What do you do when your 3-year-old is excited for preschool at home, then melts down at the classroom door?
Drop-off is where our whole morning kinda falls apart. She'll talk about preschool at breakfast and even packs her tiny backpack, but once we get to the classroom door, she grabs my leg and starts crying. I dont want to sneak out on her, but dragging out goodbye seems to make it worse too. What actually worked for your kid?
I think the biggest thing is keeping the goodbye the same every time. We did hug, kiss, see you after snack, then I left. I wanted to keep comforting him, but honestly that made it longer and he started waiting for me to crack.
Well, I guess you can ask the teacher what happens 5 minutes after you leave. My son sounded like he was being abandoned, but the teacher sent a note that he was playing with trucks by 9:07. That helped me not panic every morning.
A tiny job helped us. My daughter had to hang her backpack and put her water bottle in the bin before goodbye. Having a job made the room feel less like a scary place and more like, ok I know what to do here.