Rowan started attending Kindergarten full time on January 3rd, and at the time I thought we had made a great decision having her switch to full days. She was really excited about being with her friends who had stayed all day since the start of school, and very much looking forward to packing her lunch and having recess. Until, that is, she actually started full days.
The first day the teacher pulled me aside and said that at the start of the second half of school, Rowan had come up to her and said that she wanted to go home because she missed her mommy so much. When the teacher gently said she couldn't do that, little Rowan burst into tears. And so it went. Every school morning because a struggle as my normally happy to skip into class kindergartner became a mess of tears and full of pleas to stay home with me. She said she couldn't stand being away from me for so long, and it broke my heart to see her having such a hard time. I talked with her teachers, who assured me that this was totally normal, especially for a child who had never been in pre-school/dealt with any sort of separation from home before. It was so hard seeing her suddenly hating school so much. Matthew and I agreed that we would give it one month, and if she was still unhappy then we would switch back to half days. I felt better knowing that there was an end in sight, and that we would be giving it an honest try (though I was pretty sure it wasn't going to work out).
The first week was rough. The second week was horrible (lots of visits to the nurses office because of an upset tummy due to being so sad). The third week I almost pulled the plug on the whole thing, because of the frequent reports of Rowan crying in class. And then? The fourth week? A happy, bouncing Kindergartner, eager to get to class and dry eyed upon pickup at the end of the day. A miracle!! The shift finally happened, just like her teachers had said it would. I was amazed, delighted and so relieved.
She is making a lot of new friends in the afternoon classes (kiddos who are in different morning classes than her), loving recess and lunch with her pals, and best of all, absolutely thriving in Spanish! Just in the past few weeks, despite everything that has been going on emotionally for her, she has made huge leaps and bounds in her Spanish vocabulary and understanding. Its been really exciting to see. Even more exciting is seeing her actively pursue learning again! Just today she got out one of her beginning reader Biscuit the Dog books, and decided to hop on Google translate and translate the entire book into Spanish. All by herself!
She stapled some white printer paper together, and word for word, sentence after sentence she went through and copied the whole book onto her white papers. She even did the illustrations just the same as the book! I was so impressed, and it was awesome seeing how much fun she had with her project. Seeing this I know that even though the going was rough there for a little while, that we made the right decision and that Rowan is going to benefit greatly from being in full days. I am so happy that she loves school again!
The first day the teacher pulled me aside and said that at the start of the second half of school, Rowan had come up to her and said that she wanted to go home because she missed her mommy so much. When the teacher gently said she couldn't do that, little Rowan burst into tears. And so it went. Every school morning because a struggle as my normally happy to skip into class kindergartner became a mess of tears and full of pleas to stay home with me. She said she couldn't stand being away from me for so long, and it broke my heart to see her having such a hard time. I talked with her teachers, who assured me that this was totally normal, especially for a child who had never been in pre-school/dealt with any sort of separation from home before. It was so hard seeing her suddenly hating school so much. Matthew and I agreed that we would give it one month, and if she was still unhappy then we would switch back to half days. I felt better knowing that there was an end in sight, and that we would be giving it an honest try (though I was pretty sure it wasn't going to work out).
The first week was rough. The second week was horrible (lots of visits to the nurses office because of an upset tummy due to being so sad). The third week I almost pulled the plug on the whole thing, because of the frequent reports of Rowan crying in class. And then? The fourth week? A happy, bouncing Kindergartner, eager to get to class and dry eyed upon pickup at the end of the day. A miracle!! The shift finally happened, just like her teachers had said it would. I was amazed, delighted and so relieved.
She is making a lot of new friends in the afternoon classes (kiddos who are in different morning classes than her), loving recess and lunch with her pals, and best of all, absolutely thriving in Spanish! Just in the past few weeks, despite everything that has been going on emotionally for her, she has made huge leaps and bounds in her Spanish vocabulary and understanding. Its been really exciting to see. Even more exciting is seeing her actively pursue learning again! Just today she got out one of her beginning reader Biscuit the Dog books, and decided to hop on Google translate and translate the entire book into Spanish. All by herself!
She stapled some white printer paper together, and word for word, sentence after sentence she went through and copied the whole book onto her white papers. She even did the illustrations just the same as the book! I was so impressed, and it was awesome seeing how much fun she had with her project. Seeing this I know that even though the going was rough there for a little while, that we made the right decision and that Rowan is going to benefit greatly from being in full days. I am so happy that she loves school again!