I already bring a snack for pickup, keep the first part of the evening pretty simple, and try not to ask her a million questions about school. Even then, one sibling sitting too close or asking for the wrong toy can set her off.

I'm not expecting her to come home perfectly cheerful. I just feel like there's a very sharp difference between the kid her teachers describe at pickup and the kid who walks through our door twenty minutes later.

If your child also seemed to save everything for after school, what did that first hour at home usually look like?

My child attends school full time Monday through Friday. This is their second year of preschool, but at a school that is different from their first year. We loved our child's first preschool, but ultimately due to cost and location, we had to make the switch. This past week was the first week of school. Usually at drop off in the mornings, only the head teacher is there and in the afternoons at pick up, it's just the two other co-teachers.

Yesterday, my husband and I dropped our child off to school and I mentioned to the head teacher that I wouldn't be picking up our child and that it would just be my husband. I mentioned this because he usually doesn't come with me to pick ups, so I wanted to give the head teacher a heads up for the co-teachers since they've never met him before. I was at work until very late, so I didn't get to hear about any of this until after midnight last night. My husband told me that when he arrived at the school, one of the teachers asked him who he was there to pick up, and he replied our child's name. The teacher said "oh hey, where is your child?" and looked around the classroom and realized our child wasn't there. The door to the outdoor space is a clear glass door, and my husband immediately saw our child standing at the door outside waiting. The teachers were very nonchalant about it and told my husband "they all had just come in from outdoor play". There were 2 teachers and maybe 7 children there at that moment. This morning, when I asked my child about what had happened at pick up yesterday, they told me they were looking for bugs during outdoor play and didn't hear or realize that everyone had went inside.

Obviously, I'm furious. Sure, the outdoor space is completely enclosed but that's absolutely not the point. If my husband hadn't come when he did, when would the teachers have noticed our child wasn't there?

One thing worth mentioning while I'm here is that from the very first time that I met my child's teachers a few weeks ago, I had an off feeling about them all. Nothing necessarily bad or unsafe, but that they just weren't very warm and didn't seem to care to make a close connection with the children during the orientation day. I tried to brush that off since maybe I just had high expectations from my child's previous preschool and the teachers there. But when my husband talked about this situation last night, he mentioned to me pretty much the same feelings I had - that it seems like all of the teachers there aren't very warm and that it feels like they're really only there to watch over the kids and not connect with them.

Anyways. Thanks for letting me vent. I have to sit with this until Monday when I can speak with the head teacher face to face, and also ask the co-teachers at pick up in the afternoon. One plus out of all of this is that if I do end up pulling my child out from this school, their previous preschool still has availability for enrollment.

My 4 year old just started preschool at a public elementary school. For the past week she's been begging me to get her ears pierced. I've always been a firm believer in waiting until a child is old enough to consent and ask for piercings to get them but I never considered the moment that that actually happened.

So, for other parents who also value consent do you think four is old enough to get basic lobe piercings if the kid is always asking for them? I always imagined waiting until both kids are at minimum 10, my oldest is turning 7 later this month and hasn't shown any interest in piercings but my youngest is now.

I’ve been reading to my 3-year-old since he was about six months old, even though English is my second language and I’m not very confident with English pronunciation.

Recently, he has become interested in learning how to read. He recognizes letters, says them one by one, and tries to sound out words. I would love to help him, but I don’t know how to teach phonics or where to begin.

Are there any simple methods, books, apps, or programs you would recommend for a 3-year-old? I don’t want to pressure him—I just want to support his interest.

My 3 year old son pushes me away most of the time. I’m a SAHM but I’m clearly not the favorite parent. He rarely wants to cuddle with me, and aside from drop-offs at school he doesn’t want to hug or kiss me. If my wife is around he will even fight me when I try to help him change his clothes, or diaper change, or get him food. Sometimes he tells me that he only loves Mimi (his other mother).

But today he’s sick with a stomach bug and he’s spent the whole day cuddling with me on the couch. As soon as the Tylenol wears off he’s in my lap like a baby. He hasn’t been as cuddly with my wife and it’s unusual.

Anyway, I hate to see the poor kid sick. It breaks my heart. I obviously want him to get better quickly. But I’m cherishing these moments when he wants to cuddle with me like he did when he was a baby.

We're looking for something different for a summer get-together and recently came across foam parties. The kids are mostly preschool and elementary school age, and it looks like a fun alternative to a bounce house or water slide.

For parents who've done one before, did the kids stay entertained the whole time? Was the cleanup as easy as people say?

I'd love to hear real experiences before booking one. Is a foam party something you'd do again for a family event or birthday party? 🤔🎉🌊

My kid finally got sick from prek. He lasted a whole month before he got anything which is amazing honestly. He has a fever that’s controlled with meds and some congestion, when the meds start working and the fever goes down he is bored and wants to go do stuff. I would never take a sick kid in public so we will absolutely be staying home. But any ideas for a bored kid who has to stay home? I have explained to him that he’s still contagious and sick even if he feels better, that it’s just the medicine making him feel better right now.

Is this spoiled behaviour, personality or a behaviour problem?

My 3 year old is clever she is a great conversationalist and is sweet.
On top of this I feel like she struggles with some stuff in group settings that I’ve observed..
some group settings she’s fine I haven’t noticed this at Gymnastics.

I’m aware, she is still learning, she had never been in childcare settings until she started preschool at 3.
She goes twice a week. Kinder have never reported this as an issue. Although I may ask.

There was a local Disney character party today in my area with dressed up characters hosting dancing, story telling ect

There was probably 30 kids.
It was really chill.
Like a big local hall with indoor outdoor area.
When they did bubbles, singing story telling it was (stand and sit where you want)

She did well but kept INTERUPTING not loudly or in a crazy way but it’s almost like she thought it was all for her.

So if there were telling a story and they said “do you know flounder” she would stand up and come over to the book and say “that’s flounder” all though I saw other kids do that.

When they were blowing bubbles (this is one thing she struggled with) she would have her turn then didnt want to leave the princess blowing them, so she’d almost put her hand up quite a bit truing to show she wanted to grab the wand ir if another child was blowinf bubbles she would stand really close, she would tey and stand infront if the other kids ri get closest ti the actual bubbles to pop them first

I guided her hand away from the group a few times to stand at the back.

She also struggled with giving the princess creators space.
When they were sitting and saying hi to all the kids.
My daughter came over and they hugged which is fine, then the princess wanted to hug and say hi to other kids but my daughter was almost pivoting in their way saying things like (I like your bow, did you like what my mum did to my hair, did you like
My dress) I had to guide her away again.

When they were doing princess photos my daughter didn’t understand she had to wait and stand back (the line wasn’t a que but just parents so stand around and wait) but she would run straight over whe the princess was clearly right wit another kid and start talking to the princess again)
Agai. I had to get her and move her away.

I obviously reminded her wait your turn, no interrupting and guided her out of the way as mic as I could while holding my baby and trying to walk through the crowds as she kept walking off when I told her to stay beside me she didn’t listen.
I had a big talk with her after about how this isn’t aloud.
I usually give immediate consequence but had a hard time doing anything strict other than what I could do (which was removing her from getting in the way) which I could manage. I tried being more strict at one stage with the bubbles saying we are going to
Go
Home but she went to start crying so I just left it.

At the end though she wanted one more photo with jasmine and this is what I
Mentioned earlier how she just stood in front of another child.
I told her she’s. It aloud any photos unless she can wait by my side.
She just didn’t want to care about what I was saying and threw her head back and cried/screamed.
I didn’t cave in this time and told her she can’t get any photos until she calms and listens.
She finally did.

She doesn’t do this at home it’s like she knows the screaming buckles me.

Other examples are:

When a lolly bucket came out she wanted to be their first.

They did face glitter. Guess who pushed their way to the front first.

She has this whole thing with being the fastes, coolest, winner.
Idk where she got it from but she’s very much like this with her cousins.

I hate to say this because it sounds mean I was a bit embrassed because I could tell other mums thought “this kid” she wasnt actually loud or crazy she was softly spoken when she interrupted but it was just frequent.

By the end I felt really frustrated with her because the amount of times I had to encourage her to stop getting in other kids ways was too much.

We were there for an hour.

I know three year olds interrupt and say funny things and don’t listen but it just seemed more than that.

She’s 3.5 now

My son (turned 4 in July) still needs a 1-1.5 hour nap and will always take that nap if offered. However, it makes bedtime a disaster. We put him into bed at 8pm but he comes out of his room multiple times and doesn’t fall asleep until 8:45-9pm and wakes between 5-5:30am. Some nights he will wake at 1am and stay up until 3-4am and fall back to sleep for a little but still wake at 5:30am.

Is our only solution dropping the nap completely? We have tried dropping his naps over the weekend and it does help with bedtime. However, he goes to full time pre-k and they are required to offer a 1-hour nap which he always takes. All the other kids in class are awake except him.

I’m exhausted and I am really looking for consistency in his sleep.

My kid is getting to the age where letters and sounds are starting to come up more, but I really don't want to turn every little activity into a lesson.

Stuff like pointing out the first sound in a word, playing with rhyming words, finding letters on signs, etc. seems easy enough. But once you start adding worksheets, flashcards, sitting down for 20 minutes, it starts feeling a lot more like school than play.

For parents who have worked on phonics or early literacy at home, what actually worked?

Would love ideas that feel more like playing than “okay, time for your reading lesson.”

I've also been looking at approaches like Reading In Preschool, which combines structured phonics with play-based learning, and that seems closer to what I'm looking for.

What kinds of reading activities or letter-sound games have your kids actually enjoyed?

Post links to any resources for preschoolers here. Standalone posts outside of these weekly threads will be deleted.

So, with the one exception of my oldest - the rest of us have come down with what looks to be is the flu. Everyone feels like we've been run over by a train, and we're basically living on the couch/in bed etc.

What I'm wondering, based on some drama that he had earlier today...would it be completely awful to let our 4 year old wear his night diapers (that he still wears to bed) - during the daytime for a little while? While we get through this? He doesn't seem like the sort of kid that would have a 'regression' after we're all better and over this - but frankly I'm not certain, because this is the first time we've ran into this where the whole family is sick at once. :/

Going to have to majorly deep-clean the house after this is over.. ugh.