K's 'Special' New School

Many of you might remember my August post about K starting preschool for the first time. She had a very hard time at first and cried by the door ALL DAY for a few days. Talk about rip my heart out. It was awful, she did get through it rather quickly, but it was so hard to watch as a parent. She eventually got to where she liked school- she was never excited to go but she seemed happy when I picked her up. The daycare had a webcam and every time I looked in on her she was playing.

We were finally settled in our routine and comfortable and then---- I get an email from my district employee childcare center- there's an opening for the 2nd of January. My heart sank, I was excited because that was our plan- to eventually have her over by me. It's a great school, with actual teachers, and it follows my schedule (so no paying for 2 weeks off at Christmas etc.). If we switch her now she is guaranteed a spot until Kindergarten, but if we wait, who knows when a spot would open. I was torn, do we move her?  I CAN'T go through what we went through in August again. Finally we decided to move her. Why not, just get it over with like a band-aid since that's our end-game anyway. All Christmas break I mourned over moving her. I don't even know why, frankly I was indifferent about her old school, I mean they did love on K and they were very patient with her and I'm very thankful for them, but she had no BFF's and let's face it- at daycare the goal is so keep all the kids from killing each other. :) We visited her 'new school' and went by a couple of times over the break- it was closed but she knew it was her 'special' school. I braced myself for her first days.

It worked out perfect because Jourdan was off Monday and he could take her (passing the buck!) for her first day because Mommy can't really deal with it. I didn't bother taking pics this time around because I can't even look at those pictures from August- brings up too many emotions. Rationally, I knew that it would be better than August because now she understands the concept that "mommy and daddy come back". Jourdan said she ran around like a maniac checking everything out when they arrived.

But she did have a hard time when he tried to leave. The teacher emailed me around 10 to let me know that she only fussed for a minute and she was doing great. What a relief. No more webcam here, I miss checking in on her but I'm not worried here. When we went to pick her up, she was happily eating her snack, smiling. I was SO happy. Here is her daily sheet from her first day.

I was glad she had a great day but worried what drop off would be like the next day. Her teacher is a genius because she gave her a reason to be excited to return. Kayleigh had noticed the teacher's necklace and I guess K told her "Kay have necklace at home" so her teacher asked her to wear her necklace to school. She couldn't WAIT to show her necklace to her teacher and the kids. Here she is proud of her necklace.

Drop off went great! She just loves her new school. All week long she has wanted to walk in to her school (she always had me carry her in to her daycare). She is always smiling when I pick her up. She sometimes looked a little 'stressed' when I would pick her up from daycare - not now. She just loves her teacher too. Today when I dropped her off she looked at me and said "Okay, Mommy. You go to work now" and pointed at the door. Well, I can take a hint. I'm so thankful she loves her new school. I think it is because her teacher loves on the kids much like K's first caregiver Miss Jeanette, who we miss dearly. :( Anyway, I'm so proud of my big girl!