Daycare Tips and Tricks

I'm sure a lot of families are making the very difficult decision of whether or not you're going back to work and whether or not your children will be attending school (and how they are!). I made the decision to go back to work in early childhood education and bring my children in with me. I can go more into details on my decision at another time, but for now..here are some tips and tricks for returning or starting daycare.

My biggest suggestion is to invest is waterproof dishwasher safe labels. And then label every single thing you send into school. I'm talking each shoe, pacifiers, clothes, pouches, lunchbox...EVERYTHING. The days get busy and especially now, teachers have so much cleaning and preparing added to their plates. So make it easy on yourself and them by labeling everything and it will 100% ensure that your items make it home to you each night. I've linked the labels I created for my kids below.

NameLabels

My next tip is foods. Pack items that you know your kids will eat. Try things at dinner time or on the weekend and pack them things they like, will eat, and can fill them up. The last thing you want is your child to be not eating at school. I really love the Bentgo boxes that help create small serving sizes. It makes meal planning so much easier because you see how much of each item. 

Personally I like to throw in a large portion of the "meal", think pasta salad, sandwich, casserole, etc. I do at least one fruit, a snack item, some veggies if they aren't in the meal, and the little circle in the middle I'll add a treat. 

A few more tips

• If you have more than one child, make sure each has their own bag to bring to their room. Infants typically need a larger bag because you're bringing bottles, food, extra clothes, etc and just generally need more "stuff" throughout the day.
• If you know your older child is going to struggle, send a favorite lovey or item from home for the first week or so to help them adjust and give them something "safe".
• Send a water bottle (if allowed). My son struggles to ask for water throughout the day but if he has a bottle, he'll stop in and drink periodically.
• Bring extras from day one so you aren't playing catch up. Massive diaper box, 3 packs of wipes, 5 extra pairs of clothes (tops and bottoms), socks for infant, an extra bottle a day just in case, extra paci, etc. The more the better. These places are set up to store items. 

This is ALL of our things on day one