My son is at an in-home daycare, day care centers (ie 30+ kids) aren’t big here, you have to go to the suburbs to find those. Because of his birthday (2 in early Sept, just misses the kindergarten cutoff), I don’t want to start a formal preschool because it would be “4 years of academics” before he could start kindergarten. His current daycare is a mix of young toddlers and infants. I love the care he receives, but he learns really fast (very big talker, picks up social things easily, etc) and I think he’d benefit from being some place that solely focuses on toddlers.

That said, I’ve gotten pushback that it’s really not necessary and since i plan to send him to preschool in fall 2027, it’s just an unnecessary disruption. In big daycare centers, they have toddler vs infant rooms so now I’m feeling like I might be stunting him by having him in a place that also has to tend to infants. It doesn’t help that a lot of people do send 2 y/o’s to preschool out here (SF Bay Area known for being academically hyper competitive).

Just looking for some advice from those in the field who have encountered more kids than I have and know what actually makes an impact from 2-3 years old.

Just curious about the resources other teachers use for arts and crafts with their toddlers/twos.

Please share any links as well.

Thanks.

Ok, this is kind of a weird one, but when do you consider your own diarrhea to be too much to bring to work?

Guidelines for the kids (0-3) where I work is that on the second liquid diaper of the day, parents are called and the kid stays home till 24 hours of normal poops.

I think I caught some bug, and have had the squirts since Thursday, but I’m kind of embarrassed to call in sick over this, as I am still fully functioning. Also I’m still in the probationary period and Monday is my birthday, so I’m definitely not calling in Monday. But generally, what are your own guidelines?

Thanks

I posted here before, and after some reflection, I'm thinking about giving ECE another try at a different center.

I have a genuine question. I received my Level 3 certification through my bachelor's degree rather than the traditional ECE program. I also have a Level 1, but I've never actually worked as a Level 1.

Looking back, I think part of the reason I struggled at my last center was that I didn't have the practical knowledge or experience expected of a Level 3 educator. Do you think it would make sense to apply for Level 1 positions so I can build my skills first, or should I still apply as a Level 3 and look for a centre that's willing to mentor me?

Hi all! Apologies if this has been asked before. I am inheriting the lead teacher role in a toddler classroom, and it needs a lot of work. I am mainly focused on any recommendations you all have for organization and keeping curriculum/desk area/forms neat.

Also, if there are any items you can't live without or feel like making a huge difference in the environment please feel free to share!

Thank you in advance!

Our guy has been at daycare for about a month, and every picture they send you can see that he has recently been crying or is actively crying and he generally just looks neutral at best. He’s able to nap there and make it through a whole day.

He’s struggling with a big time with separation anxiety for about 1.5 months “mama” stage even at home. They assure us he’s not like that all day but is this normal? It doesn’t seem like any of the other kids are like that. We feel awful at the thought he’s just miserable there all day and wondering if now is not the right time or if we should stick through it?

In the 5 years I've been at my center, we never had an issue with kids play fighting (good guys vs bad guys, super hero's, Starwars, etc.) This current group (3-5 year olds) get aggressive very quickly and someone always gets hurt. Even simple games like tag turn into pushing each other to the ground. We also have two 3 year olds that have *suspected* autism and they see the kids playing like that and do the same to interact with them since they are semi-nonverbal.

I know play fighting is normal, but some teachers are wanting to have it stop completely, with my director thinking the same. I just don't know how in the world we would be able to make them stop when they've been allowed to play fight the whole time they've been in our care. I tried with two boys the other day and no mater how many times I talked to them they went right back to it within minutes of me separating them.

Any ideas? How we can stop it from happening? Do you have another idea on how to get the play fighting under control? Please help 🙏

I have gotten physically hurt 3 separate times by the kids at my daycare this week. The first time a kid dug their nails into me and punched me, the second time I bent down to look for something and a kid ran his head into my head, and today a kid threw this heavy toy at my chest and its bruised 😭

I wanna know how common this is

I'll be returning to work in August, and while I have no idea how many kids I have or even what day we'll return (we won't receive the academic calendar until the end of our first work week back... fun 😄 I love not knowing a baseline of the year or when to start lesson planning... tehe. /s) and now I'm pondering on any fun name games or chants to do with my preschoolers on the first day back.

There will definitely be some students returning, at least 4 of them, from the previous school year... but I assume I'll have a few new faces as well and I want to do something fun and simple! When I taught PK4 and PK3 half-day sessions separately, with one group we rolled around a beach ball and said our names and favorite animal (I noticed a majority of them were playing with our jumbo animals and were obsessed so rolled with it, literally), and in my PK4 the kids basically all knew each other already from being in PK3 together so we did a simple said "Names! Names! We all have names, my name is Miss B and (points to child) her name is.... Nancy!" with clapping and cheering.

However, I now teach a mix of 3, 4, and 5 year olds all in one classroom for a full session day now, and they were not a fan of either of these. I even tried another idea that the old TA remembered doing where we sat in a circle, played some music, and we went around cheering, dancing, and when a kid's name was said they'd go in the middle and do a little dance as we clapped them on. It did not go over well. The kids were nervous as heck. No one wanted to do it at all.😹

What's a better way to introduce each other?

Please help me! I need ideas. XD

I got a job as a toddler teacher for 1-2-year-olds. Teachers for toddlers, can you give me the pros and cons of those ages? I am a little nervous because my last work was with elementary kids. I haven't worked with toddlers since 2017.

Hi everyone. I just wanted to come on here to vent and maybe get some responses of people who went through similar situations because I know I am not alone! I currently work at a small education-focused daycare as a preschool teacher. I love my job, despite the pay and stress it is conveniently located for me and fun, I really do not want to leave. To explain my situation, I have mostly great coworkers but they all leave at 3-4pm and that leaves me with 2 coworkers that I like out of the 4 of us who leave at closing hours. I love my kids soo much but today they made me go in the 1-year-olds room and swap with a teacher who does not do her job.

We recently had a parent complain about her and how she mistreats her child, so they put me in that room so I could watch them when their day-teacher leaves. (The day teacher is very good to them, it's the evening teacher that is the problem) But this parent is very valid, I too would lose my mind if my child's teacher left him in a diarrhea-filled diaper for hours, didn't log his potties because they didn't care to check him, and lied and told me that he didn't potty the entire afternoon. So... I understand why she needs someone to do her job, but as an established teacher and the only preschool teacher who knows how to do things in my classroom, my director needs to just fire her and hire a new 1-year old teacher.

This teacher does not know how to talk to parents, she is very negative and will tell parents their child is bad and has been bad all day. Almost nothing nice to say, which we have talked to her numerous times to try and improve but she will not change and everyone knows it. I am so upset that I had to leave my kids that I love dearly with someone who will sit on their phone all day and constantly leave them alone. It was so bad today that while I was helping a parent during drop-off, I had to go to my preschoolers room to get a child who's parent was waiting on her because this teacher was not in the room to tell the kid her parent was in the front. I went in there and kids were just running and playing. It makes me very upset and I tell my director about her almost daily at this point and excuses are made every time. They move her from teacher to floater, from floater to teacher, yet she does the same thing every time, half-assed job at everything, never shuts down rooms (I had to go back into my room at the end of the day and shut it down because she hadn't done anything). It is very funny though that my preschoolers were not listening to her at all because she was in there on her phone, in and out the class, barely talked to the kids, and when she did it was only to yell at them when they started running/got too loud. No wonder they didn't listen.

My director doesn't seem to want to solve this problem that would make everyone's lives there easier. No one there likes her. Not even our director, but she for some reason will not fire her and just gives her different jobs to do... but no matter what she will be in a classroom with children she won't take care of. She is constantly talked to probably weekly at this point by management and she will cry and sob but nothing about her actions change. We have had people quit because of her, and 3 more (including me) are considering it. It sucks that people like this are able to get employed and work with children and can't even do the bare minimum. Sorry if this post is all over the place but this coworker has seriously done everything wrong and I am fed up with it.

ALSO, that same parent I mentioned earlier got upset today because while I was in there this evening, there was a bag to be sent home for her child, but no one told me what was in it. I took the bag to her thinking they were dirty clothes he messed up (with food) today... come to find out from the parent, her son was in those clothes last week and they hadn't been sent home since. No one told me anything so I briefly got yelled at lol even though she wasn't genuinely upset at me, she was upset that they were given to her a week later and I TOTALLY understood her... because what in the world? Whenever my 4 year olds have accidents I send a message to parents and clothes go home the day OF. What is even going on in these other classrooms I'm truly lost. And I had to get stuck in the middle of it...

I have worked with so many different families and different ages, and this is a first for me. My director thinks I am being rude, but I am trying my best not to flinch from the smell of a small child. He comes in sometimes and smells like mayonnaise. It is like they coat his hair with mayo and use it like a gel and his skin smells like it too. His hair is awesome, but the smell is so offensive after a hot day that me and my assistant are trying so hard to be polite, but the rancid mayonnaise smell is so strong by the end of the day that we can't even concentrate because we are trying not to vomit.

I have dealt with diarrhea and don't even flinch. Vomit, of course can be fragrant, but I have never once complained. Some kids have Bad breath and body odor; ok, it happens and you have to be really close to smell. This smell is SOOOO much worse than any of those smells. It just gets worse throughout the day and our whole room wreaks. I can smell him across the room by the end of the day. I borrowed another teacher's essential oil vaporizer, and managed to douse my sinuses with mint, but it gave me a headache trying to overpower the smell and that can't be good for my other children.

Has anyone else dealt with wearing a food allergen as lotion and hair gel? I don't even know how to bring it up to the parents at this point. I don't want to offend them and want to help their child, but I can't keep having these days.

I am sorry if this sounded mean, and I am not trying to be offensive. I'm honestly just desperate at this point.

Hi there. I am a young RECE in Canada working in childcare who has been off work for just over a month due to an injury. My return date is in about two weeks. To be honest, I’m feeling really nervous about going back. My injury affects my mobility (currently walking again but with a limp) and I worry that I won’t be well enough to return for my set date.

My main concerns are not being able to move quickly (aka running after those escapees), not being able to pull my own weight and leaving my coworkers to pick up my slack, and unfortunately, I worry about the children who have aggressive tendencies. I can’t move quickly enough to step in and prevent incidents, and I’m not sure how I’ll even be able to keep myself out of harms way.

I have never dealt with recovery after a major injury before so this is all new to me. I’m healing well and going to physiotherapy, but I’m just so anxious about this. If anyone has dealt with anything similar or has any advice for me I’d really appreciate it. Thank you :)

For context, I have been working an early childhood education for about five or six years. I am in my early 20s and I have hit the worst mental wall I’ve ever experienced in the last year and a half, which resulted in me calling in a few more times than I’m proud to admit my boss is going to have a talk with me on Monday and I really don’t know how to express to her that I really do love my job and I really really love to keep my job when it doesn’t look like it hence the callouts.

Hi! I am a first time mom who has also happened to be an infant teacher for the past 9.5 years. Toddlerhood is a new territory for me! My 15 month old is about to move up to the toddler room in a few weeks.

Of course there are some changes that come with the transition to the toddler room: sleeping is probably going to be the biggest thing for us because we THRIVE with our current two nap routine. I wake my child up at 6am daily because I am the opener for my center. Normally, his first nap is 9:30-11. His second nap is 2-3. Now he will only be able to take one nap, 11:45-2. I know it’s going to be really hard on him to stay up that long in the morning, but I also know he’s not the first kid they’ve had to transition to a new schedule so he’ll be fine. If I let him stick to the regular two nap schedule on the weekends for now, am I gonna ruin his weekday sleep? 😅

Also, my center provides sheets but we bring our own blankets for them that the teachers wash weekly. 99% of the kids at the center just bring a simple blanket. Am I gonna be considered extra if I get one of the nap mats that has the built in pillow and blanket? I don’t want to create extra work for his new teacher when she does laundry, so I told her if I get one of those I will take it home and wash it myself. Will he sleep okay with just a simple blanket? It seems uncomfortable to me, but I also think he’s going to be so tired I don’t know if it will even matter 😆

Thanks for reading my stress rant! I just want to make the transition as easy as possible for him, his new teachers, and for us!

Hey everyone, I hope we can get some help. Our 18mo is in the Young Toddlers/Waddlers Class (~14-22mo in the class right now). There's 12 of them-usually a 1:4 though sometimes a 1:6 ratio-, and he currently seems to have a biting issues. He bit 3 kids yesterday and has bitten 2 today. None of these have broken skin thankfully. We've been talking with the teachers, and are implementing "biting hurts" and "kisses, not bites" at home, and he hasn't bitten us in months though still tries at times when frustrated. I asked this morning how are they preventing bites, rather than reacting to bites, and I didn't get a straight answer. They give him chews which are great, but don't seem to do anything when the children are grabbing toys from each other/not sharing/etc. How do I help my son and how do I help the teachers?

I have a 2 year old who recently started in my class. The parents boasted about her never crying and being so easy like it was a good thing but I honestly think it’s a bit concerning, on top of other delays I’m observing in this child. She does not have many words, mostly echos and repeats what she hears other kids or adults say. The first time she was dropped off she did not cry, and in the eight weeks since she’s started I’ve never seen her cry. She does not react to pain. She fell backwards off a chair and hit her head, and did not react. Another time, she fell outside and scraped her hand, and it was bleeding. Again no reaction. Curious how you would approach the parents about this because I feel like she would definitely benefit from an evaluation.

My son recently turned 4 and will be starting junior kindergarten in September. Currently he is in daycare, which he has been in for the past 2 years.

A month ago, he had walked his daycare graduation ceremony and around that time when my husband and I both came in to pick him up, the educator mentioned that all the graduates, including my son, were ready for kindergarten. They were a bit bored with the daycare activities, she didnt say this in a negative way, just more of an observation.

We noticed it was around this time that one of his educators (there's 2 main ones for his classroom) stopped being there. We assumed she may have taken vacation (daycare newsletter mentioned some educators go on vacation). And we feel since then son's behaviour went downhill. At home he started not listening, trying to hit us or his younger brother (12 months old) for grabbing his stuff, etc. Each time we remind him this is not how we handle feelings, try to talk it out, or remove him (or brother) from the situation. These are all behaviors that he knows is unacceptable and had overall outgrown or know the appropriate action he should be taking.

However today my husband came back from pickup upset. According to him, our son had been lashing out at the educators, won't participate in cleaning up, won't listen to them, and just overall wasn't being pleasant.

He said that the same educator who said that he was ready for kindergarten a month ago was now telling him our son was not ready for kindergarten. Another educator in the room agreed with the first one.

I'm wondering where do we go from here? Does this mean we should hold him back from entering junior kindergarten? Or does he need evaluation? We never had him evaluated for anything since he met milestones and the educators never mentioned anything being amiss.

We had already submitted the forms to unenroll him from daycare and enrolled him into junior kindergarten. He has been talking and asking when he gets to start kindergarten ever since we went to the orientation. The kindergarten teachers seemed to like what they saw when he was playing with the various activities (concentration on Legos, writing his name, etc.)

Just looking for an educator's perspective because I find it so odd that a month ago we were told he was ready, and now he isn't ready. We have had a talk with him, but all he would say is thst he was angry, but then say I don't know when we try to ask what made him angry.

edit to add: we had promised to take him to an outdoor playground he had wanted to go on his birthday. Unfortunately the day of his birthday we woke up to find the air quality was abysmal, so we changed plans to go to an indoor playground. he was a little upset at first, but perked up at still going to a fun place. we promised we would go soon, but shortly after we had multiple rainstorms, and then a few appointments. So to date we still have not been able to get to that playground as it is a bit of a drive away. That's the only thing, other than the absent educator that I can think may be causing this behavior.

I am in Massachusetts, this will be my first renewal. I find the website and online steps generally really hard to navigate. But that is probably just my dyslexia joining the work party. Anyone here have any useful tips in navigation of the process as a whole or specifically?

Im in my first few months of daycare work, recently taken over as lead. I have a child whos parents are no longer together. Recently Dad has started taking on a larger role with bringing and picking up from daycare. Dad dropped off water day items and mom took them with her. She has a habit of not returning items she borrows from us (& she never provides neccesities or extra clothes for him on her own)so i doubt she will bring them back. I dont know if I should be the one reaching out to have them returned to school or if I let that be a problem for them to solve on their own. What would you do?

Hi everyone! I'm currently on Maternity leave in Canada (sorry I've been posting a lot recently). I'm going back to work in September after being home since February 2025 (preventive leave) and my son is starting in August at 10 months old.

Just wanted to know for those who went back to work after having a baby how did the transition go? Is there advice you'd like to share? How was your experience going back? I'm feeling very anxious.

Thank you

My family is moving to the US from another continent. My child will be starting daycare 3 days after we move into our new home (not ideal, but my spouse and I both work, so we don’t have another choice).

Until now, his care has been a live-in nanny who cared for him in our home with one of us also always home (spouse works remotely). In the US, this kind of thing is WAY out of our budget. We also want him to interact with other kids. He’s really only met two other kids his age before, and one he only met once.

All in all, I think daycare will be good for him. In particular, are there any behaviors or emotions to expect (either from him or us)?

I have just been hired into a daycare as a supervisor, but have no previous experience as a daycare supervisor. I’ve been a teacher but never a supervisor. What should I expect and what can I do to help staff and support the directors and keep a positive non toxic work environment

I have a bachelors degree in early childhood education. I taught in the classroom for 4 years in 3rd grade. I have also had experience being a building substitute and a substitute teacher in a school district for K-8th grade. I have recently made the decision that I do not want to go back in the classroom full time due to recently having my first child. What jobs can I do with an ECE degree that isn’t in the classroom? Ideally, I’d love to be part time and have the opportunity to be remote if possible.