Quickly, before the day gets away -

[kyburg]

Today is Xander's last day with his preschool. Yes, he'll be back one more day for graduation - but this? This is the last routine, pack your lunch, take your blanket, have a nice day - day.

After this, he's a grade-schooler, starting with kindergarten. No turning back.

He's a wreck, to be blunt. All of a sudden, there are new people with more demands - and they want results, guys - and all of it with strange people in a strange place and the only consistency is us...making him do it.

Courage, Emily.

Insist he try to work it out himself. Insist he do it alone, unaided. Be there to support, but don't do it for him.

It's tough being a little kid sometimes. And I'm seeing all of the stuff one could expect - but thankfully, no more than what is dead in the center for it. He's eating. He's sleeping. He's not enjoying it, but he's slogging through it.

I'd congratulate him, except he's just manage to survive the process - this was never his idea. That's for when he gets through kindergarten, I think. Right now, get through today. Get through the week.

He's going to miss his friends.

I'm going to miss one of my most reliable, tried and true resources for caring for him.

He's telling me he doesn't want to go. I'm telling him it gets better.

God, don't make me a liar.

Comments

[drlaurac.livejournal.com]

When we moved Alex this Spring to Montessori, I was sweating it big time. He'd been at his preschool from age 2 through his 5th birthday. I didn't know how he was going to deal or if he even could. It went wonderfully, and I hope the same for y'all. He's a totally different kid, much more into learning.

[murphymom.livejournal.com]

It *will* get better. When the EmbryoLawyer started kindergarten, she started in a new school AND a new language (Spanish immersion). After the first day, I made her father take her to school because I couldn't cope. By the end of the first week (once she had worked out that she would be understood and her needs would be met), she was fine. But my guts still clench when I think of that first day. (When her brother started there four years later, easy-peasy - because the territory was already familiar to him, plus two of his preschool buddies had selected the same school.)