For those that know me you know of my wrestle with the decision of Lillie and school. Lillie meets the deadline to start kindergarten this year, but I had a really difficult time sending her. I battled with the decision everyday for about six months. Should I send her or should I not send her? Both choices seemed fine and would have worked out great for Lillie I am sure, which made it that much harder of a decision. Finally when it came down to it I just decided that down the road keeping her back a year would be more beneficial for her. Once I made the decision it was like a heavy rock was lifted from my chest and I could breath again. I decided to send Lillie to preschool five days a week at a local Church, she went last year and so she was familiar with things there. To me five day a week preschool is what kindergarten should be (rather than the full 6 hours kindergarten is here) so I felt like all I was doing was giving her an extra year of Kindergarten, but kindergarten in a smaller environment. My biggest concerns with Lillie were purely social. Lillie is my child that loves to play by herself. She has never needed me to play with her or keep her company. She is just happy all on her own and what I noticed last year at school was that she just really didn't play with the other kids and that made me nervous for kindergarten. I wanted her to learn how to make friends a little better before I sent her off to get lost in the big bad world of public education.
On the first day of school I realized that I had made the right decision when I came to the school a little early to pick her up and saw her on the playground in the sand playing all by herself. All the other kids were playing together around her, but she was all alone playing. I started crying because I hurt for her, but quickly reminded myself that she is happy and there is absolutely nothing wrong with her playing by herself. In fact I am sure that I will be glad at some point that she doesn't conform to the norm.
Since that first day she has really blossomed. She has never really bothered with the details of peoples names and such, but now she is telling me the names of all the kids in her class and she is even making friends on the playground with kids that aren't in her class. I am sure she would have blossomed in kindergarten too, but for me I have the peace of mind that next year there will be no question about her being ready. She just will be.
