So Ava started full day kindergarten. As we expected, things didn’t go as well as planned. She has a very strong personality which we don’t want to break, but she can be, to say the least, very trying.l On the counter point, she can be very loving, compassionate and empathetic way beyond her years.
The first two days which were a Wednesday and Thursday were peel off days. The teacher and aide had to literally remove her from her mother’s leg wailing and a’ flailing. She is strong!
During the first day she repeated and repeated “I miss my mommy”. I’m sure she broke the reserve of her teacher. Day two was a repeat of day one minus the “i miss mommy”. Progressing nicely. Friday was stellar. She was being picked up early for a planned long weekend. No problems.
After the long weekend, we expected more of the same. Well, surprisingly, entry into school was relatively easy. Staying in the classroom was not. The class was assigned a task and when completed could go to circle time for a game. Ava, being a perfectionist with no inner time constraints, took a little too long and missed the game. Well, she was not having any of this. She packed her desk, went for her backpack told her teacher this was too hard and too long and headed to the door. Luckily, she was sidetracked by her teacher, but I’m sure in back of the teacher’s mind she was thinking just let her go.
That night while I was visiting Ava and the family for dinner, I heard the story. i explained the dangers of leaving her classroom as her mother and then her father had told her previously. Again, my daughter was reminding her of the dangers and asked how she would get home. She looked at her mom and said “well, you can draw me a map to our house and put it in my backpack”. Can’t wait for the teenage years.
It’s getting easier every day to drop her off except now LIvie, her sister, cries when Ava heads to school. I pray for my daughter daily.