“I can never recommend enough talking with the teachers during your tour,” former daycare assistant director and mother of four Whitney Cornelison told Mom.com. “Ask to see the specific curriculum and look around the classroom to see evidence of the implementation.” She added, “It should go beyond a lesson plan stapled to a wall.”

For starters, family and travel blogger Whitney Cornelison said she had her toddlers pack their own little backpack. “Inside was their blanket, favorite stuffed animal, two or three books, a couple of toys, and a few snacks,” the mom of four told Mom.com. “They felt involved by packing their own bag and having their favorite things with them helped take the anxiety of the unknown away.”

For Whitney Cornelison, another mom with four kids, doctors blamed her son’s speech delays on his talkative older sister and him being a boy. “When my oldest son was 18 months old, I knew in my gut that it was more than birth order. My pediatrician wouldn't recommend a speech pathologist, so I took matters into my own hands and found one,” she told Mom.com. “Even though I knew something was wrong, I sobbed when she gave me a diagnosis.”

Cornelison echoes the need for persistence. “It felt so final but it wasn't,” she said about her son’s diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech. “Now he's thriving and I know it's because I was proactive in getting help early.”

Changing our perspective can also help. For mother of four Whitney Cornelison of Simplifying Family, it helped to remember her kids were having a hard time — not that they were giving her a hard time. “That mind shift ... allowed me to figure out how to help my toddler work through their emotions instead of it being a me-versus-them battle,” she told Mom.com.

“Listening to music opened up a whole new world to my mostly nonverbal toddler,” a mom of four, Whitney Cornelison, told Mom.com. “While he would only say maybe five words, he sang and danced to the theme songs of his favorite shows and movies.”

“With four kids, they frequently try to express their creative side all over my furniture,” Whitney Cornelison of the lifestyle blog Simplifying Family told Mom.com. Her secret? “My cleaning arsenal includes Magic Erasers and my secret weapon — a spray bottle filled with one part white vinegar, one part Dawn dishwashing detergent, and hot water.”