Moving to next age group at daycare

Barefoot84

At Tumaini's daycare, the groups are divided by age (0-18 months, 18 months-3, and then 3 to kindergarten). Today, the director approached me to know if I'd be okay with her moving up to the 18 months group, even if it's a few months early. Her instructor noticed she has more fun when they do activities with the older kids, especially when they're doing "physical activity". Are there any disadvantages I'm not seeing to her moving up now?

StokedWifey

SweetLittleThing said:

Ours has way more classrooms than that with a much narrower age range.  

While I would have no problem with them moving her into the next room where I am, I wouldn't want my 14 month old in the same class with 2 and 3 year olds.  

Their behaviours are just too different, plus the difference of diapers/potty trained and I would want a really high teacher ratio.  

Ditto this.  There's a big difference between 18 months and 3 years, and an even bigger one between 14/15 months and 3 years.  

Barefoot84

hijoi said:

Other than there's a huge difference between a 15 month old and a 3 year old? I'd be really wary of having bigger kids running over my child. What's the ratio of teachers to children?

She'd be moving up to the group 18 months to 3 years old. So there would only by a four month difference between her and the youngest kid in the next group. She's very tall and solid for her age (95 percentile for her height). The ratio is 6 kids to one teacher.

aylafsu88

At our DC they move up to the next room at 12 months.  This room has roughly 12-18 month olds.  LO loves her new room because they do a lot of activities.  They go outside to the baby playground, they do circle time where they read books and sing songs, they eat meals/snacks at a kid table etc. For us the advantage is that she is usually worn out by the end of the day so she goes to sleep easily.  The bad thing is that the kids in her room are all active and physical.  My LO gets a lot of bumps, bruises, and bites. I know it happens but I do get upset about some of the incidents. 

ETA: I just saw that the room is 18m to 3 years.  I would not move her up early.  There is a huge difference between a 14 month old and a 3 years old.  When LO moved up there were a couple of kids that were 18-20 months in her class.   The older kids were pretty physical and would knock the littler ones over. The bigger kids moved up in Aug so that situation resolved itself. 

Barefoot84

amilyn9785 said:

Maybe I'm just very jaded but I'd be suspicious that they're wanting to move her up for their benefit and not hers, like they need a space open in the baby room. Have you asked them why they think she should move up?

They still have some room in the baby room. They just feel as though she's more independent than the other kids in her group (i.e. she insists on feeding herself and eats very well with a spoon, she'll go sit at the little table when it's time for her meal instead of the high chairs) and she loves the "big kids toys" in the little daycare gym, but the nursery group rarely goes, while the older group goes almost every day. 

However, she's like all our kids, more advanced in certain areas, and less in others. She doesn't talk except for Mama and Papa, and there are a lot of things some LO on here are doing that she's not even close to doing.

Barefoot84

I hadn't really thought about the older kids knocking her down or being a bit rough with her. The director had suggested that if I didn't feel comfortable having her move up early, the instructor of the older group could go get her for the gym activities, but she could stay in the nursery the rest of the time. I might try that, and see how it goes. If she seems happy in the older group, I'll let them move her up, and if not, I'll simply tell them I'd rather she stay with her current group for a while longer.

Thanks for making me think of the older kids. I was thinking she'd only be a few months younger than the youngest one, but I didn't really think about the age difference between her and the older kids of the group.

SallySunrise

summergirl1211 said:

Barefoot84 said:

I hadn't really thought about the older kids knocking her down or being a bit rough with her. The director had suggested that if I didn't feel comfortable having her move up early, the instructor of the older group could go get her for the gym activities, but she could stay in the nursery the rest of the time. I might try that, and see how it goes. If she seems happy in the older group, I'll let them move her up, and if not, I'll simply tell them I'd rather she stay with her current group for a while longer.

Thanks for making me think of the older kids. I was thinking she'd only be a few months younger than the youngest one, but I didn't really think about the age difference between her and the older kids of the group.

I think the bolded is a great idea. GL!


I agree, that's a great idea.