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Home › Articles › Back to Preschool Headquarters › Toddling Off to School

Toddling Off to School

Is Your Toddler Ready for Preschool?

By Keath Castelloe Low

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Parents experience a wide range of emotions as their toddler begins to approach preschool age. Some parents may feel uncertainty: "Is my child ready? Am I ready?"

Starting preschool is a big step in your child's development. The decision about when to start is often a personal family choice.

Amy Cohen, a mother of two from Chapel Hill, N.C., admits that she had quite a few worries as her first child, Jonah, was beginning preschool. "My initial concerns were if he would have difficulties separating from me," she says.

Additionally, Cohen worried about the preschool environment. Would it be nurturing enough? "I was also concerned that he would have ample supervision," she says. "I was concerned about the other children. Would they be sweet, kind children as my child is passive? I was worried about him having potty accidents at school as he was recently potty trained prior to school starting."

Jeff Low, a father from Chapel Hill, N.C., applied to a 2-year-old preschool class when his first child, Ashley, was approaching the age of 2. "We had to have the application in by February," he says. "Our daughter didn't even turn 2 until July. As the fall approached my wife and I began to reassess our decision to place our daughter in a 2-year-old class. Ashley wasn't even talking yet and we just didn't feel comfortable having her in a program. We ended up contacting the school director and withdrawing her before she even started. The following year we enrolled her in the 3-year-old class. By then she was excited about starting and my wife and I felt ready, too!"

Roxanne Frue had different feelings. "I was ready for my son, Will, to go to preschool because I needed a little break," says the mom from Ashville, N.C. "He started mother's morning out when he was 15 months and has been in some type of program off and on since. By the time Will was 3, he was ready to explore new toys and be around other children regularly. The hardest part was the separation anxiety in dropping him off. He would scream, cry and cling."

Though Frue, Low and Cohen all had different experiences with preschool, all three felt similar worries and uncertainties.

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