Anaiya's 1st Day of Preschool

Anaiya started preschool at the end of June (she's going 5 days a week for 4 hours in the mornings).  We've been talking about going to school since January with the hope of getting her as comfortable as we could with the concept of doing an activity that wouldn't involve mom and dad being in the same room with her.  I even did an 8 week Parent and Me session (once a week for a couple of hours) at the school to get her familiar with her surrounding.

On Anaiya's first day of school, Amit and I both took her (we had a babysitter for Maliya).  We were both fully prepared for her to cry when we dropped off.  Since it was the summer session, all of the kids spend a lot more time playing outside than during the regular school year.  We were hoping to drop her off at the playground because she loved playing on it during our Parent and Me sessions; however, the rain from the night before kept that from happening because the ground was too wet.  So instead we took her to the classroom.  We said goodbye and then watched through the two way window as she cried her poor heart out.  Her teacher, Mrs. Magistrodo was great with her by giving her lots of hugs and reassurance, but it was still hard to watch.  We stuck around for about an hour to see if it got any better which it didn't.  When I went back to pick up her at noon, she was still crying.  She literally cried the entire 4 hours according to the teacher. 

Things got a litter easier each day.  She didn't cry in the mornings when she got dropped off, but she cried every time I picked her up.  Although we were fully prepared for the crying, what I was not prepared for was to see the level of sadness on Anaiya's face every day.  Amit and I were both stressed out and losing sleep over it.  We both knew that she would eventually adjust, but it was just a painful process to go through.  All Amit and I wanted to do was make it better for her, but we knew this was kind of the like a rite of passage that each child had to go through and figure it out on their own.  So the 1st two weeks of school were absolutely unbearable for all of us.  But then on Monday of the 3rd week, something just clicked with her.  I went to pick her up from school and she wasn't crying and actually looked happy.  First thing she says when she sees me is "Look Mommy, I'm not crying!".

Now she absolutely loves school.  I swear she must learn a new school every couple days because she's constantly singing a new song at home.  She is slowly interacting with the other kids.  A lot of the kids in her class have been great pulling her into the activities they are doing or when they see her getting dropped off in the morning, they come and get her and hold her hand on the playground.

Here is picture of her before we left for school on her 1st day: