How to Prepare Your Toddler for Preschool - Expert Tips
Starting preschool is a huge milestone for both toddlers and parents. It’s exciting, a bit nerve wracking, and totally normal to wonder: Is my child really ready?
The good news? You don't have to wait until the first day to start preparing.
With a mix of fun activities, consistent routines, and gentle conversations, you can build emotional preschool readiness, establish practical home routines, and help your toddler feel confident and excited.
With these tips, you can ease the transition and set your little one up for preschool success.
What You’ll Learn:
How to ease separation anxiety with emotional preschool prep.
Simple routine and pretend-play ideas to simulate preschool life.
Some of my top pre-school books to help this transition.
How to Emotionally and Practically Prepare Your Toddler for Preschool
Talk About Preschool Early
Start bringing up preschool casually in conversation a few weeks or even months ahead of time to ensure a smooth transition. Tell your toddler about the things they can expect: story time, snack time, toys, and new friends. The goal isn't to make it a big deal, but to normalize it so it doesn't feel like a surprise when the time comes.
After giving your toddler emotional support, it’s time to turn feelings into action. Now you can move on to practicing preschool routines.
2. Let Them Practice Being in Group Settings
Preschool is a new experience for kids who haven't been in a group setting before. If your toddler hasn't been around other kids often, try to schedule some group activities like playdates, "Mommy and Me" classes, your local library storytimes, or toddler sports. These low-pressure environments give your child a chance to get used to sharing with new people, waiting their turn, and being around other young children in a more structured setting.
3. You Can Build Preschool Readiness: Practice First-Day Routines
Preschool mornings can be a whirlwind. Now is a great time to start practicing a routine: wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, and head out the door. A visual morning schedule with pictures can be the best way to help your toddler understand what comes next and make the whole process feel more predictable and less rushed.
4. Reinforce Preschool Transition Readiness via Pretend Circle Time
Some basic classroom rules, like sitting in a circle, raising your hand, or listening to a teacher, might feel totally foreign to your toddler. Practice these at home through pretend play. Set up a mini circle time with stuffed animals and take turns being the "teacher." It's a silly and low-stress way to introduce expectations.
5. Read Preschool-Themed Books
You can read preschool-themed picture books with your toddler to help calm any transition jitters. You’ll reinforce toddler preschool readiness in a fun way, and at the same time, your toddler will learn a little more about what preschool is like.
Try reading books like:
Talk about what's happening in the story and how your child might feel during their first day.
6. Visit the Preschool Together
If possible, tour the preschool with your toddler before their first day of school.
Take your toddler to visit the preschool ahead of time so that they feel more confident and familiar with the classroom. This simple step enhances preschool transition readiness.
Show them where they'll put their backpack, where the bathroom is, and what the classroom looks like. Familiarity makes everything less intimidating.
Next, once your child feels familiar and comfortable with the preschool, they know where their belongings go and where they’ll line up, and you can gently shift into emotional prep. That’s where you can uncover and address any preschool worries together.
7. Listen to Their Worries
Going to preschool is a big change, and it can feel emotional for your toddler. They might not be able to explain how they're feeling, so be sure to give them space to ask questions or express concerns.
If they say something like “I don't want to go,” validate their feelings instead of brushing them off. You could say, “It’s okay to feel a little nervous. I’ll help you get ready, and you’ll meet some wonderful new friends.”
Even nonverbal cues, such as extra tantrums or big feelings in week one, are signs of adjustment. By listening with empathy, you’re supporting their emotional preschool readiness and building confidence.
8. Create a Goodbye Ritual
A consistent, short goodbye can help make morning drop-offs smoother. Maybe it's a big hug, high-five, and a "see you later, alligator." Stick with it daily to give your toddler a sense of comfort and predictability.
9. Label Everything
Preschools are full of tiny socks, snack containers, and jackets that all look identical. Labelling your child's things ensures they come home with what they brought and helps teachers return any lost items. You can start to help your child learn how to spell and recognize their name by labeling at home before school starts.
Skills to Develop Before Preschool
Preschool isn't about knowing all your ABCs or writing your name perfectly. It's about being socially, emotionally, and physically ready to learn and play with others. If you're looking for some skills to develop with your toddler before the start of preschool, these are some great ones to start with.
Preliteracy Skills
You don't need to teach your toddler their ABCs or how to read, but early literacy matters. Read together every day, and ask open-ended questions like these while you do: "What do you think will happen next?" or "What's that character feeling?" This helps your toddler build their reading comprehension and language skills.
2. Numeracy Skills
Start casually pointing out numbers in your environment; you'll find them on signs, clocks, pages, or toys. Practice counting snacks or blocks, and sing number songs like "Five Little Ducks." These little moments build number recognition and one-to-one correspondence skills.
3. Gross Motor Skills
Big body movements are essential for small children to help them develop coordination, balance, and strength. Make a DIY obstacle course with couch pillows to climb over, tunnels to crawl through, or spots to jump on. Dance, play tag, or kick a ball outside. These different activities build strength, balance, and body awareness.
4. Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills are important for writing, cutting, and self-care tasks like zipping or buttoning. Offer plenty of chances to draw with crayons, use toddler scissors with supervision, or peel stickers to help build these new skills. Activities like threading beads or building with small blocks also work wonders.
5. Practice Eating from a Lunchbox
If your preschool requires a packed lunch or snack, give your child a chance to practice eating out of a lunchbox beforehand. Let them try opening containers, unwrapping food, and packing it back up. It builds independence and helps avoid frustration at school. This practice will also show you, as a parent, which snack bags and boxes are appropriate to send with your child to school, so you're setting them up for success.
6. Self-Help Skills
Work on skills like using the bathroom independently (or working on potty training if your preschool has a policy), washing hands, and dressing themselves. Encourage your toddler to put on their shoes, zip their jacket, and pull up their pants, even if it takes a little longer at first. You can even try new activities like busy boards or puzzles that use buckles, buttons, and zippers for practice.
7. Encourage Independence
Yes, it's faster if you do things for your toddler, but giving them opportunities to try things for themselves builds their confidence. Let them pick between two weather-appropriate outfits. Give them time to try zipping up their coat or washing their hands on their own. Allowing young children to practice doing things for themselves, even when it's messy or slow, builds self-confidence and readiness.
And don't forget about wearing a backpack; they can practice wearing one around the house or on errands to get used to the feeling.
8. Understanding Boundaries
Preschool introduces a whole new world of social interactions. Help your child practice kind behavior at home. Things like not grabbing toys from others, and using gentle hands are skills and boundaries you can practice with them before they start school. You can help your child prepare by practicing social skills like turn-taking, waiting, and saying "please" or "thank you." Talk about emotions and how to handle them ("It's okay to be mad, but it's not okay to hit").
9. Learning to Calm Down
Tantrums are normal, but giving your toddler tools for managing big emotions is helpful. Practice calming strategies like taking deep breaths, hugging a favorite stuffed animal, or finding a quiet space. Use the same strategies consistently so they become familiar.
10. Verbalizing Needs
Practice simple phrases with your toddler so they can tell an adult what they need. Phrases like "I'm thirsty," "I need to go potty," or "Can you help me?" empower your child to speak up when something doesn't feel right or when they need support.
When your toddler whines for something, practice getting them to use their words. You can say something like: "I don't understand whining, do you want to try asking me for something?"
If your child has siblings or attends playdates, you can also help them learn to express themselves by saying words like "stop, I don't like that" instead of relying on you as the adult to correct their behavior.
You Got This, Momma!
Preparing your toddler for preschool doesn't happen overnight, and that's totally okay. The goal isn't perfection, but progress. With a little patience and a lot of encouragement, your child will develop the important skills and confidence they need to thrive in their new environment.
Preschool is a big transition, but it can also be a wonderful adventure filled with new friends, songs, stories, and discoveries. With your love and support, your little one will be ready to take those first steps into the classroom with a smile on their face, and maybe even a tiny backpack on their shoulders.
