Everyday Goodbyes

Separation often evokes feelings of fear and anxiety in all of us—children, parents, and teachers alike. Because the success or failure of early separation experiences can affect a child’s movement toward independence, teachers and parents must know how to help young children cope with the unpleasant feelings sometimes associated with separation.

In Everyday Goodbyes (her follow-up to Starting School: From Separation to Independence), Nancy Balaban once again addresses this critical aspect of child development. Emphasizing the need for parents and teachers to work together in phasing children into a child-care, preschool, or kindergarten program, she offers many sensitive, practical suggestions to ease the separation process for all involved.

Positioning separation as the underlying curriculum for all early childhood programs, this wonderful book:

• Helps teachers and parents to understand why children take time to adjust.
• Uses photographs and real-life anecdotes of children, teachers, and parents to illustrate all aspects of the adjustment process.
• Includes activities for the classroom that support children’s movement toward independence and self-confidence.
• Includes children with special needs, those who come from special circumstances, as well as the range of cultural differences.
• Provides sample “phase-in” schedules for planning the first days of a program, a sample letter of introduction that can be sent to parents, and a list of books for children, adults, and professionals.

Nancy Balaban, Ed.D., is on the faculty of Bank Street College Graduate School, involved in educating graduate students to work both in Early Childhood Education and Infant and Parent Development and Early Intervention. She is a coauthor of the popular textbook, Observing and Recording the Behavior of Young Children, Fourth Edition.

"The author provides specific suggestions for increasing awareness of a wide variety of child responses to early separation, and how to ease this transition for young children."
Alice Sterling Honig, Professor Emerita of Child Development, Syracuse University

“Every teacher should read this book to learn how to make separation a source of positive growth for everyone involved.”
Janet Gonzalez-Mena, Professor Emerita, Napa Valley College