Preschool

My “little” middle girl is a “big” girl today as she headed off to her first day of preschool. As I get ready to return to work, I have been looking into options for her care and sure enough a space was available at the preschool so I grabbed it! I felt guilty; she had all of one day to prepare herself. It turns out that one day was too long.

She cried and wailed, “I want to go NOW!”

“Hold on”, I said. “We’ll go tomorrow.”

“Can I have a backpack and bring lunch?”

“Yes sweetie and your blanket to have at nap time”

She sniffled a while longer and then seemed satisfied that I was telling the truth.

When we woke up this morning, she was all smiles telling her sister proudly that she was off to school. She loaded up an impossibly large backpack. I couldn’t convince her to take the smaller one. And she was out the door! It went amazingly well. She waited patiently at the front desk for me to finish her paperwork. As she watched the fish in the fish tank, she kept asking when she could go see her friends. Once she got in the classroom, she was a little hesitant. You can see in the picture she’s looking at the door. But soon she was posing with her “buddy” and asking the teacher when she could paint. I gave her a “thumbs up” and left.

Sending her to preschool was so much easier than I had expected. She’s a little more “sensitive” than her siblings but it helps that we’ve both seen her sister do well. I expect there will be some tweaking and growing pains. Hopefully she’ll be able to take a nap there. I cannot have two sleep deprived girls! I’m off soon to go pick her up. I hope it went well!

Scholastic.com has some great tips on how to ease separation anxiety.

Sheila Cason, MD