Hi,
Neither my husband or I are very social people and are not very outgoing, not that we are mean or grumpy, we are just private people.
But we have notice that our 2 year old is afraid of grown ups and would hide or even cry if any would get close, even our family (which we don't see often). We think it would be a good idea to bring her to a daycare to socialize. She does not have a problem with kids, in fact she loves to play with kids at the parks I take her.
However we would like advice in where to take her, I thought places like Little Gym or Gymboree, but also I found a Montessori day care I thought was a good idea or a language school for toddlers (I would love if she can learn Chinese).
Please any advice on what you think would be good for her to socialize with a grown up (teacher).
Thanks, I am going to check Little Gym I hope she likes it.
Like you, my 2 year-old son had little interaction outside of my home. I enrolled him at the My Gym in West Orange for a class on Saturdays and HE LOVED IT! I would highly recommend it. Gina, the owner, and her team are very good with the kids. It was a great introduction for my son.
I did that for six months before I started him in daycare. I believed it helped in that transition, as he loves daycare now.
Good luck.
My son was similarly shy around grown ups. I am a stay at home mom and also very private. He just finished a program at Kidville in Hoboken, called Kidville camp. It was a twice a week two hour program with art, science, gym, and music. He learned to interact with the teachers as well as socialize with other children, which was great. The facility is brand new and therefore very clean. The program was also separation optional, which was also a plus because he was also very attached to me. After 8 weeks, he would say goodbye to me and I would leave him and he had a great time! There is also a chinese language school Be Lingual that you may want to look into. I believe it has toddler language classes.
I can't recommend something specifically in NJ, but wanted you to know that my daughter has been going to daycare since she was 10 weeks old and STILL goes through occasional bursts of shyness/separation anxiety at three years old. I also find that she "acts" much more shy when I am around versus just leaving her at a friend's house for a little while.
Putting her in a daycare program a couple of times a week...or every day for a few hours will help her learn routines and rules for when preshool starts. It is by no means mandatory, but it couldn't hurt.
If you are taking her out to parks and she is socializing with the kids, I say you're doing all right.
