Why a minimum of 3 days?
We have found that the absolute minimum number of days for a child to settling into TLC or group care, is 3 days. Any less than this, and they just do not have enough time to form relationships both with their key teacher, or with peers.
Having said that more than 3 days is definitely better, and especially for infants, we find that they settle faster if attending 4 or 5 days per week.
As children get older, it also becomes about continuity of play with friends. Often play can span multiple days, and, if a child is away they can end up on the outside of the play. And, the relationship of the children who attend for more days tends to be stronger as well.
It’s all about relationships.
What is the optimum age to start?
For infants, we initially enrol a cohort (group of similar aged children with the same key teacher) between 6 and 12 months. We find that children starting before being 1 year old, typically (all children are different) are not in the start of separation anxiety as well as starting group care.
When infants first start at TLC, this may be the first time that they are exposed to the usual colds bugs. You should expect that they will be regularly unwell in the first 3-6 months, and, unless you have a LOT of support, this can be challenging in your return to work from parental leave. So ideally, your child would start a few months before you return to work, and just do the shorter 7 hour days initially.
We have found that children enrolled in TLC from being an infant are typically more self confident, have better self care skills, and deeper friendships with peers than children who join over 2 years of age. We attribute this to philosophy, amazing ratios, group sizes, key caregiving, and efforts we make to try to implement continuity of care (which reduces the stresses of transitions). However, we think that this also means that our tamariki are gentler and more welcoming of new starters as well.
What is the deal with continuity of care?
We are always careful to say we TRY to do our best to implement continuity of care. In an ideal world, the same teacher would start with a cohort of 3 children under 1, and then a 4th child when those children are over one year old. That teacher and cohort would move together through to Weka and then Kea. In some instances that teacher would then move back up to Kākano after the cohort was well settled in Kea. In other circumstances, if the teacher wants to, and numbers permit, that teacher might stay with their cohort until they go off to school.
But, life happens. A teacher might become pregnant, or leave. Children in the cohort might be at different stages of readiness for transitions. Sometimes two cohorts are too close in age and or readiness, resulting in a lack of room to move to. Or, a large cohort may leave for school at the same time. In an ideal world we would have centre wide transitions, but this is not always the case. When it is not the case, we try:
never to transition a single child on their own
if not transitioning with their key teacher, ideally the child would be transitioning to someone they already know who had been the ‘secondary’ teacher in their room previously
Continuity is NOT just about the children. We aim to work in partnership with parents/whānau, and your child(ren) being with the same teacher over time, means that you can get to know and trust the teacher. Children will take their lead from you. In community survey after community survey, our community tells us our teachers are warm, caring and respectful. This is a testament to the depth of relationships formed over time.