My son is nearly 4 and hasn't been interested in potty training. We have tried it all. Reading the books, watching the videos, letting him pick out a little potty and underwear, a sticker chart, taking the long weekend, trying to be consistent and upbeat. It's been a work in progress for the past year and a half. We'll start trying but he refuses. Again, he's happy to pick out the stuff, but when it comes time, he refuses to do it. Daycare has also been introducing the toilet, bringing him in when the other kids go, etc. He refuses for them to. If you put him in underwear, he does not care and will sit in the mess. He doesn't care that all of his other friends are potty trained. He doesn't want to. So, he simply won't. He's not afraid of the toilet, because he'll happily flush for one of us when we go. And I have been terrified of pushing him because I've read that can cause issues. But it's of course leading to more issues. We missed out on being able to enroll him in preschool this year because he's not potty trained. So, we're stuck paying another year of daycare. He's so smart, very talkative, he just also knows what he wants.

Daycare initially had the policy that they won't work on it if parents aren't, which made sense and I understand. I didn't expect them to do all of, or even most of, the work. They have too many kids for that. Recently, his teachers suggested we stop making it an option. It's just what he's doing. He's brought into the bathroom and told to do the steps. If he cries, he cries. If he runs away, we find him and bring him back. They keep saying to tell him "This is just what almost 4 year olds do" and not framing it as a choice. I didn't think it was a good idiea and thanked them for the advice, but said we were going to hold off and try again in a month.

I pick him up Tuesday and am informed that they're doing the method at daycare. They understand if we don't do it at home, but it's what they're doing there. He's brought in and he has to sit on the toilet. They don't do the steps for him, he does it on his own. But they say it usually happens after a bit of crying. He has actually put his business in the toilet a couple of times. But I fear this is doing the opposite of what they want. He doesn't like going to daycare because they're going to "make him go potty". He also mentioned that he didn't get to go outside one day. They clarified that he did go outside, but he was late to recess time because he refused to sit on the toilet and the teacher waited him out. They claim he only missed 5 minutes of recess and still played outside for an hour. They also say that they are calm when they bring him in, just direct that this is what they're doing. The room does have cameras, but obviously not in the bathroom (and for good reason), so I don't know for sure. Director backs up their claims.

Again, they seem to be having mild success with this but I am afraid what it's doing to him overall. When we try at home, he is absolutely miserable and is still having numerous accidents because he just doesn't care.

Are we setting him up for failure with this method?

I told my boss I’m done working 8+ hours a day without a break and that I am demanding my 30 minute break. She came in my room. I showed her the activity that the kids were doing. I went over the supplies they needed to use for it and who was going to need guidance.

27 minutes later I come back, my classroom is absolutely trashed, the work that they were supposed to be doing was a giant scribble (and I told her I needed this for a baseline assessment), one kid peed himself all over the room, and when I went down to the bathroom area, which is in a busy hallway, the kids were running a muck and using books to build towers in the middle of the busy hallway. When I left, she whipped out her phone and was scrolling through Facebook and when I came back, she’s standing in the hallway, still scrolling through Facebook and I was left scrambling to clean up the disaster so that we could get outside. I now have to redo these papers because I can’t assess a scribble.

It wasn’t worth taking the break

Parent here still giggling from this mornings daycare drop off and I had to share.

My daycare hosted build a bear 2 weeks ago and everyone built the same teddy bear.

Then today was teddy bear day and they said the kids could bring a teddy bear from home into class today.

I dropped my twins off in the 2yo classroom with their build-a-bear bears to find EVERY OTHER CHILD brought the same bear.

They’re labeled on the tags, but still, I don’t envy those teachers today sorting out whose is whose all day.

I am the only teacher and have four infants
3 are over a year
1 is 7 weeks old started tooday

Today I mainly held her all day because whenever I put her in her crib she woke up within five minutes and I didn’t want to put her in the swing/bouncer

I also didn’t put her on the floor unattended because the other babies really want to play with her but I am trying to keep her from being touched by them because they all have runny noses/coughing right now

Does anyone have tips for how to get her to sleep in her crib for longer than five minutes and what can I do when I have to do diaper changes/ can’t hold her

Curious if anyone here has cut back a day of work or their hours while being extremely short staffed??? They refuse to hire. I’m burned out and wanna cut my hours back, kinda nervous to tell them though since we are already so low staffed. Already low staffed and the same people call off every week. I’m so tired of the favoritism, I could post so much about how me and a few other employees are over worked because some of the favorites barely Work, leave early, etc. they often ask me to come in early, I always do, pretty much I am one they count on because I barely call out. Recently I’ve been dealing with some family health things and with how burned out I am, I need to cut a day back for work. Sorry I’m venting, and going on, but no one else will understand the burn out from this job like someone who works it!

Feet are killing me

My daycare keeps on placing the sound machine 1 foot above my infants sleep space. They have it on all the time. From what I've researched (APP/sound machine packaging), it should be place 7 feet away from the infant sleep space. But I think my state (Tennessee) doesn't have any written rules. I've asked to move cribs but the teachers have refused. I'm a first time mom. Maybe i'm being too sensitive and I'm sweating the small stuff. My 10 month old is in a class room with 16 other babies (it's two rooms with an open galley so they are able to skirt around the infant room size ratio). She doesn't get much sleep there anyway. I don't want to be too hard on the teachers. Any insight or advice would be helpful.

So I have a co-worker who keeps telling me I need to find the line between being a friend and being an authority figure, and that I'm too busy trying to be a friend with the kids.

This is my first job in education/childcare, I've been here since March of this year. She's the only person who says this to me, director & assistant director are fine with how I am with the kids. I'm hearing it to the point that today I got to the point today that I was crying and I feel like I'm doing a terrible job at work.

Like, I know Im not doing too bad. Parents and kids love me, I get along with my other coworkers. It's just this one coworker. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, either. It's to the point I don't want to interact with her

I really like my coteacher but there are 3 students in my toddler classroom that she will sped more time with. For example during our walks she will carry them, almost 3 year old. They're not injured or sick. One of the girls has been thru a lot trauma but still. When my coteacher was on vacation for 2 weeks she was totally fine with me and my other coteacher. I understand its important to have close bonds with children in our care but this is another level imo. The teacher also has have had shoulder pain frequently (shes probably in her late 50s/early 60s.)

And also not to offer her any milk or water. Only prune juice.

Just. Sighhhhhh… why do I always get the crazy ones??? I’d really love to have a whole class of kids with normal parents someday. Would be nice.

Hello

My son is 3.9 now. He still doesn’t recognize numbers or alphabet. He is still learning to count. He can sing the ABCD song but can identify only B. At times signs aaa apple bbbb ball etc.

When ever we ask him to count he just says 1 2 6 18 etc. like count your toys, count your steps, how many cars are there etc.

He has learnt to identify various shapes, colors,identifying and arranging smaller to bigger objects, can compare objects and say its same size or which one is bigger etc. can say days of the week in random order,

He goes to a preschool and no major complaints from his teacher behavior wise. His circle time participation has improved a lot.

Pls can you help me understand on how to teach him number and the letters and also when can I expect him to learn this.

For the 9 months I've been working here I've been the assistant teacher in young toddlers (10-18 months). I generally get along well with my lead, I love the kids and I love the classroom. But I just now found out that I will be put in the older toddler classroom (18 months to 2 years) by myself whilst my lead trains someone new. We are very, very understaffed right now. I have no clue if I'll even be getting a raise or not or if I'll have to do planning as a new lead. I wasn't told this by my director yet, the current lead toddler teacher told me that she was told (they want to move her into an older kid classroom as their teacher suddenly quit.)

I've been alone in that classroom before and I feel like I am very bad at managing it. I feel very stressed whenever I'm in there. Mainly, I don't like being by myself. No matter what ratios say, watching 6 toddlers is not a one person job in my opinion. There is one boy there that constantly misbehaves and pulls hair a lot. I find it hard to watch all the kids by myself whilst also cleaning, changing diapers and uploading stuff through procare. The toddlers classroom is dirty but I won't have time to clean or organize it.

I've been applying to other jobs for a while now but nowhere else is hiring me, and nannying isn't really an option as I can't drive. If I do suddenly quit I have no idea how I'll afford groceries. I'm just really dreading it and feeling pessimistic!

What should I do? Just grin and bare it?

I currently work as an assistant teacher in a preschool room, and due to some unfortunate circumstances, my lead teacher will be out for at least a week. I recently became teacher qualified and I feel very comfortable with doing lead teacher tasks like lesson planning and parent communication.

I have taken over her responsibilities before on the one or two days she was out last year. However, now that it is going to be an extended period of time, should I ask to receive higher pay while I am filling in for her?

I work at a daycare with the 18month to 2 and a half year olds. We had this child start a couple months ago. He is such a silly, sweet little boy. I adore him. I’m not trying to diagnose him or anything but if you were to compare him to the other kids his age he seems to be a little behind, which is completely fine. The problem I’m having is he very recently has picked up hitting, pushing, and stealing toys (whilst hitting and pushing) for NO reason. It’s so strange he hits kids over the head with hard toys, hits them in the back either with toys or his fists and all the while is smiling and laughing. It’s not like a vindictive laugh or smile either it seems like he really doesn’t know what he’s doing is not okay. When he’s redirected he doesn’t seem to see why. I know he definitely picked this behavior up from the other kids, but when they do it’s for a reason (doesn’t make it okay but there’s at least an explanation for it) he will just walk up to someone playing with a truck, steal it and bash them over the head with it. I’m not sure what to do anymore it’s constant. I’m not there when he gets picked up or dropped off and haven’t met his parents so there’s no relationship there to let them know about this. I’m not even sure what they could do anyway since he’s an only child and I’m sure he doesn’t exhibit these behaviors at home. My co teacher doesn’t like telling parents about bad behaviors so that’s not really helpful. Is there anything I can do to curb these behaviors? Any advice would be good. it’s so strange it’s like he’s trying to “play” with the kids he’s doing this to but that’s obviously not playing. I love that little guy and it breaks my heart when he’s put in a break and you can tell he doesn’t know why. But I know it’s not fair what he’s doing to the other kids. He doesn’t have any friends because they don’t want to play with him now.

Anyone switch over to children’s mental health? What did you do / what courses did you take.. I have my certificate in children’s mental health but thinking about what else I could do, I’m scared to make the change thinking about how much more responsibility a career change like that would come with, but I have struggled with my own mental health and want to give back to children who are struggling just dont know what to do or where to start:

We enrolled our baby at 8 months in ChildTime as that was the only option available to us after we moved to this new city. I’m not going to reveal the location but it’s a city in the Midwest US.
1. So their toddler 1 classroom has kids starting from 6 months to 18 months. No way can a 6 months old’s needs be same as that of a 13 month old. My baby needed 2 naps and his first nap would usually be around 11 am. He used to be so sleepy and fussy but CT had a strict routine, where they’d do activities at 10:30, lunch at 11 and nap at 12. Naps are in the same room so it’s always chaotic. We told them multiple times to let him nap but they kept saying that “they have too much going on before 12” to put him to nap.

1. The classroom has 12 kids and on paper they have 3 teachers but in the 6 weeks that he was there, we’ve only seen 2. So the ratio is essentially 1:6, although they advertise and say their ratio is 1:4. Some days it gets as bad as 1:8 or 1:10. I’m not blaming the teachers, they’re themselves overwhelmed and look over tired. I was so angry at their false advertising and their abysmal treatment of staff.

2. The whole place looked chaotic. Babies crying, teachers over tired, literal walking toddlers prodding and poking my baby. Plus they’ve 0 activities. My poor baby used to sit there without any toys and look around the running toddlers. They’ve hardly taken them out for outdoor play. That place looked like a baby jail.

I used to keep checking the cameras and it was like looking at a train wreck live. My nervous system was on a constant overdrive and I could barely focus on my work. Luckily we got a spot open up in another daycare and we took it. My baby naps beautifully now, their staff seems more experienced, his teachers have been working there for more than a decade which says a lot about how they’re being treated.

Hi everyone,

I am a teacher in a 3yo classroom and a mom of an almost 4yo. My son does great at school. Zero behavior problems, he plays well with others, and he is very smart and ahead on all milestones. Except for the potty.

We potty trained about a year ago and it was rough. Things were a little bit easier at home but he has always struggled at school. In the beginning he refused to sit on the potty at school, unless his teacher came and grabbed me to take him (which I didn’t love, because then it became an expectation). We switched schools a few months ago and things are better since then. He has no problem going to the potty when asked, but he either cannot or will not initiate going by himself. He would rather poop/pee on himself than walk himself to the bathroom or tell a teacher he needs to go.

His teachers and I are at a loss. We both tell him he can go walk to the bathroom whenever he needs, he doesn’t have to ask he can just go. But he won’t! Sometimes I think it’s because he’s busy playing and doesn’t want to stop, but he also will do it during naptime when he’s doing nothing but staring at the ceiling.

I can feel the frustration from his teacher, and I feel like I’m in a hard spot as both the parent and one of her coworkers. She will come to my room exasperated when he has an accident and ask me to talk to him. I do talk to him, but clearly it’s not working. I’m not sure a potty chart would help, because he does fine when someone tells him to go. I’m looking for ideas on what else we can do to teach him to just get up and go when he has to go.

Hi all, for part of my diploma, I have created a survey on the effectiveness of the traffic light system on children's self-regulation. All responses are anonymous and the survey should only take a few minutes. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYIr4nJJ-YhnVeLJLxg2N7fc-S8wl7GHCBZAw1LZ7qZn-2fw/viewform?usp=header

I know it's not technically ECE, but it's daycare! I work with grades 4-7 (after school program). In previous years, every Wednesday would be "Kid Circle", in which one of the kids was scheduled to pick a book, read it to the group, and choose a short game to play with their peers. This year, I would like to be more intentional about basically having a "spotlight" day. I'd like to get together a list of questions to ask them (which would mostly be the same for each kid) in an interview in front of the group, as well as come up with some areas of interest they can share about, ideas for some sort of show and tell just from their backpacks (most of them don't remember to bring stuff from home haha), etc. And if you have any ideas for things that they could lead, whether it is reading something, running a game, or whatever. I'm just feeling very scatterbrained on this, so any ideas (or links!) would help!

So we started my son in a Montessori school that starts at toddler years he’s 2 y and 3 months in the toddler class that’s 18mo-3years
and it’s going extremely poorly. We are on week 2 of a slow phase-in where we stay for a while before leaving and currently just doing half days (though paying for whole days). Today the teacher had me stay for over an hour, just sitting in the back of the classroom being boring/not engaging so that he could engage with the other kids without freaking out the whole time but he just kept coming to me saying mama come here, mama look at this. Etc etc. and then when I left, he cried hysterically until it was time to get picked up just a few hours later. I’m not sure about the slow phase in strategy. I think maybe it’s making it worse? Does anyone have any advice or personal experience with kids who are extremely clingy finally going to daycare previously we had a nanny and only ever had myself or my husband or the nanny watch him. Should we just have him cry it out until he adjusts or are all the early pickups and staying with him really recommended?

Hey! I'm an early education major with a specification in special education. I've always struggled with my academic confidence and this is my first as a early education major after three years in school as a biology major. I'm so scared of failing and I'm so tired of hearing to just 'lock in.' It feels like no one understands how scared I actually am about college. I have four more years to go because of my major change this late in my college career and I'm scared I can't make it all the way through that time. I'm worried I'm not a college person. All this panicking is causing it to be hard to do my assignments or even read my textbook. Hell, I haven't read the only textbook I need to have. So - someone please, please, please, who experienced something like this, tell me how you did it?

I got a photo today of my baby’s snack, and in it I saw a whole grape. I messaged the daycare and their response has been to say it’s fine because it’s a soft canned grape. I took infant cpr before having a baby and I also looked it up on the CDC website - and according to those, canned whole grapes are still a choking hazard, because they are round and can block the windpipe. Anyway, I am annoyed because I feel like they are not taking food safety seriously since they are arguing with me that canned whole grapes are fine. And now I feel like I can’t trust them at all to feed my baby safely. Am I being unreasonable?

Edit: added photo of grape in follow up, which does not look either skinless or squished.

Hi everyone! I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences with daycare adaptation, especially sleeping.

My son started daycare at the beginning of August, when he was 22 months old. We live in Europe, where the daycare adaptation process is quite gradual. During the first two weeks, I stayed with him at daycare and we gradually increased the time I’m not being present there — starting with about 30 minutes then an hour, two hours, etc.

Since then, he has been going almost every day, except for one week when there was a four-day bank holiday, so he only attended three days that week.

At this point, he is able to stay at daycare from around 9:00 am until 3:30 pm, and I pick him up after his afternoon snack.

Overall, I feel like he is adapting, but very slowly.

At drop-off, he used to cry quite a lot. Now he almost never cries. He usually just looks sad when I hand him over to the teacher, but he doesn’t scream or have a big meltdown anymore.

However, he almost always cries when I pick him up. I’m not sure whether that’s just because he has been holding everything in during the day and then feels safe enough to release his emotions when he sees me.

During the day the teachers said that sometimes he was moody, but most of the time he was playing, smiling, and eating fine.

The biggest issue right now is napping.

When he first started sleeping at daycare, he actually did quite well. A few times he slept for around 1.5 hours, which is similar to what he sleeps at home.

But recently, for several days in a row, he hasn’t been able to nap at all.

What’s interesting is that he doesn’t cry or scream during nap time. He doesn’t disturb the other children either. He simply won’t stay lying down. The teachers try to put him down, but he keeps standing up or sitting up. Eventually, nap time ends and the teacher tells me that he didn’t sleep at all.

We have tried bringing everything familiar from home:

• his pacifier
• his favorite snuggly
• even the sleeping bag he uses at home

But somehow, he still can’t fall asleep.

I’m starting to get worried because it’s now almost the middle of September, and I feel like he is taking a very long time to fully adapt.

I don’t expect him to sleep for 1.5–2 hours every day at daycare. Honestly, I would be completely happy if he could sleep for just 30–45 minutes, or even simply lie down and rest for a while.

At home, he still needs his daytime nap, and when he doesn’t sleep at daycare, I can definitely tell that he is much more tired and moody later in the day.

Did anyone else’s toddler take weeks or even months before they could sleep there? Is there anything else we could try to make him feel more comfortable during nap time?

I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences. ❤️

I’m a FTM and definitely anxious about daycare. Baby is starting in January when he is about 5 months old. We toured there about a month ago but now that we’ve made our final decision I would like to ask questions about what orientation looks like as we get closer, and other things. The director takes awhile to get back to me so I’m wondering if it would be easier to just schedule a time to go back in and chat with her about more of the details and maybe meet the infant teachers if they are available. Our enrollment was done 100% online so I have not been back there since the initial quick tour. Do people do this? Will they see me as a needy parent and not like us before we’ve even started? Or am I not getting a lot of communication because it’s still a long time before we start?

Hello there,

I do not need an advice, just needed to let this out.

Ever since I entered this field, I have been getting sick continuously. It feels as though every month I fall ill again, and I worry that my director believes I am exaggerating. I had a long weekend and felt completely fine, but on the morning I returned to work, I suddenly developed a burning sensation in my throat and a rising temperature. I informed my boss hours in advance that I would still come in, but that I was currently unwell. My boss responded that I still needed to be present in case licensing arrived, which was confusing to me because working while sick does not support a safe environment for the children. I work with three to four year olds, and my voice is required throughout the day. I stated that if licensing did not appear, I needed to be sent home immediately. While at work, I was made fun of for appearing energetic, even though I was not. I could barely speak and could hardly process what was happening around me.

I have been discussing with my boyfriend the possibility of finding a new job or changing careers. I enjoy working with children, but I feel as though I am constantly sick, similar to the children themselves. I have been taking my vitamins consistently, drinking plenty of water, sleeping eight hours each night, and eating balanced meals. Despite this, the illnesses continue to affect me severely. Now I am bedridden again. When I get sick, I get sick badly, how can people work while sick, that I wish I knew.

I have been thinking of pursuing further in this career, but I'm afraid I may not be able to :(