Please come join a playgroup I have been involved in since my son was 18 months old.  It is called Infancy to Independence.  It is a co-op playgroup run by the moms of the attending children.  Each mom/dad attends with their child from 9:00 a.m. until 11:30 am. one morning a week for 16 weeks.  There are two semesters each yea the first September through January and the second February through June.  The day consists of one on one time with your child playing with a variety of toys and doing a craft project, followed by circle time and snack time.  Then four of the moms stay with the kids while they play with another set of toys and the remaining moms get to go into the discussion room to discuss whatever the topic of the day is.  I highly recommend this program as a stepping stone to pre-school and separation.  The 40 minutes of discussion time really was the beginning of teaching my son about separation.  Up until that time, no one other than a family member had been watching him.  He is thriving in preschool.