I have to preface by saying that this post is really more about my day than Avery's, since for one of the first times in her life, she and I were in different places and had separate experiences. That is such a weird concept for me. I can't tell you how her day was, because I actually wasn't there. Now there will be this huge portion of her life each day that I can only hear about second hand. Also, I left her with a woman I'd only met once before! Excluding the Ikea playroom for two separate thirty-minute intervals, I've only ever left Avery with people that I've know for months or years - people that I knew I could trust, and that I knew loved her for the special little girl that she is.
Don't get me wrong, this is a good thing. Avery is a very independent girl with her own style, her own way of doing things, and her own developing set of problem-solving skills. We will both grow enormously through this experience. Fostering independence is SO IMPORTANT.
It's just hard.
She is my life. My whole world revolves around her. So this was really difficult for me.
We seriously debated homeschooling, but came to the conclusion that I am too much of a hermit to be able to give Avery the social interaction that she needs in her stage of development, (plus the whole fostering independence train of thought I typed out earlier). So we made the decision a while ago to send her to public school, researched, and moved into the best district we could find. We have been trying our hardest to prepare her and keep her excited about school, and I really think it has paid off so far. Here are some of the things we've done to help get her ready:
We've talked with her a lot about what to expect at school, prayed with her (and ceaselessly for her) about it, read through and discussed the school and district handbooks with her, made an appointment to visit with the principal during registration, made a big deal about shopping for school clothes and supplies, and went to orientation where we visited her classroom, met with her teacher, toured the school, played on the playground, had her use the school bathrooms, etc. Erik gave her a father's blessing before bed the night before (which also turned out to be a great comfort to me). We discussed with her how she could react in different situations, how she could be a friend and an example to the people she meets, and some of the different ways she could cope if she had a hard time. On the day of we sent her with some little things that meant something special to her - I packed her a lunch with one of her favorite treats, Erik crocheted a special blanket for her to snuggle during nap time, she wore her ctr ring, and right before we left the house I drew a heart on her palm, kissed it, and told her to look at it if she missed me, and she would know that I was thinking about her and that I love her.
I had a harder time than she did. I got (almost) all my crying out the night before (ended up losing it after packing her lunch), so I was able to stay strong when we dropped her off. It was so hard to leave the classroom though! I just kept turning back around once I got to the door and waving goodbye (again), giving her teacher last-minute instructions (Erik finally said (very sweetly), "Honey, I think she's done this before ..." to which I responded a little helplessly, "I know she has, but ... but I haven't!") And the house was so quiet!! Erik took me out to lunch (which was super sweet and helped pass the time), but I still spedwalked the 4 1/2 blocks to her school when it was time to pick her up. (Seriously, I made the 15 minute walk in 7 haha).
