First Day of Pre-School

Today was a big day for Claire: her first day of pre-school.

I was not planning on putting her in pre-school this year. This was actually a very difficult, and sudden, decision.

As you all know, Claire has a very feisty and spunky personality. I have been trying to figure out how I can best help her. I have been doing more and more reading, and I finally realized what part of the problem is.

Claire wants desperately to be a big girl. Audra gets to go to school, so she wants to go to school. She has had to sit idly by for 3 years while Audra has gotten to take dance class, pre-school, etc. Claire was so jealous when Audra got a backpack. Claire would go around telling everybody, "I'm 5. I'm going to kindergarten."

Her tantrums increased. She got worse and worse with her behaviour.

I reached a breaking point and realized that not only did she need something that was HERS (not Audra's), but I also needed a break from her.

That day I signed her up for pre-school.

This is perhaps the best decision I have ever made. (Better than marrying Ben? Hmm....that's a tough one)

Claire was/is SOOOO excited to be going to school! For two weeks she talked about what kind of backpack she wanted. When I bought her a Tinkerbell backpack, she slept with it.

FINALLY today she got to start school! No surprise, she ran in and was so excited. She did great.

I am sure the teachers LOVED the beautiful outfit she 

chose- mismatched bows and all.

Her tantrums have almost stopped. Just being able to not be in Audra's shadow is making a HUGE difference! Now she can make her own friends, have her own teachers, be her own person. I am surprised it took me so long to figure it out.

Part of me feels like a bad mom because I am not able to provide Claire with everything she needs. But, the bigger part of me feels like a great mom for realizing that I can't provide her with everything she needs and providing her with the resources she needs to excel.

Unfortunately, because I decided this so late, Claire is in morning pre-school and Audra is in afternoon kindie. Not the most brilliant plan, but it provides me with one-on-one time (well, Camille joins us as well) with each kid. Plus, I can run errands with Audra- I can't with Claire- so I can run errands while Claire is in school.

Overall, I think this is a great plan. I am so excited for Claire to have her own thing!