And SoThe Preparation Begins..

Some may know, some may not, but we are moving Josie out of the private school she has been at for the last 3 years, to a public school in our area. The private school fees were just doing us in.

We are just dreading the day that we have to tell her, and the first few weeks of term 1 next year. She has never been very good with change, and new situations. I guess like most 5 year olds, she is frightened of the unknown, and who can blame her ;-)

So we had and idea that might make the transition to the new school more manageable.

The new school has an after school/before school/vacation care center, right there in the grounds. Its very convenient and not too expensive. So we thought, why not introduce her to it this year. And taking it one step further, why not enrol her in a few vacation camps over the holidays.

So today was the first camp. It was a science camp, and I was having panic attacks last night, imagining the scene that I would have to get through when I left her there this morning.

So we've been telling her for a week or so now that she would be going to three days of camps over the first two weeks of the holidays. She was quite excited at first, she's been to vacation camps before, but affiliated with her current school and where some of her friends go. Last night though, she asked the fateful question: "Will Rachel be there?". And we told her "no".

I must say, she handled it well. She was upset at first, but then accepted it, and was... I wouldn't say happy to go.. lets just say.. tolerant of the idea. I was relieved. We gave her a mission, to find out about two kids and tell us their names and what school they go to. We are hoping she will form some good friendships out of this to carry on till next year.

Then going to bed, she started moaning that she didn't want to go and that she was shy. I was unrelieved.

This morning I was nervous about how she would react. I let her pick out what to wear (a skirt was the key ;-), I told her I would stay for a little while till she was comfortable, and she relented a bit.

I kept up a steady chatter on the way to the school. Its only a 10 min drive from home. When we got there she was introduced to another kindy girl there, Ella, and sat down to colour in. I went and signed her in, chatted with the supervisor, and then sat down next to her. She looked over at me and said: "Mummy, I'm a little bit less shy". This was promising. After a few minutes, I said to her, "You're looking a lot more comfortable now sweety, can I go?" and she said: "not just yet..". I waited a few more minutes, told her I needed to get to work, she rolled her eyes, said "Oh alright then" and went back to her drawing.

Drama averted.

I fretted at work. Even called up to see how she was going and was told that she was good, having a great time, but she had lost her toy dog, but she wasnt upset. Ahh well, if thats the worst that happened today..

I went to pick her up after work at about 530pm and could barely drag her out. She was colouring in, absolutely filthy, and her dog was found, buried under the bark in the playground. Blergh.

And there was a kid, who apparently moaned and cried for her dad from about 5 minutes after he left, till the end of the day. Josie seemed quite proud that she was ok.

As its Erev Rosh Hashana, we were off to Baba's for dinner so on our way we chatted about her day.

Mari: So did you have fun today?
Josie: Yes!
Mari: And did you complete your mission?
Josie: Yes I did! The two kids I found out about were Ella and Aiden and they both go to this school.
Mari: And were they nice?
Josie: Yep, I played with them allllll day! And I played in the playground the most, and I watched a movie! It was Garfield.
Mari: Thats great honey, I'm so glad you had a great day!

So I am incredibly relieved that it went well.

Dinner at Baba's was lovely, if not noisy. I dont think I have ever seen a quite day when Josie and her cousin Jayden are together. The two of them are just... loud!!

So after dinner, and once Jayden had left, I put Josie to bed, and went home. She is spending the day at Baba's tomorrow.

Hopefully next week's two camps go as well as today's did.