Activities to Prepare Your Child for Nursery

Planning for the day your child embarks on their new adventure into nursery can be daunting. With all the prep parents and carers do to get ready for the big day, we have come up with some activities to help transition your child into nursery life.

Throughout this guide we explore several areas of development for children and how we can help prepare them for their transition into starting nursery.

Social Skills Development: Before your child starts at nursery there are many ways you can prepare them by building on their social skills.  

Children under 2: In these early stages, children form strong bonds with their caregivers and may feel cautious around new people. Introducing them to friendly, familiar environments like local library story times and parent and toddler groups.

Children over 2: At this stage children will benefit from the same outings, also being left in the care of family members who they feel comfortable with.

Try these below activities to promote social skills at home!

• Act out role play scenarios with teddies/dolls, like feeding or having tea.
• Model conversation with toys and your child during play.
• Read books about play, families, and nursery.
• Encourage turn-taking activities like ball games, blowing bubbles, or puzzles.

Communication and language: One of our prime areas of development for children, engaging with children in a meaningful way is crucial for their development and their transition into nursery life.

Children under 2: At this age, children are learning new sounds and words every day, and their vocabulary is blossoming. Children will often begin with imitating the sounds they hear and exploring new ones.

Children over 2: At this age, children are using a much wider vocabulary and are inquisitive questioners! They will respond particularly to songs, stories and daily discussions with carers.

Try these below activities to promote communication and language at home!

• Read daily, including non-fiction books on topics your child enjoys. Ask questions and make predictions together.
• Engage in conversations during outings, meals, and journeys to broaden your child's vocabulary.
• Sing songs and nursery rhymes daily, especially in the car, to enhance vocabulary.
• Discuss feelings regularly to help children understand and regulate emotions, covering a range from cross and disappointed to excited and happy.

Cognitive and learning skills: Cognitive development in early years involves children thinking, exploring, and working things out. It is the development of knowledge and helps children understand the world around them.

Children under 2: At this early stage children are beginning to understand simple cause and effect, and that an object out of sight still exists even though they can no longer see it.

Children over 2: This is the beginning of abstract thinking and imagination. Children are beginning to use objects for different purposes and combining resources to explore and experiment.

Try these below activities to promote cognitive and learning skills at home!

Children under 2: ‍

• Play hide and seek with familiar objects.
  
• Use shape sorters and simple puzzles.
• Create a texture-rich treasure basket.

Children over 2:‍

• Encourage crafting with painting, gluing, and collage using recycled materials.
• Build with Duplo or Lego, fostering imagination and simple spatial understanding.
• Introduce number and counting games with dice and homemade counters, incorporating counting into daily activities.
  

Physical Development: This area of development includes fine and gross motor skills and also promotes children’s health and hygiene.  

Children under 2:  Babies need lots of active physical experiences both indoors and outdoors, they benefit from tummy time, reaching for lost objects, cruising around furniture and pushing wheeled toys.

Children over 2: Children begin to play more independently outside, riding bikes, climbing, and negotiating obstacles as they run. They are now using their fine motor skills to hold mark-making tools and use scissors and thread beads.

Try these below activities to promote Physical Development at home!

Children under 2:

• Roll balls back and forth while seated.
• Ride trikes or push wheeled toys.
• Pop bubbles outdoors.
• Encourage floor play, crawling, and simple climbing through tunnels and boxes.

Children over 2:‍

• Set up obstacle courses with tents or tunnels.
• Play ball games aiming at targets.
• Use colorful scarves for dancing.
• Visit soft play or parks for swinging and climbing.
• Introduce threading with beads or pasta.
  

Encouraging Independence skills: At nursery we encourage children to gradually become more and more independent.

Children under 2: Children enjoy helping adults and can be encouraged with simple tidy up routines, helping carry items around the house or bringing their shoes or coat to you.

Children over 2: At this stage children can be encouraged in lots of ways, including managing their toilet needs, hand washing, tidying away toys and helping put coats and shoes on.

Activities you can try at home to promote independence.

Children under 2:‍

• Encourage self-feeding and drinking.
• Teach tidying up by placing items in designated spots.
• Offer choices for snacks and activities.
  

Children over 2: ‍

• Promote dressing independence and decision-making.
• Teach hand washing with soap before meals and after outdoor play.
• Encourage attempting to wipe noses independently.

Emotional preparation

Transitioning to nursery can be emotionally overwhelming for both parents and babies. Acknowledge and address your feelings of anxiety and nervousness, understanding that it's a normal part of this significant life change. So, to help them with separating from you before they start nursery here are some steps you can take to help.

• Try having short separation breaks from your child.
• Leave a comforter with your child.
• Make saying goodbye a positive experience for yourself and your child, by smiling and waving.

As you can see there are lots of simple ways you can begin to prepare your child for nursery.  

At Fennies, we're dedicated to supporting families every step of the way. That's why we offer up to 5 settling-in sessions, designed to help parents and children form strong bonds with their keyworkers and become familiar with the nursery environment. Our ultimate goal is to establish a strong parent partnership from the outset, facilitating a positive and seamless transition into nursery life for your child.

‍