School Daze

The Lady starts nursery school in a couple of weeks.

We have already met up with one of our school buddies for a pre-first day of school playdate, so that there will be a familiar face in the classroom for her. We will be meeting up for a playground playdate next week with other members from the am 3's class, then I will be attending the parent orientation that evening and the Lady will attend her orientation for an hour the day before the first day of school.

Phew.

This seems like a lot of prep work for nursery school. But in all honesty, I am actually grateful for it. I know how much anxiety I can feel when going into a new situation, so it is a good thing that the Lady will be given the opportunity to meet the kids in her class, tour the classroom and get a feel for where she will be. Actually, I think the prep work might actually be better for me. I am sure the Lady will adjust fine, but now I have to meet all these teachers, parents and kids. And, I have to leave my little girl (granted only for a few hours, three days a week) but I have to leave her and I want to be sure that I know who she will be with and what she will be doing.

I anticipate tears in the parking lot as I pull out the first day. Mine, not hers.

The nursery school sent us a packet of papers to fill out. The standard emergency contact forms and school calendar were included, but there is also a form called "Tell Us About Your Child." I skimmed over the questions:

Does your child have any allergies? Does your child have a hand preference? Then I get down to the question: How would you describe your child's disposition on a daily basis; i.e., cheerful, moody, quiet, aggressive, shy? They only left one line to answer this question.

My first thought was to point them here to my blog. There they could see how her disposition changes by the hour. Moody? Yup. Cheerful? Uh-huh. Aggressive? The Little Lady could give you an example or two.

My second thought was just to write one word: Yes. Or maybe Drama or Actress, because she certainly is capable of commanding an audience, but then I remembered that she asked me the other day "What does Dramas mean?" and I thought better of it. Perhaps, I have been using that word a bit too much. Humm. . .maybe I should just put Diva? Or maybe I can put a thousand other words to describe my sweet, caring, princess- loving, singing, dancing, screaming, moody, cheerful, quiet, aggressive, shy, creative, artistic and totally delicious little girl.

How in one line am I to describe this person who has been virtually attached to me for three years? I know her better than anyone else. I know everything that she is talking about. I have heard her have a conversation with my husband about something and I have to call into the other room that she is talking about a billboard we saw on the drive home from the park, or something she saw at the bookstore. We are a team, we have our own jargon and shorthand that is specific to our lives and our adventures.

I am not sure how I am going to feel when she comes home from school with new stories and new experiences about things she has done and people she has played with that I am not a part of.

Obviously, this is a part of growing up. Her independence is an important part of who she will eventually become, and as her mother I want to nurture that and not hold her back. I know how great she will do at school and how much fun she will have. I want her to experience that on her own more than I want to experience everything with her, but still. . . maybe I will just skip ahead and fill out the question about How do you generally handle discipline at home? This question has three lines following it and i think I can fit the answer: a combination of timeouts (even though she usually just gets up and walks away), bribing, threatening, ignoring, yelling and trying everything I can to distract her without losing my self-respect.

Maybe this nursery school thing is something we both need. I think we are prepped and ready to go.