My childcare provider is going to be unavailable during the March Break, which means that my five-year-old will be going to a one-week March Break Day Camp program instead of to her usual after-school childcare arrangement. How can I help to ease this transition for her? She’s been in the other care arrangement since she was a baby.
Your child will be watching you carefully in order to decide how to react to this change of routine. If she senses that you’ve got some reservations about sending her, she may become not want anything to do with day camp, period.
Something else to keep in mind: keep your sales pitch decidedly low-key. Otherwise your daughter might start wondering what’s so awful about this day camp thing that mom and dad have to push it so hard.
One more final tip: the buddy system works well with most new experiences in life, and day camp is no exception. Ask around and see if there’s another child you know who will be going to the same day camp. Heading off to daycare with someone familiar may make day camp a little less anxiety-producing for your child—and for you, too.
