Supporting Children and Yourself Through March Transitions

As the season shifts, so does the emotional climate in your centre.

Longer daylight. Boots lined up by the door. Jackets half-zipped because someone is too excited to wait.

March is rarely just “another month”.

It’s a regulatory, emotional, and operational pivot point reflecting the change of seasons – and you feel that before anyone else does.

Spring Behaviour Is Regulation, Not Misbehaviour

When children appear more impulsive, louder, or clingier, it is often nervous system adjustment, not defiance.

Seasonal change brings:

• Increased sensory input
• Disrupted sleep patterns
• Increased physical energy
• Shifts in routine

What helps most?

Predictable adult responses.

Children stabilize through co-regulation, which starts with the adults in the room.

What the Research Says: Research in early childhood neuroscience reminds us that regulation develops externally before it develops internally. Children borrow calm from the adults around them. During seasonal transitions, cortisol levels can rise slightly due to environmental change, even when the change is embraced as positive. You see it in the child who melts down faster than usual. You also see it in the educator who feels just a little more stretched.

Effective Practice:

Instead of tightening structure when energy rises, some centres gently expand opportunities for movement:

• Adding 15–20 minutes of gross motor time
• Building in small movement breaks between transitions

Energy doesn’t always need containment; sometimes it needs safe release.

March Break Is a Systems Stress Test

Multi-day absences reveal how resilient a centre’s structure really is.

What often surfaces:

• Stress to maintain ratios across consecutive days of absence
• Leadership pulled into program
• Administrative tasks quietly backing up
• Educator fatigue increasing

If this feels familiar, you are not alone.

Ontario continues to navigate educator shortages projected to last through 2026. This means even well-run centres feel the squeeze during disruptive periods.

Best Practice Shift:
High-functioning centres often move differently during March. Not louder. Not faster. Just more intentionally.

• Identifying one “stability anchor” educator per room
• Adjusting programming expectations for the week
• Communicating calmly with families before concerns arise

It’s not about doing more, but it is about prioritizing and protecting what matters most.

Coverage Is Developmental Protection

When rooms close or educators rotate rapidly, children experience instability.

Even small staffing changes can lead to:

• Increased dysregulation
• Peer conflict
• Bigger emotions in children causing increased demand on staff

Keeping environments steady isn’t just operational efficiency.

It protects:

• Emotional safety
• Learning continuity
• Staff morale

Stable rooms create calmer centres.

Why This Matters Long-Term: Attachment research consistently shows that predictability in caregiver presence strengthens a child’s confidence to explore. When children feel secure, they take more healthy risks. They engage more deeply. They collaborate more freely.

Staff stability supports learning outcomes.

A Subtle but Powerful Strategy:
Some centres intentionally:

• Assign supply educators to the same rooms when possible
• Keep a consistent float presence
• Provide a simple “room snapshot” for any covering educator

Small signals of continuity reduce behavioural spikes.

It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it needs to feel steady and predictable.

Protecting Your Own Capacity

Directors stepping into program repeatedly is common. However, it’s not sustainable.

Leadership requires time to reflect:

• To anticipate
• To coach
• To ensure compliance
• To make confident decisions

When you are constantly reacting, strategic thinking disappears.

Burnout research shows that role overload, not workload alone, drives exhaustion. Switching constantly between director and educator roles taxes your nervous system in ways that aren’t always visible.

Some directors quietly protect themselves by:

• Blocking one administrative half-day during high-disruption weeks
• Delegating small leadership moments to senior educators
• Building in even 15 minutes of daily quiet reset time

You cannot stabilize a centre if you are chronically depleted, and you deserve steadiness, too!

A Grounded Reminder

You are navigating:

• CWELCC complexities
• Staffing shortages
• Rising expectations
• Emotional labour

Spring brings growth, but growth requires stability.

You are doing meaningful work in a system that is still learning how to support you properly.

You deserve steadiness.

Warm regards,

Gregory Dixon
Director of Business Development
Sentient HR Services Inc.