Preparing your children to go back to their childminder

I’ve been in close contact with most of my parents throughout lockdown and have to say, I have an awesome bunch of parents that have done a most incredible job of not only looking after their children but also providing them with hours worth of incredible entertainment, fitness, sights and sounds of nature. They have understood that fun usually equals mess and most young children have a very short concentration span.

So having said all of this, there will be a time hopefully in the very near future, when lockdown will be safely lifted and parents will start needing to adjust to work back in the working world. So here are some tips of how to support this, once you know the end is in sight.

1. You may need to re-plan your working week/hours/childcare. Make sure that you plan as far ahead as you can and communicate with your childminder to ensure that they can accommodate the new changes.

2. If you have gotten out of a routine, now is the time to try and get back into it. Your child sleeping till 9am is not going to be helpful if you need to be on the train at 8.30.

3. If you have not been communicating with your childminding group, I would start to do so.

4. Start playing any songs or anything familiar that will allow your child to start to associate with the group. Zoom sessions are great for this.

5. If you have been a bit generous on the sweet treats, now is a good time to start to wean them off them.

6. Speak to your childminder about how they are proposing to settle the children back in. This means that you will be totally prepared when it happens and allow your child to be also.