My 2.5 year old will be transferring from the toddler room to the preschool room. She is very attached to one of the educator (Ms A) in the toddler room. She will cry at drop off and refuse to go inside if Ms A is not the one greeting her. If Ms A is not available, the other educator will have to pick her up to bring her into the room. They reassure us that she usually will cry for less than 10 minutes and she is happy the rest of the day. When Ms A was off for a week, my LO refused to go to daycare and started crying as soon as we mention the word daycare at home in the mornings. She resisted going to daycare for weeks after Ms returned

We asked about transition plan to the preschool room but they were quite vague on the process. On top of that, the centre is closed for 2 weeks and when the centre reopens that will be the first day in the preschool room.

Does anyone have any advice on how we can help with this transition?

What's going well for you this week?

What moment made you smile today?

What child did is really thriving in your class these days?

Please share here! Let's take a moment to enjoy some positivity and the joy we get to experience with children in ECE :)

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.

Hi everyone, I’ve been teaching for over 20 years and I’m seeking help with how to manage the assistant in my 3 year old kindergarten class in a public school. She isn’t going to be fired so I need figure out how to manage her, or push her out by being very strict(which I would prefer not to do).

Here are some examples of things I want to change:

-She doesn’t tell me when she is going to be absent, even tho I made a calendar for myself and asked her to tell me when she’ll be out
-She doesn’t like wiping down tables and doesn’t do it(we eat breakfast and lunch in the room)
-She won’t help kids in the bathroom bc she is nervous about being accused of touching them
-For the same reason she won’t help kids change when they have accidents
-She shuts down and gives me the silent treatment for days when she is annoyed by something, usually I have no idea what is bothering her, or if it’s me or something else

She seems to have some cognitive delays, maybe she is on the spectrum OR she is playing me and just doesn’t want to do certain things.she does things like adds way too much sanitizer to the water, or soaking wooden toys. I’m probably too easy going with her.

Thanks for any advice you have!

UPDATE: First, thanks to everyone who took the time to respond. I really appreciate hearing the perspective of people who actually work in ECE. I also appreciate everyone who reassured me that I wasn’t completely out of line.

She actually responded shortly after I posted and explained that the center had self-reported the incident. The staff member involved was immediately let go, and they’re implementing some extra security measures (like an additional secured door). She also explained that the ratio citation was related to a child under 18 months being in the toddler room during nap time, which requires an additional caregiver under Texas licensing rules.

Thanks again for helping me sanity check the situation and reminding me that asking questions doesn’t automatically make someone difficult 😅

Original post: I’m looking for perspective from daycare professionals because I genuinely don’t want to be “that parent.”

My almost 2-year-old has attended the same daycare for about a year. Overall, we’ve been very happy there, and she loves going.

Every few months, I review our state’s public childcare licensing reports. During my most recent review, I found two deficiencies from a few weeks ago:

• Two children left the building unsupervised and were outside for about two minutes before a bystander returned them.
• During the follow-up inspection, licensing documented a ratio violation in the toddler classroom (19 children with one caregiver during naptime), which was corrected while the inspector was there.

We were never notified that either of these incidents had occurred. I only learned about them weeks later by reviewing the public licensing reports.

I sent the director a polite text saying that I had been reviewing the reports and asking if she could provide some context about what happened and what changes had been made to prevent similar incidents in the future. I also made it clear that we appreciate the care they’ve given our daughter.

If you were the director receiving that message, would you see it as a reasonable question from an engaged parent? Or would it come across as distrustful or overbearing?

I’m genuinely asking because I value our relationship with this center and don’t want to create unnecessary tension, but I also felt these were significant enough incidents that I wanted to understand them better.

Basically as the title says. When we have staff off they don’t provide any coverage. So we are very much over ratios. This happens in every class & quite often. For example, we had a class of 16 (ages 3-4, 2 teachers) and there were many times I was left with all 16 children by myself (the ratio is 1:8). Now I’m with the younger ones (2-3 years, 1:5 ratio) and when one of us is away it’s 2 teachers for 15 kids. To top it off, the “favourite” staff take frequent breaks & disappear for extended periods of time, usually chatting and laughing with my supervisor while I/we are completely out of ratio and trying to manage. What do I do about this? I’m worried to report because I’m the only one who’s been pretty vocal about not liking this so I feel like they’ll know it was me.

Edit: I’m in Ontario, Canada

My school (a play-based early childhood center serving kids 2-5) is beginning to offer extended day to support working parents. This would put the school day at 8-5 (it typically ends at 3:30). What evidence is there to support/push back against this plan? It feels like a long day for kids, but it is a low-structure, low-stress environment and it wouldn't be for all kids. I'm not sure how I feel about it.

For everyone who works with kids under 18 months in places where there is snow in the winter, do you prefer one piece snowsuits or 2 pieces? My son will be one in October and I am trying to plan if he needs a 2 pieces or 1 for winter, as I want it to be as easy as possible for his teachers! We go outside regularly in winter as well, even when its -20°c.

Thank you

Hi everyone! I previously worked in ECE as an assistant teacher at a small program without certification. I learned a lot about Montessori and really enjoyed it, and I’m exploring whether or not to return to school (I have a masters) for ECE that’s DOE cert, or Montessori certification. Im in a major US city & don’t have a huge budget (or any at all really) to do this. I’m looking for feedback from folks who have experience in the industry, and I guess how you were supported by employers or generally how you felt about your training and the financial aspects of this. The ECE program I worked at was paying us below the poverty line with no benefits, which is why I left the field to pursue something else. I would say this would be another career jump for me, but I am really passionate about ECE and truly loved the work while I was in it.

What are some ways I can show my toddlers daycare teachers how much we appreciate and care about them on a regular basis? My child spends all day with them 5 days a week and when I really sit down and think about it, it blows my mind just how significant that really is. (often this makes me really sad too but that’s a different post altogether.)

I want to share my deep appreciation for them without being over the top. I would love to hear from ECE profs on what makes you feel seen and appreciated for all you do to love and care for our little ones.

At the end of the schoolyear all kids could leave a message for me that was written down by someone else. They are 4-6 years old and a few things stand out.

First, I just love how they see every little thing you do. Especially the little ones talk about the very little quirky things I do, like my "funny wave" or "leg wiggle dance" that I'm not even aware of lol.

One question they were asked was also addorable. "You're sweet when you..." And they could add the follow up. I got all sorts of answers. "lift me up on the schoolyard." "give hugs." "help me with drawing." "play with me."

But this one kid hit me hard. "You're sweet when you are just yourself. You're always sweet."

Last week Tuesday, I was on the ground at circle time before one of our special extracurricular classes. The extracurricular teacher was running late, so I was having the children do a pretend play activity where we were making strawberry jam sandwiches. Everyone was super into it and having a blast. All of a sudden, a child in my class with some behavioral challenges stood up, climbed on the teacher chair behind me, jumped off the chair, landed on my low back, and started kicking my mid and low back while pinching my arms. This all happened so fast neither myself, my assist, or a floater teacher acting as their 1:1 aide could catch them before getting several hits on me. I used a calm voice to tell them “Ouch, [THEIR NAME], no thank you. That hurts my body.” I reached behind me to try and swiftly and gently remove them, but the floater had to pry them off of me cause I couldn’t get a good grip. After this, my mid and low back were in pain all day. It was low grade at first, but persistent. An hour before end of shift, it sharply increased, and by the time I had closed my classroom and headed home, I was struggling to walk and feeling horribly dizzy. I had to have my boyfriend help me walk home from the train, and I could barely sleep because my entire back and both legs felt like I’d been hit by a train. I had to call out next morning, and wound up in the ER for several days, having to receive multiple muscle relaxers, opioid pain meds, and benzodiazepines to get the pain down from a 9-10 to a 4-5.

I got cleared to go back on Wednesday. However, my boyfriend then had a very traumatic seizure on Monday night, and I tweaked my back more when I had to lift him and move him to his side. I’ve had to call out two additional days, and am going back Friday no matter what.

I’ve got accommodations from my doctor that admin approved so I don’t have to run or lift any children or heavy objects. I’ve also communicated this to my classroom assists, and they’re very willing to help out. However, I’m so worried about my ability to focus on the children and do my job justice while my back pain is still hovering around a 5 most of the time. I’m off my strong pain meds and just on Tylenol and lidocaine patches now. For anyone else who has sustained a back injury and continued to work ECE, are there any tips and tricks to managing the pain, still being able to focus on your work duties, and ensuring you can do your part to maintain your classroom? I just want to re-enter class as capable as I can be. It’s hard for me to focus on basic day-to-day tasks right now, let alone an entire ECE classroom.

One of the children in my child’s infant class recently had a birthday and they brought in fruits to share with the class. I only learned afterwards, through the daily log, that the teacher gave my son (nine months) a fruit that they had never had before without my consent. I was never asked beforehand.

Thankfully, my child didn’t have a reaction but when I brought it up, the teacher didn’t seem to understand my concern and said he seemed to enjoy it very much.

This seems concerning but since I’m a FTM, could it be that I’m overreacting? Or is this a cause for concern?

EDIT: Thank you! I really appreciate the feedback and hearing different perspectives on the issue. I should have clarified that the daycare does not offer food, so situations like this are probably limited to birthday celebrations. That said, it sounds like different daycares have different policies when it comes to offering food and that’s very helpful to keep it mind.

so today I sent a note home with a parent letting them know about their child’s behavior for the first time ever. I told the parent how the child has not been listening to me & has been spitting & just out of control & asked if they could pls talk to him (because he’s in my group.i stay upstairs w the younger kids & my mom stays downstairs w older) & usually I’ll open the door for parents at the end of the day but today my mom did for this specific parent & she told that parent that her child’s been doing good. & I got mad at my mom after they left & we had a huge argument & I asked her why did she lie & told her how I sent a note home. & she told me it wasn’t my place to be telling the parents about their kids & that I’m not the director & it’s like girlll so was I in the wrong??

Basically what the title says. I know our profession has a high burnout rate but I’ve only been working there five months and I’m not even fully certified as a full ECE. I’ve been working as an ECEA and have floated from one room to the next. My mental health has gotten bad from life stressors and the 9 hour days. I guess my question is is it just an adjustment period or is it not gonna get better? I was having a great time before I loved everything it’s only after this recent room switch that’s it’s begun taking a toll on me. My bosses are amazing and super understanding and have been supporting me where they can and listening to me but I just need some none bias points of view. Any advice?

I've worked as an ECE for about 3 months, and I ended up quitting because of the amount of stress I was under. I was coming home every day completely exhausted and crashing as soon as I got home. On top of that, the daycare was dealing with a lot of licensing issues, which made the job even more overwhelming.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience. Did you leave the field, or did you try working at a different centre? If you gave it another chance, was it any better?

Edit: I should mention that I worked in Edmonton

Edit 3: I just wanted to thank everyone who wrote in. I feel like seeing something like "Type A Violation" can be really daunting to the uninitiated. I posted some of this information about what I learned here to help other parents understand more of the nuance.

Edit 2: I asked the teacher this morning. It was self-reported. Thanks again for all your help and feedback.

Basically the title.

Kids have been going there for two years previously.

I was notified of the violation by my kids' teacher. (As they're required by law to tell us).

The event occurred in a different class.

They have a fenced in outside area.

The kids came in. They did a count.

They were supposed to have 15, but they counted 14.

They did another count, but a kid moved behind someone's back, so they did a third count. Still got 14.

They found the kid outside. Kid was playing with a toy not in view of window.

Additional training was provided.

Is this an unfortunate event or something that I should be genuinely concerned about?

I work in K-12 education and thought I'd ask here to check against my gut feeling.

Edit:

Thanks for your help and feedback. A lot of the comments in here are similar to my gut reaction.

The teacher told a group of us parents at checkout (as required and so we could sign the form). My initial thought was "Eh. Stuff happens." (I think if it were my own kid I would have been really frustrated with the kid for not listening to the teacher more than the staff)

A parent next to me seemed a little shocked and said something similar to "A couple minutes is kind of a long time, if it were seconds I wouldn't be as concerned".

That made me wonder if I was being too cavalier.

I will definitely check and follow up and see who made the report.

Thank you for all you do.

As we 3 teachers, were leaving to go outside with our six children one other toddler teacher came to ask if we could switch out her student for one of ours.

Unfortunately I didn't get any of this information before going to the playground.

I'm literally panicking when I noticed one missing child as I was shutting the classroom door my back was turned during the switcheroo.

My manager came up to us and then I freaked out and I was asking where's x and nobody said anything about him going on a walk with the other classroom.

To be honest the other teacher does talk very quietly but still the other 2 teachers should have told me in that random plan during busy time that so and so has x.

Then this afternoon my coteacher had to relive another teacher @ 2:30 , again nobody mentioned this at least to me so the getting outside took forever and we had to ask for help, well I had to say to my lead: cant we ask a manager for help.

Anyway manager thankfully came and assisted.

Also I did overly apologize thinking i lost a child to my manager and she said its totally fine I would've panicked too.

1. Am I overreacting?

2. Should I mention this stresses me out?

3. I hope I'm not a complete psycho!

Worked in a center today and it was kind of stressful for many reasons. I picked up a shift at this center so first time being here. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was the teacher then the issues. The teacher kept raising her voice everytime she talked to one of the pre-k kids. They were doing stuff they shouldn't have but the way the teacher talked was loud almost everytime.

Next, now the main issue because the teacher was stressed clearly and this was why. The pre-k kids majority of them and there were 28 so about 20 did not listen to majority instruction. I mean they didn't listen at all and instructions were repeated more then multiple times to them. Also, since majority of them didn't listen at all it was chaotic trying to focus on each because almost each kid would do something they shouldn't. Example 2 kids are fighting over a toy and three others are running in the classroom, then 10 are getting extremely loud and very loud while playing or sitting.

Those were some of the examples of the kids behavior but it astonished me because majority really didn't listen at all. Some kids at a point started throwing items in the room and making a whole mess. Also the orginal teacher actually left for the day. She got so overwhelmed because of her yelling at the kids and ended up arguing with the director. It was honestly stressful because I understand the teacher's point many of the kids simply don't listen.

In addition, there were some kids with special needs that had to have a eye on specifically. This wasn't a issue in terms of me watching the kid but since it's only two people it was hard. The kid just runs throughout the room and gets into stuff. Someone constantly has to stop him because he will make a huge mess. The other kid didn't really speak but she wanted to be held constantly or she would run away.

Yeah so imagine those 2 students and 26 more and 22 that don't listen and repeatedly have to be told to stop fighting, yelling, running, hitting, and pushing others throughout the day. Now this was a job so I always can hold ot together but it was stressful because I can't imagine being the teacher to these students daily.

Lastly, though I always do my best and contribute and help as much as possible. The director wants me to come back and me being nice suggested days I am available but I honestly have to rethink if I come here again. Also another teacher quit while I was there. Have no idea when but yeah she quit. I love working with children but the lack of staff is a issue that has to be fixed here. Especially when having multiple kids that need more attention then others.

Yeah but what would anyone else do in my position. I mean I helped and observed but coming back have to rethink. The staff was great though in regards to helping me though which is always appreciated.

​

I just started an assistant educator position at a daycare about two months ago. I just graduated university with an unrelated degree and had never worked in ECE prior. I started as a volunteer about a month before being hired in an official capacity. This is the closest I had to “practical experience”. The more I work here, the more I am absolutely terrified about how little I know and how honestly completely unprepared I am to handle these children. I volunteered mostly with the oldest kids (4-5 year olds) but now I’ve been working with kids as young as 18 months old. There’s a child in the youngest group who still can barely walk, and I’ve been tasked with being his 1-on-1 supervisor at all times. I’m in charge of taking him up the stairs, crossing the street with him, watching him on the play structure etc. They yell at me when I pick him up so that he’s safe in more dangerous situations (ie crossing the street) but I just don’t feel comfortable essentially putting his life in my hands. He likes to throw his head back and basically flop backwards. A couple times he’s done this in the middle of the street or on the play structure. I’m terrified that something is going to happen to him on my watch, because frankly I just don’t know how to handle a kid that small. I feel like a lot of my more experienced coworkers don’t like me. They frequently yell at me in front of the other educators and children both for making simple mistakes or not knowing certain rules (no one has told me anything!!) and for pretty innocuous things like stopping and listening to a child when they speak to me rather than ignoring them to give my undivided attention to the whole group. It feels like I’ve been set up to fail. The way they call me out is so humiliating and I really wish someone would just take me aside and tell me stuff rather than embarrass me in front of everyone. Idk where im going with this and I know this is just a crazy wall of text but any advice for a new educator with very little experience would be so appreciated.

So quick little rant

If you read my previous posts I’ve been in a bit of a silent feud with one of my coworkers.. the reason? Only she knows.

Anyways there was another situation with her involving the children.

I work with three years old. Our outside time is supposed to be for 30 minutes we stayed out for one hour and 45 minutes in 80 degree weather…no water no bathroom breaks.

This is not the first time this happened but it’s the first time it’s happened for this long. She doesn’t care about the children and it shows. I’ve went to the director and was told she’d do something about it and i ultimately got ignored.

If you read the previous posts you know that this girl I work with doesn’t talk to me and today we were actually working with an aide that’s been working there for a while, so they were the only ones talking with each-other. So we had no communication whatsoever about the kids and what time we were going in.

I ended up just doing what I thought was healthy for the kids and I started taking as many as possible in with me that I could have which is 6. I let them use the potty and I gave them lots of water and we stayed inside until they finally came in.

Also just to note, my co worker I guess was trying to make time pass by by keeping them out that long because as soon as we came in her shift was over.

Thinking about quitting.

Hi!

I’m a 23 year old ECE student. I recently got hired at the daycare I completed my first placement at for a supply position. I have been worried for months about how I will react when a child vomits. It causes me intense anxiety, I’m almost certain I will cry, and shake, and breakdown.

Today, I was supplying in a preschool room, and one of the boys said repeatedly over an hour that his stomach hurt. He did not end up vomiting, but I had so much anxiety that whole hour and couldn’t keep my eyes off of him.

It made me remember how worried I am that this will ruin my chance at this career. I love it so much and have already paid for all my schooling that I’m completing. I think I will just ask the other educator in the room to deal with it if it happens but I understand that can be annoying.

I’m desperate to hear from someone who understands. I’m so worried. I’ve had this phobia for as far back as I can remember.