Stepping onto the roller-coaster

Charli had her last school visit on Monday and is now counting down the sleeps to her Kindi farewell Birthday on Friday and actual Birthday on Saturday. She’ll start school on Monday 30 June! It feels like we’re all stepping onto a huge roller-coaster. The visits have gone really well. She loves her teacher and the more structured learning. She is so ready to be challenged and can’t wait to get stuck in.

We feel absolutely confident in the school and have been really impressed with the genuinely warm reception we’ve received and strong feel of community spirit that encompasses the school. One very ‘cute’ but powerful activity that both Dan and I remarked upon is the strong emphasis on self-empowerment. The children sing a wonderful collection of songs that focus on the importance of the individual… with lines such as, ‘I am me, I am different, and that’s okay, we’re all different… la, te, da’.

The school is in a lovely location and the children have a lovely space to run free at lunch-time with the fields and trees surrounding it. We are sure she’ll grow to be very happy there and see her confidence with her peers grow. We know she’ll find this aspect hard initially – as she’s much more at home with older children, adults or babies! She seems to struggle with her direct peers and often feels isolated and ‘different’. But we have faith that she will learn to cope in the caring environment of her new school. However, it will certainly be an emotional roller-coaster for the whole family whilst she adjusts and finds her way! We saw glimmers of this last week – as her mood swings rose dramatically and she fell apart a couple of times, taking herself away to her bedroom for an hour and not wanting anyone to come in to comfort her. She wanted to deal with her emotions herself – but it was painful to stand by and listen to.

Near the end of the week we discovered the crux of her emotional woe was the perceived fear that on turning five she would automatically become ‘an adult’! It took a week to get this out of her. Once we discovered her concern we were able to quell her fear with a few minutes of reassurance. A part of me wishes she’d felt able to open up to us sooner – but on the other hand I’m proud of her for trying to work things out herself and find her own way of calming and controlling herself – all part of the long, steep pathway to real adulthood.

Anyway, on the positive, we’ve had a cracking weekend, a great school visit yesterday and no major flairs of temper since Friday! We’re really looking forward to her Birthday (it’s the most anticipated one for us since her 1st Birthday!). Wish us luck!