How to Ease the Anxiety of Starting Preschool

When our oldest son had to start a new preschool program at age 3, he was so upset, as were we. I knew that he was nervous, so I of course took him and let him stay small amounts at a time. That helped, but what I found that really worked was to write a book for him. We called it: "Blake's first day at daycare."

I found out the order of activities for his preschool class, took pictures of the room, playground, outside of the facility, even the bathroom. Then I wrote the story as if I were talking about a character, instead of my son. I used the pictures to illustrate where he would be when certain events were happening, ex: "After outside playtime, Blake got to eat lunch in the lunch room. He loved the food and talking to all the new friends he had made!" Basically, I followed this entire format until it was time for me to pick him up. At the end of the book, I picked him up from preschool, drove us home and daddy joined us for family dinner time.

We have done this for all of our children this far. Of course they still get nervous, but when you take out the major element that causes anxiety, fear of the unknown, you ease your child's mind. Your little one knows what to expect at their new school before they go the first day! And the best part of all is that they know that just like the last page of the book, mommy will pick them up and take them home to be with their families!!!

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