So it's Week Four of preschool, and DD keeps telling us she doesn't want to go. I have every reason to think the school itself is wonderful, but she cries at drop-off, isn't sleeping well, and has had a huge upsurge in separation anxiety. Preschool is 2 1/2 hours, two mornings a week.
She doesn't HAVE to go -- she could go back to spending those mornings one-on-one with the babysitter who used to take care of her (and still does at least one additional morning each week). But she's nearly 3 (the cutoff in our state is that you have to turn 3 by Dec. 1st to be in a 3-year-old preschool class), and I had thought (mistakenly?) that she would enjoy how many cool things there are to DO in school, way more than at the babysitter's house.
I want to "stick with it" long enough for her to have a chance to get used to it -- maybe as it gets more familiar she will start to like it more? The teachers said that she spends a lot of her time observing and hanging out with the teachers rather than playing with toys or other kids, but that each day she spends a little more time playing. They say the tears only last a minute or two (it seems to shrinking) after we drop her off. One day I hung out near a window where I could peek in, and it's true that she had stopped crying within 2 minutes. When she seemed calm on the teacher's lap, I left.
So ... how long to stick with it? Maybe it would help me to hear from other parents whose kids had a hard time at first but now enjoy preschool -- do those kids exist? If so, how long did it take?
She doesn't HAVE to go -- she could go back to spending those mornings one-on-one with the babysitter who used to take care of her (and still does at least one additional morning each week). But she's nearly 3 (the cutoff in our state is that you have to turn 3 by Dec. 1st to be in a 3-year-old preschool class), and I had thought (mistakenly?) that she would enjoy how many cool things there are to DO in school, way more than at the babysitter's house.
I want to "stick with it" long enough for her to have a chance to get used to it -- maybe as it gets more familiar she will start to like it more? The teachers said that she spends a lot of her time observing and hanging out with the teachers rather than playing with toys or other kids, but that each day she spends a little more time playing. They say the tears only last a minute or two (it seems to shrinking) after we drop her off. One day I hung out near a window where I could peek in, and it's true that she had stopped crying within 2 minutes. When she seemed calm on the teacher's lap, I left.
So ... how long to stick with it? Maybe it would help me to hear from other parents whose kids had a hard time at first but now enjoy preschool -- do those kids exist? If so, how long did it take?
