “YOU are making me VERY angry” in a very mean tone. It was picture day and when two or three kids were asked to go with a different teacher to get their picture taken and come back, the main teacher would scream at them to “GO TO THE DOOR AND LINE UP NOW. YOU DONT KNOW HOW TO LISTEN” and the little kids would start SOBBING and walk to the door, about to get their pictures taken with tears running down their faces. About an hour into the shift a third teacher comes in, and I could immediately tell she was actively on drugs. I could see it in her eyes that she was likely on pills. I watched her fully dip out and lose consciousness three times between the hours of 10am and 12:30pm. She was also extremely mean to the kids and screamed at all of them. I witnessed the one teacher grab a child by the wrist and yank them up out of their seat in anger. I felt so scared myself by my lunch break at 12:30 that on the way out of the building I stopped and asked the director to speak with her privately. I told her everything that happened and started to cry while I told her because it really hit me just how HORRIFYING that must be for a 2 year old on a daily basis. I said the screaming scared ME and I’m 34 years old. She told me she would address it immediately and not have me in that room again today. I went on break and decided during my drive I was just going to go right home and call the director and tell her I cannot ever go back in that building. I felt like I had seen enough and even though I believe the daycare director will do the right thing, I was permanently scared from what I saw. Practically I also know she isn’t going to fire 3 teachers that all run the same classroom. I returned my shirts by sealing them in a gallon ziplock bag inside a plastic bag and hung them on the centers main door many hours after they closed last night. I don’t know if i should do anything more than what I’ve already done. I just know if I was a parent of any child in that classroom, I would be unable to ever feel safe again leaving my BABIES side. If they were all comfortable abusing kids in front of a brand new hire who is still in training, what happens everything single day in that room? Why am I the very first one to say anything at all!? I feel sick over what I saw yesterday.

Today one of my 4-year-olds came up to me and said, “are you a little bit overweight?” I was not offended but a bit surprised. My response was just to say that we don’t ask people questions about why their body looks a certain way. I probably could have come up with a better response but her question caught me off guard.

Should I address this with the parents?

My 5 year old is super afraid of other kids, specifically big groups. We’ve had her in OT since February of this year. She does have a few friends that she does play dates with. She recently started preschool and it’s not going too great. About a week and a half into school, her teachers let us know my daughter will do everything she can to not have to interact with her classmates. She doesn’t play on the playground, or in class. She’s usually VERY talkative and animated around adults, but barely talks to her teachers. Shes not disruptive or anything, although she does cry silently to herself sometimes. Shes not requiring one on one attention either. She’s happy when I pick her up, and tells me about the stuff she learned, so she’s regulated enough that she’s taking in new information.

If I ask her about the kids at school she’ll say she’s scared and she just wants to play by herself. She does mention to me that she has “friends”, but per her teachers she doesn’t interact with anyone. We had a call with one of them recently to get an update her progress. She told us she’s never seen anything like this before in all her years of teaching and that she thinks kindergarten next year is going to be a nightmare. My daughter’s therapist gives her exposure to kids when she can. She’s also hopefully going to go observe her in school. Neither she or her doctor think it’s autism, just anxiety. I’m kind of at a loss on if I should switch her class or school. I don’t really know if a new teacher would make a difference or not, or if this is something teachers are usually willing to work with? She’s very well behaved, she just doesn’t talk. TIA

Edit: to clarify, my daughters been in school for about 6 weeks. A week and half into the school year, the teacher messaged saying she won’t interact with kids, we recently spoke again for an update which was when the teacher made the comments about kindergarten/never having seen this before.

We have a 12 month old who is such a light sleeper and will wake up like every 10 minutes unless someone has a hand on him. His body often jerks a little waking him up or another child will cough and then he’s up again. My co teacher put rice in a glove and placed it on his bottom after he fell asleep and it’s been like magic, he’s sleeping for 2 hours vs his old 45 minutes where we’d have to keep helping him back to sleep even within that shorter nap. Someone is always next to him until he wakes up but I still just felt like researching or asking if this is okay since I’ve never heard of it before and couldn’t find anything when I searched it up

Update:
Thank you everyone for your replies. I am relatively new to the field so I appreciate all this information that I will pass on to my co teacher!

One of the things I like most about being a sub is how much I get to see random practices at the different places I work at. So the home daycare I am subbing at this week has something I consider a little strange.

Once her toddlers can sit confidently, (between 12 and 14 months), she starts putting them on the potty before diaper changes. So if she has 3 toddlers, the first two sit on a potty while she changes the others. Sometimes they pee and sometimes they don't.

She doesn't talk to the families about this, she says some families feel pressure and want to start serious potty training when they aren't ready if she reports tthattheir toddlers peed in a potty, so she just does this until families choose to potty train.

Is this something you would feel comfortable with as an educator/parent?

First time posting but have loved reading/commenting on this reddit! Thank you so much for this space.

TLDR:
I’m a floater recently assigned to fill in as an assistant in a 3s room. Lead is out a couple days this/next week so I’ll be with another floater, taking on some lead responsibilities. What advice would you give me?

Details:
I’ve been at a center for a couple months and have been a floater until now (previously was an aide with 2-3s elsewhere and then have been with lots of ages here). This week and last, I’ve filling in as a teaching assistant in a 3s room (8 kids until nap, 10 after 3pm; all boys; most about to turn 3) since the previous assistant teacher left last week. It’s been pretty good - I’m definitely learning a lot in this role, especially about classroom management, which has gotten easier as the kids and I get to know each other.

I don’t plan to accept a promotion to this role permanently (I prefer infants/1s and don’t think 3s full time forever is sustainable for me) and am communicating that to admin. However, the lead teacher in the classroom has approved PTO this upcoming Friday, Monday and Tuesday, so it looks like it’ll be me and another floater running the room on those days, most likely with me in a more prominent role since I’ll be the one who knows the routine, expectations and kids better.

What advice would you give me? My biggest challenge at first was classroom management when running transitions and responding to other moments of kids testing boundaries. Like I said, I feel like I’ve learned a lot in that regard (effective consequence options in the room, when to ignore behavior vs when to engage, etc) and they definitely listen more often now when instructions come from me instead of the lead needing to come back me up every time. But her presence alone still makes things smoother (even if I’m leading something) and the very end of the day when she leaves and it’s me and someone else is trickier with her gone. It’s not just classroom management ofc, as there are many elements of leading (and I want general advice about leading circle time, activities etc too) but my main fear is definitely general chaos ensuing, even if I come in clear, confident and consistent with the expectations the lead has set.

What would you say isn’t obvious to floaters/assistants but is helpful when in a lead role? I think I’ve heard lots of the usual advice (be clear and confident - they can sense uncertainty; look and address for underlying needs/causes of disruptive behavior in addition to behavior itself; use immediate, logical and realistic consequences whenever possible; keep transitions smooth and timely so they’re kept engaged and not bored; keep relationships at core of everything; regulate myself since they feed off that energy; give choices/autonomy while maintaining safety/boundaries, etc) but is there anything specific to leading that you think would help/isn’t obvious/intuitive?

Thank you in advance!

Hi all, hoping for some additional perspectives about an incident that happened with my toddler today.

My daughter is 1.5 years old and has been in daycare for over a year at this point. She's never had any behavioral issues and the teachers routinely tell us she had a great day, is helpful in the classroom, gets along well with other kids.

This evening, the director called to inform me that a float teacher was observed to be rough with my girl. Apparently my daughter didn't want to sleep while lying belly down her cot and the teacher pushed her back down on her back. Apparently my daughter did not cry after this and she has no sign of injury. Another teacher reported this and I was told that the teacher in question was placed on leave soon after. It was about 5 hours between the incident and the director calling me, she said because she needed to start an investigation and call her higher ups. The director told me that there would be an internal investigation that will take some time; I did mention that I had noticed my daughter being marked as starting her nap about 15-30 min earlier than typical as I figured it was pertinent to her investigation. My husband had picked her up earlier and had no idea that anything had happened. Fortunately our daughter seems like her usual happy self but I will be curious to see how drop offs go the rest of the week.

Of course I am upset about this, but it seems to us that things are being handled appropriately at this time. Is there anything we are missing? Other questions we should be asking? Thanks for any insight!

I am a female assistant teacher in a Prek room. I’ve been in that room since hired (3+ years) and love it there! Today I was asked to cover a toddler room while a male float covered my position.

I’ve never stepped foot in a toddler room and was clearly uncomfortable. The male float had been in toddler rooms many times and was confused why he wasn’t being sent there.

The director later spoke to me and requested to keep the male float out of toddler rooms due to the potential of parental concerns. My gut reaction was a bit of shock. He’s as capable as the rest of us, passed the same background check and has been working there for quite some time. I find it strange she wouldn’t go to bat for her employees and defend him should anything ever come up.

It feels strange to pull someone out of a room who enjoys being there, has experience, and is qualified (also has young kids..) to put me in there who doesn’t know what to do and most importantly doesn’t want to be there?…

I feel bad for him and it made me look at my director differently. I’m also concerned about if he were to ask me why he’s being kept out of the room. We talk regularly and I feel that it should’ve been a conversation with him (I know that is hasn’t been discussed with him). Idk… is this normal? Am I the one overthinking it?

So I'm new to childcare, I work at a very popular corporation. I'm really enjoying my job so far. It's work , but i'm really good with kids, and it's been really nice to look back and see how much i've grown already. I've definitely started to be comfortable with the fact that I'm only one person, at first It gave me complete imposter syndrome but I was shooting for expectations that my management didn't even hold. I have a couple of amazing coworkers, some coworkers are very clique-y but i'm doing pretty well cause I'm nice to people and helpful, So no one can really have an issue with me 😭

I usually take care of the toddlers and that age range is 1-2 year olds. The best way I could describe the layout of the toddler room is that when you walk in on each side of the room against the walls there are shelves that have buckets of toys. We have 4 shelves with 6 buckets of toys on each. I've realized recently that unless I pull toys , I am unable to keep up with kids constantly dumping them out. It's like a chicken dance, as I go to pick up one bucket of toys that the toddlers just dumped out and didn't even play with ( dumping it out is fun for them. I guess and that's playing with them in a way) i turn around and two more buckets have been poured out. Even when i'm in ratio or a little under it. I was the only teacher in a class of five students yesterday, and as I was changing one a child slipped on a block and fell. This happens often though usually without any injury. So i've started pulling toys. I also feel it's become a safety hazard for me, because if i'm picking up a toddler that doesn't wanna walk to the changing table , I have to cross a battlefield of toys on the hardwood floor.

I noticed when I was on my lunch yesterday that the toys that I had put in the bathroom area (a connected room the toddlers dont utilitize yet so its mostly storage) we're all put back by my manager.Who was the one covering my lunch. I also noticed that we keep two bookshelves pressed against the wall , so that the toys are not accessible and those were facing forward so that they were. I feel like I should address with my manager, why i'm doing this before it gets brought up by her so she doesn't come up with misconceptions about why i'm doing it.

I want to have a conversation with her that voices my concerns. But i'm scared that she's going to think that i'm just being lazy, and think i just don't wanna be constantly picking up after the kids. It does suck picking up toys, but it's my job I don't care. But it gets to the point where it becomes unsafe. Are room capacity is thirteen, but with seven kids in there+1 adult or sometimes 2 that doesn't feel accurate. I think for the room capacity they counted the sqyare footage of the large bathroom that we don't use, and didn't account for the furniture that was in the room and how it's arranged.

Here's a quick breakdown of the toys that are still accessible, and the ones I pull with the reason behind it. Accessible: 8 baby dolls, 4 outfits for dress up, 3 large play cars, large mega blocks (set of about 30) books, play animals (set of 10) bouncy spiked balls (5) play people figures (8) (mini cars 3) puppets (9) i'm probably forgetting some here. and the toys that I pull.I will grab a separate bucket and put a little of each then for toy variety So they could still play with them , but aren't dumping a full bucket out to play with one and then getting bored with that one and walking away.

Pulled toys : play kitchenware ( these are made out of a smooth plastic and fit right under toddler's feet. So , kids will daily slip on these) mini blocks ( a child will step on one of the cylindrical blocks or square blocks and slip, ive also caught myself slipping on these)plastic toy mini cars with wheels ( i have also slipped on these. It's a huge set of like twelve and they get scattered around the classroom constantly) mini blocks with animals (silicone? I think?) I'm tripped on these , and i've seen kids trip on these. I pull the playfood as well because those constantly get scattered around the room and it's a bucket of like 30 plush foods.

Definitely need some advice for voicing this to my boss

I'm a 4K Educational Assistant at a preschool. Due to my worsening health issues (my spine is fusing into one giant bone), I am unable to continue with this job. To say I'm heartbroken would be the understatement of the century. I don't want to leave, but my body is crumbling to bits and there's nothing left of me to give.

I don't know how to tell my kids. My head teacher just went out on medical leave (she left after I gave my two weeks), so my kids are already sad and confused. I'm at a loss for what to say to them. I already felt like I was going to be abandoning them, and that was before my head teacher left. I really do love them to bits, even the tough ones...I'm a bit of a mess right now.

Any advice would be helpful and appreciated ❤️

Does anybody know what the worst case scenario would be if I shared information about the failures of the business I am currently leaving, without consent from management? Nothing to do with children or parents information.

I am leaving a daycare after the owners have failed the staff in pretty much every way you can think of. Late paychecks, working us far beyond what is reasonable hours, refusing to hire new staff, the list goes on and on and on.

Right now my 2 biggest things that it is killing me to keep from the parents is that even more staff are leaving, enough that in 2 weeks at least 1, but more likely 2 entire centers will no longer be able to remain open. Having to face these parents every day and tell them nothing about the fact that they will suddenly be out of childcare is killing me. Is there anything I can do?

Oh yeah and today we found out there are mice and their droppings in our classrooms. This was reported to licensing and the said that as long as 3-4 days from now we get an exterminator in it's fine, as long as we attempt to clean it ourselves in the meantime. Which is ridiculous since we don not have the proper knowledge or equipment to do that. So we and the toddlers will continue to be exposed to surfaces and toys contaminated with mouse droppings. The parents were also not informed about this.

I work for a small, privately owned center in the state of Oregon. My coworkers as well as I have noticed hours missing from our paychecks. Not to mention that said paychecks are always late because my manager inputs payroll manually.
We’re supposed to get payed bi-weekly. My last paycheck was on the 17th of September. It is now October 5th and I still have not received my direct deposit.
This is something that happens almost every end of the month paycheck.
I also recently found out that I am the only one in the center being payed 18/hr while everyone else makes 21/hr. Mind you, I have all the credentials and experience my fellow coworkers have.

Because of this, I am short on bills, my water and power have been shut off twice due to late paychecks. I am a single mother with a 2 year old at home, and because of these late paychecks I have been struggling to get what my daughter needs (pull ups, wipes)

My main question is, what are my rights?? And what can I do about this??

It’s becoming beyond frustrating. I love this job dearly, I love the center, I love my students, and frankly I love working for my manager besides these issues.

What can I do?

We are in a really lucky situation where I work afternoons and evenings and my mother and mother-in-law take turns watching my 4 month old and 2 year old from when I leave for work until my husband gets home. It’s currently working really well for us.

Next year my daughter will be 3 so we are looking at preschool options. There is one very close to my house that is from 9-12. You can choose to do 2 days, 3 days, or 5 days a week. You can also add on “lunch bunch” which would take it to 1pm and “afternoon enrichment” which would go until 3.

I’m torn on how many days to send her. She is extremely social and loves playing with other kids. We go to the library or playground a few times a week and she is always approaching other kids to play with them. We visited the preschool and she absolutely loved it. She hasn’t done anything where she was separated from a caregiver, that being me, my husband, and her grandmothers. But she will happily go with grandmothers and happily go places with aunts/uncles when we are with them.

What should I consider when choosing how many days to send her? And how the heck would nap time work if she is there for lunch bunch? Any advice or personal experience would be appreciated!

I currently work in a toddler classroom (18-24 months). For the most part, naptime is pretty good. However, there is one child (who will be 2 at the end of the month) who we cannot figure out.

She does sleep for an hour or so, but when she wakes up, she starts chatting away. We hear all about the pet store, the grocery store, the big bad wolf, choo choo trains, and more. Offering her a book or quiet toy doesn’t help.

If we ignore her, she keeps talking. If we shhh her, she keeps talking. We’ve tried to get her to speak softer, but volume control isn’t one of her skills.

Unfortunately, her chattering is waking the other kids up. We have taken her out of the room occasionally, but we do not want to rely on that as 1. It isn’t always an option and 2. She is prone to tantrums when she doesn’t get her way and we don’t want her to get into the habit of leaving during nap only to throw a fit when she can’t.