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Home › Articles › Fiction/Opinion/Essays › Toddler Transitions

Toddler Transitions

By Jenny Rackley

Pages:  1  2  

Toilet

Emotional Readiness
My daughter, Julianna, became a toddler in a single day. At least, that's how it seemed to me after I visited a preschool class for one-year-olds. Julianna, at 14 months, had never participated in group activities before, unless you count sitting on my lap while her big brother, Jordan attended library story times.

"Preschool!" my husband, John, said, surprised. "At her age, that isn't school, it's daycare."

"They told me on the phone it's a parent-child class," I explained, "Parents stay with the kids and each parent is at a different station. Children can go from station to station and play with different toys or do different activities."

Nonetheless, I wasn't sure Julianna could benefit from it. Practically every activity I attended was for Jordan. Julianna usually waited patiently, sitting in my baby sling, nursing, sleeping or crawling around in the back of the room. She was still my baby, even when she took those first few tentative steps. And, when she tottered down the hallway, swaying from side to side, she was still my baby.

The day I visited the preschool I lifted Julianna out of her carseat, put her in my baby sling, and carried her inside. The preschool was filled with noises of happy children. Some were playing with blocks or on an indoor slide, some were painting, some were dressing up in different hats, scarves and boots.

I put Julianna down to let her choose an activity. Her eyes lit up as she toddled over to the sandbox table. Perhaps remembering summer beaches, she began to run the sand through her fingers. The parent at the sandbox station gave her a cup and Julianna was delighted to learn how to fill it up and dump it. She grabbed handful after handful of sand, molding it into clumps in her fists. I had to drag her away when free-play time was over.

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