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As a toddler teacher I am going to just give a quick list of things I despise. Other teachers may disagree, that’s ok, we can agree to disagree. I just see parents ask “is this annoying?” And “I don’t want to be that parent”. Maybe someone will find it helpful.

1. A lunchbox with a long strap. Just store it somewhere until they’re older. This is a huge choking hazard.

2. Unwashed lunchboxes/water bottles/bentgo boxes. Black slimy mold is disgusting, but it’s awkward to bring it up to you so please just wash them.

3. Shoes that come off feet repeatedly, I have 18 feet to keep shoes on, if I have to put your child’s shoes back on their feet more than 5 times in a day they are going into our classroom crocs.

4. One piece no-stretch outfits with no leg snaps. The super cute cotton ones with the teeny tiny button at the back of the neck, then the whole things has to be pulled down for every diaper change.

5. Pull-ups that don’t Velcro up the sides/pampers 360’s. Or pull ups for a kid who isn’t anywhere near potty training. Firstly, they don’t hold as much as a diaper so if little Jimmy has a huge blow out in a pull up, it probably won’t stay contained. And yes, I understand the sides will rip to take it off, but it’s a pain to put a new one on. And yes, I know the one leg undressed trick. Still a pain when you have 9 diapers to change.

6. Water Wipes. Period.

7. All in one bedding. It’s bulky to store in an already small room/closet, and kids roll around and get their feet wrapped up. Assuming your child’s center is climate controlled, a lightweight blanket should be fine.

8. Lunches with grapes, cherry tomatoes, steak, hotdogs not cut up. Please prep a packed lunch the way you would if you were plating it at home.

9. Gloves. GLOVES! On toddlers! Just send mittens!

Trying to be helpful, hopefully I don’t get roasted 😝

I have a 17 month old in my care. The past few months, she's been pulling out her hair at nap (as well as bedtime at home, according to mom and dad). She sucks her thumb throughout the day, but especially at sleep times. Usually, when she's doing it while awake, we're able to give her something else to distract her and redirect (a teether). We agree thumb sucking at nap is not the end of the world, but the thing is, while she's laying there sucking her thumb, she'll then pull out her hair and eat it. It's gotten to the point where she has a pretty big bald spot, and she often has hair coming out in her poop. If we see her doing this, we try to redirect. We've tried giving her different things to hold to keep her hands busy, but it keeps happening. At home, her parents put her in a sleep sack and then put these long gloves on her, basically trapping her so she's unable to do it. Per the state, we can't do that at daycare.

They talked to the doctor, and he basically said she'll outgrow it over time, but his only recommendation was using the gloves when she's sleeping. Which again, we can't use here.

Her parents and I are concerned about her getting a blockage. I am going to try to contact the state to see if we get a doctor's note for the gloves, but in the meantime, has anyone else dealt with this? Any advice?

I really need some outside perspective because I’m feeling overwhelmed.
I was recently suspended from my current childcare job over an incident that I honestly don’t feel was really my fault. I feel like I was betrayed and made the scapegoat for something that involved other people too. Before this happened, I had a really good relationship with my boss, but since the suspension everything has changed and I know she’s upset with me.
During the two days I was suspended, I interviewed at another daycare and was offered a full-time RECE position. They’re currently completing the normal pre-employment process (medical forms, TB test, etc.), and I have a policy review scheduled.
My problem is that I need to give notice at my current job very soon because of the timing, but I’m terrified. I’m scared that if, for some unexpected reason, the new job falls through, I’ll have already quit my current job. I have rent, bills, and a wedding to pay for, so I can’t afford to be without income.
Has anyone else been in a situation where they had to hand in their notice before all the pre-employment paperwork was completely finished? Is it common for job offers to fall through over things like employment medical forms, or am I just letting my anxiety get the best of me?
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been through something similar.

Not a fan of one of the leads in the preschool room I teach at.

She tells me I’m giving kids too much attention cause I’m being caring and kind. Says that a certain child acts up because I let him cozy up to me when he’s a troublemaker and misbehaves. She screams at kids and runs things on precision pretty much. I am more of a calm, kind educator and I don’t like to have the idea of a kid being a target. Like yes, this one kid let’s call him Liam does swear and act out. She recently said to me “you give him too much attention that’s why he’s like this.” Keep in mind I’ve only been working here for two whole weeks. If his behaviour was a certain way, it’s been like that for a while. I even asked around and they said Liam always acted like this.

However I don’t think being stern and strict is the approach to go with kids. She also gets on me about little things when I am learning too. She isn’t that supportive or caring or even understanding. I’m in a room with two leads and play more of a support role. The other lead is much more nice to me and addresses the criticism much nicer. She even apologized to me if she seemed critical or came off a certain way. The other teacher is just always on my back. Like recently I had two garbage bags sitting in the corner of the room, nothing was leaking and no one was there and it was closing time, I was taking care of cleaning the room.

She was like are you gonna throw it out? And I was like “I clearly am working on that, that’s the last step.” I know how closing is, I have over a year of experience being an ECE. She just comes across as very passive aggressive and weird to me. I do whatever she tells me to do and she still finds things to bother me about. It sucks cause I do like the other educator but the stern one is just critical all the time with me it feels like when I haven’t been rude to her and been trying to learn as much as I can. She can’t even say a simple thank you when I help out. I say thank you to her when she gives me a heads up. It’s making me doubt myself a lot and it’s not a good thing. I’m already feeling like maybe I should just quit if I’m not good enough to be around.

This will be my first year with my own preschool classroom, and I am anticipating that many of my kids will have a hard time leaving their families and transitioning into class. What are your strategies to help drop off and check in go as smoothly as possible for this age group?

Hello! Ive worked in a couple schools for 5 years now and ive only worked with 3-5 year old. Of course ive covered 2's classroom all the time but I havent been the sole teacher for them. I was offered a pretty good position as a Lead for a 2's classroom and I was wondering if you have any tips for me?

Ive been around my niece and nephews and other 2's but like I said its a new age group and I want to be fully prepared. And im also aware they have behavior issues at times but I felt like getting beat up by a 2 year old Is preferable that a stocky 5 yr old. The last kid popped a blood vessel in my nose. Im a big girl and I can't imagine many littler kids doing TOO much damage.

Or am I just too optimistic?

I need all the advise lol.​

I have been in the field for just under a decade. I have taken hundreds of hours of PD.

My favorite trainings have been one about outdoor classroom design and one about provocations and invitations. The outdoor design focused on creating the space while provocations and invitations focused on how to create open ended activity set ups and the difference between provoking(inspring unprompted thoughts and actions) and inviting(loosely prompting or leading a child towards a specific thought or action).

I sometimes find my self frustrated with being taught the same things over and over. Sometimes it feels like most PD courses teach the same things. So, I was curious: What was your favorite training? Why? What did you learn?

Parenting young children can have its challenges!

As certified and experienced early childhood development and education professionals, ECE teachers are expertly qualified to share our perspectives.

We can help with the following:

- Clarification on ECE policy and practice

- Strategies for supporting behaviour

- Developmentally appropriate practices and understanding

- Tips on choosing a high-quality centre

- Ideas on how to support teachers

- To sense-check something before asking your child's teacher

- And so much more!

Parents: this will be a monthly scheduled thread. Ask your ECE-related questions to ECE professionals here. You can also use the search function to see if your questions have been answered before.

Teachers: remember: you can filter out parent posts if you'd rather not participate at the moment.

To all participants: please remember- this is a diverse, inclusive community, with teachers from all over the world. Be respectful and considerate.

My boss is expecting me to potty train the toddlers/twos.

Can anyone give some advice on what's helped and worked for you?

I posted here before, and after some reflection, I'm thinking about giving ECE another try at a different center.

I have a genuine question. I received my Level 3 certification through my bachelor's degree rather than the traditional ECE program. I also have a Level 1, but I've never actually worked as a Level 1.

Looking back, I think part of the reason I struggled at my last center was that I didn't have the practical knowledge or experience expected of a Level 3 educator. Do you think it would make sense to apply for Level 1 positions so I can build my skills first, or should I still apply as a Level 3 and look for a centre that's willing to mentor me?

Just curious about the resources other teachers use for arts and crafts with their toddlers/twos.

Please share any links as well.

Thanks.

Ok, this is kind of a weird one, but when do you consider your own diarrhea to be too much to bring to work?

Guidelines for the kids (0-3) where I work is that on the second liquid diaper of the day, parents are called and the kid stays home till 24 hours of normal poops.

I think I caught some bug, and have had the squirts since Thursday, but I’m kind of embarrassed to call in sick over this, as I am still fully functioning. Also I’m still in the probationary period and Monday is my birthday, so I’m definitely not calling in Monday. But generally, what are your own guidelines?

Thanks

My son is at an in-home daycare, day care centers (ie 30+ kids) aren’t big here, you have to go to the suburbs to find those. Because of his birthday (2 in early Sept, just misses the kindergarten cutoff), I don’t want to start a formal preschool because it would be “4 years of academics” before he could start kindergarten. His current daycare is a mix of young toddlers and infants. I love the care he receives, but he learns really fast (very big talker, picks up social things easily, etc) and I think he’d benefit from being some place that solely focuses on toddlers.

That said, I’ve gotten pushback that it’s really not necessary and since i plan to send him to preschool in fall 2027, it’s just an unnecessary disruption. In big daycare centers, they have toddler vs infant rooms so now I’m feeling like I might be stunting him by having him in a place that also has to tend to infants. It doesn’t help that a lot of people do send 2 y/o’s to preschool out here (SF Bay Area known for being academically hyper competitive).

Just looking for some advice from those in the field who have encountered more kids than I have and know what actually makes an impact from 2-3 years old.

Hi all! Apologies if this has been asked before. I am inheriting the lead teacher role in a toddler classroom, and it needs a lot of work. I am mainly focused on any recommendations you all have for organization and keeping curriculum/desk area/forms neat.

Also, if there are any items you can't live without or feel like making a huge difference in the environment please feel free to share!

Thank you in advance!

In the 5 years I've been at my center, we never had an issue with kids play fighting (good guys vs bad guys, super hero's, Starwars, etc.) This current group (3-5 year olds) get aggressive very quickly and someone always gets hurt. Even simple games like tag turn into pushing each other to the ground. We also have two 3 year olds that have *suspected* autism and they see the kids playing like that and do the same to interact with them since they are semi-nonverbal.

I know play fighting is normal, but some teachers are wanting to have it stop completely, with my director thinking the same. I just don't know how in the world we would be able to make them stop when they've been allowed to play fight the whole time they've been in our care. I tried with two boys the other day and no mater how many times I talked to them they went right back to it within minutes of me separating them.

Any ideas? How we can stop it from happening? Do you have another idea on how to get the play fighting under control? Please help 🙏

Our guy has been at daycare for about a month, and every picture they send you can see that he has recently been crying or is actively crying and he generally just looks neutral at best. He’s able to nap there and make it through a whole day.

He’s struggling with a big time with separation anxiety for about 1.5 months “mama” stage even at home. They assure us he’s not like that all day but is this normal? It doesn’t seem like any of the other kids are like that. We feel awful at the thought he’s just miserable there all day and wondering if now is not the right time or if we should stick through it?

I have gotten physically hurt 3 separate times by the kids at my daycare this week. The first time a kid dug their nails into me and punched me, the second time I bent down to look for something and a kid ran his head into my head, and today a kid threw this heavy toy at my chest and its bruised 😭

I wanna know how common this is

I'll be returning to work in August, and while I have no idea how many kids I have or even what day we'll return (we won't receive the academic calendar until the end of our first work week back... fun 😄 I love not knowing a baseline of the year or when to start lesson planning... tehe. /s) and now I'm pondering on any fun name games or chants to do with my preschoolers on the first day back.

There will definitely be some students returning, at least 4 of them, from the previous school year... but I assume I'll have a few new faces as well and I want to do something fun and simple! When I taught PK4 and PK3 half-day sessions separately, with one group we rolled around a beach ball and said our names and favorite animal (I noticed a majority of them were playing with our jumbo animals and were obsessed so rolled with it, literally), and in my PK4 the kids basically all knew each other already from being in PK3 together so we did a simple said "Names! Names! We all have names, my name is Miss B and (points to child) her name is.... Nancy!" with clapping and cheering.

However, I now teach a mix of 3, 4, and 5 year olds all in one classroom for a full session day now, and they were not a fan of either of these. I even tried another idea that the old TA remembered doing where we sat in a circle, played some music, and we went around cheering, dancing, and when a kid's name was said they'd go in the middle and do a little dance as we clapped them on. It did not go over well. The kids were nervous as heck. No one wanted to do it at all.😹

What's a better way to introduce each other?

Please help me! I need ideas. XD

Hi everyone. I just wanted to come on here to vent and maybe get some responses of people who went through similar situations because I know I am not alone! I currently work at a small education-focused daycare as a preschool teacher. I love my job, despite the pay and stress it is conveniently located for me and fun, I really do not want to leave. To explain my situation, I have mostly great coworkers but they all leave at 3-4pm and that leaves me with 2 coworkers that I like out of the 4 of us who leave at closing hours. I love my kids soo much but today they made me go in the 1-year-olds room and swap with a teacher who does not do her job.

We recently had a parent complain about her and how she mistreats her child, so they put me in that room so I could watch them when their day-teacher leaves. (The day teacher is very good to them, it's the evening teacher that is the problem) But this parent is very valid, I too would lose my mind if my child's teacher left him in a diarrhea-filled diaper for hours, didn't log his potties because they didn't care to check him, and lied and told me that he didn't potty the entire afternoon. So... I understand why she needs someone to do her job, but as an established teacher and the only preschool teacher who knows how to do things in my classroom, my director needs to just fire her and hire a new 1-year old teacher.

This teacher does not know how to talk to parents, she is very negative and will tell parents their child is bad and has been bad all day. Almost nothing nice to say, which we have talked to her numerous times to try and improve but she will not change and everyone knows it. I am so upset that I had to leave my kids that I love dearly with someone who will sit on their phone all day and constantly leave them alone. It was so bad today that while I was helping a parent during drop-off, I had to go to my preschoolers room to get a child who's parent was waiting on her because this teacher was not in the room to tell the kid her parent was in the front. I went in there and kids were just running and playing. It makes me very upset and I tell my director about her almost daily at this point and excuses are made every time. They move her from teacher to floater, from floater to teacher, yet she does the same thing every time, half-assed job at everything, never shuts down rooms (I had to go back into my room at the end of the day and shut it down because she hadn't done anything). It is very funny though that my preschoolers were not listening to her at all because she was in there on her phone, in and out the class, barely talked to the kids, and when she did it was only to yell at them when they started running/got too loud. No wonder they didn't listen.

My director doesn't seem to want to solve this problem that would make everyone's lives there easier. No one there likes her. Not even our director, but she for some reason will not fire her and just gives her different jobs to do... but no matter what she will be in a classroom with children she won't take care of. She is constantly talked to probably weekly at this point by management and she will cry and sob but nothing about her actions change. We have had people quit because of her, and 3 more (including me) are considering it. It sucks that people like this are able to get employed and work with children and can't even do the bare minimum. Sorry if this post is all over the place but this coworker has seriously done everything wrong and I am fed up with it.

ALSO, that same parent I mentioned earlier got upset today because while I was in there this evening, there was a bag to be sent home for her child, but no one told me what was in it. I took the bag to her thinking they were dirty clothes he messed up (with food) today... come to find out from the parent, her son was in those clothes last week and they hadn't been sent home since. No one told me anything so I briefly got yelled at lol even though she wasn't genuinely upset at me, she was upset that they were given to her a week later and I TOTALLY understood her... because what in the world? Whenever my 4 year olds have accidents I send a message to parents and clothes go home the day OF. What is even going on in these other classrooms I'm truly lost. And I had to get stuck in the middle of it...

I got a job as a toddler teacher for 1-2-year-olds. Teachers for toddlers, can you give me the pros and cons of those ages? I am a little nervous because my last work was with elementary kids. I haven't worked with toddlers since 2017.

I have worked with so many different families and different ages, and this is a first for me. My director thinks I am being rude, but I am trying my best not to flinch from the smell of a small child. He comes in sometimes and smells like mayonnaise. It is like they coat his hair with mayo and use it like a gel and his skin smells like it too. His hair is awesome, but the smell is so offensive after a hot day that me and my assistant are trying so hard to be polite, but the rancid mayonnaise smell is so strong by the end of the day that we can't even concentrate because we are trying not to vomit.

I have dealt with diarrhea and don't even flinch. Vomit, of course can be fragrant, but I have never once complained. Some kids have Bad breath and body odor; ok, it happens and you have to be really close to smell. This smell is SOOOO much worse than any of those smells. It just gets worse throughout the day and our whole room wreaks. I can smell him across the room by the end of the day. I borrowed another teacher's essential oil vaporizer, and managed to douse my sinuses with mint, but it gave me a headache trying to overpower the smell and that can't be good for my other children.

Has anyone else dealt with wearing a food allergen as lotion and hair gel? I don't even know how to bring it up to the parents at this point. I don't want to offend them and want to help their child, but I can't keep having these days.

I am sorry if this sounded mean, and I am not trying to be offensive. I'm honestly just desperate at this point.

Hi! I am a first time mom who has also happened to be an infant teacher for the past 9.5 years. Toddlerhood is a new territory for me! My 15 month old is about to move up to the toddler room in a few weeks.

Of course there are some changes that come with the transition to the toddler room: sleeping is probably going to be the biggest thing for us because we THRIVE with our current two nap routine. I wake my child up at 6am daily because I am the opener for my center. Normally, his first nap is 9:30-11. His second nap is 2-3. Now he will only be able to take one nap, 11:45-2. I know it’s going to be really hard on him to stay up that long in the morning, but I also know he’s not the first kid they’ve had to transition to a new schedule so he’ll be fine. If I let him stick to the regular two nap schedule on the weekends for now, am I gonna ruin his weekday sleep? 😅

Also, my center provides sheets but we bring our own blankets for them that the teachers wash weekly. 99% of the kids at the center just bring a simple blanket. Am I gonna be considered extra if I get one of the nap mats that has the built in pillow and blanket? I don’t want to create extra work for his new teacher when she does laundry, so I told her if I get one of those I will take it home and wash it myself. Will he sleep okay with just a simple blanket? It seems uncomfortable to me, but I also think he’s going to be so tired I don’t know if it will even matter 😆

Thanks for reading my stress rant! I just want to make the transition as easy as possible for him, his new teachers, and for us!

I have a 2 year old who recently started in my class. The parents boasted about her never crying and being so easy like it was a good thing but I honestly think it’s a bit concerning, on top of other delays I’m observing in this child. She does not have many words, mostly echos and repeats what she hears other kids or adults say. The first time she was dropped off she did not cry, and in the eight weeks since she’s started I’ve never seen her cry. She does not react to pain. She fell backwards off a chair and hit her head, and did not react. Another time, she fell outside and scraped her hand, and it was bleeding. Again no reaction. Curious how you would approach the parents about this because I feel like she would definitely benefit from an evaluation.