Go to daycare
The daycare door asks for two things at once: a goodbye to the parent and a hello to a whole group. Both are full-blown activities and both cost energy. The pictures below break apart what otherwise happens in a single blow.
♂Boy going to daycare
A happy boy with a backpack waves goodbye, walking away from a house with a shining sun.
About this visual support
Drop-off at daycare is not one moment but two stacked on top of each other. One is letting go of the parent, which is an emotional act. The other is stepping into a flock of twenty other children, loud sounds and a new educator to read. Both ask something of the child, and they arrive on the same two metres of floor.
With the drop-off laid out as a picture sequence, the child can prepare for each part separately. One image for hanging up the coat, one for the hug, one for finding a friend at the rug. It becomes easier to keep sad-with-mum and curious-about-play apart, and fewer feelings clump together in the doorway.
A concrete tip: agree with the educator on a recurring first activity inside – same corner, same thing – and make that the last picture in your sequence. Then there is a magnet indoors, not just a goodbye outdoors.
For families who want to build the drop-off as a visual routine together with the daycare, Routined is free to try for fourteen days.