I barely made it out of a meeting and over to Anna’s class on time to meet Paul for drop off at her first day in her new classroom. Paul stalled so I could get there. The place was JAMMED PACKED with kids, parents, and cars, all for the first day of school, 9am.
She swore all weekend she was so excited to get to her new big kid classroom and said she wouldn’t even CRY in the new classroom when we dropped her off.
As we walked down the halls, I could feel her hesitation set in. She turned to ask if we were going to meet her for lunch today (we did that last week because it coincided with meeting her new teacher). I told her no, not today, maybe later in the week. But I saw what she really meant was “when are you coming back???”
At the new classroom, some old friends were already in there playing while waiting for class to officially start (pre-school is 9am-noon and then nap and free play till pick-ups). She gave me hugs and then I followed her into her room, out of curiosity. Paul told me not to linger, as he watched from the hallway.
She turned for more hugs and I could see her trying not to get all worked up. She wouldn’t exactly let me go. I reminded her that she said she wasn’t going to cry in this big kid classroom. She nodded. Mrs. IA started to show Anna the different stations: The gerbil, the rice table, the crayons, the glue and scissors. I got a few more hugs and backed away while she got into the rice table with Mrs. IA.
I was surprised at how nurturing and accommodating Mrs. IA seemed to be in getting Anna comfortable. That made me feel good about the whole thing, given I wasn’t too excited about her in the first place. I am resisting the urge to peek my head into the window of her classroom today to see how it’s going. Mostly it’s because I’ve already run 3 miles, a boot camp class, climbed 6 flights of stairs to a meeting, and already sprinted once over to her classroom this morning, and frankly, I just want to sit. J But later this week I will join her for lunch and maybe tomorrow I’ll poke my head in.
But she was still on the verge of tears when we left her. This could go either way from now on. We can have crying/leg-prying child or happy to be there child. It doesn’t matter because I’m over the tears at this point. Plenty of summer practice.
At Soccer Tots, she wouldn’t go onto the little field alone. Daddy had to be by her side the entire time. As the hour progressed, she got more comfortable and did a great job, but still wouldn’t let Paul go. Last night she asked if she could go back and I told her we’ll see how the week goes because Daddy can’t stay on the field like that all the time. (Incidentally there were some AWFUL kids in that class, who totally misbehaved while parents looked on. WTF, people? Get in there and do your JOB so the coach can do HIS. We’ll give it one more week but if some kid were to go after Anna like I saw this weekend, I’d first fly off on the kid and then on the parent. In a very professional way, of course. Full of BIG words!!!).
Paul and I have accepted that she doesn’t stand a chance socially since both he and I have always been shy/reserved. We may have good skills otherwise, but we remember the same feelings at her age. The bottom line is we need to pick something that plays to her best skills and gives her confidence, whatever the hobby. It’s good to expose her to different atmospheres (we weren’t exactly) so she can get more familiar with different situations, but ultimately she may just be better at writing, music, debate or individual sports like martial arts or horseback riding. Who knows? We know it’s good to push a little, it’s good to be uncomfortable, it’s good to fail, but it’s also good to recognize her strengths and set her up for success too, as much as we can, and let life take over.
In the meantime I ran over to the little teacher supply store and bought her a bunch of activity books. She LOVES to trace pictures and letters and stuff, and also likes to cut along the lines, then glue the cut-outs to the paper to make a little picture. The intensity on her face while she’s tracing carefully is AWESOME. I know that intensity from band, and Paul felt it from sports. And so when we see that look on whatever activity she’s interested in pursuing, we’ll stick with it. For now, we know that one of her strengths is she LOVES to learn. Whew. She’s ingesting her letters and numbers and pointing them out everywhere we go. It’s a game. She doesn’t know them all yet, but it seems every day she gets a new one. THIS is wayyyy more fun to me than playing dress up (and she does that too, plus “washes” our hair, “cooks” our food, takes us to her friends’ “parties” and stuff. It’s fun to hear her tell stories to her stuffed animals too.
Still paci-free!
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