Kindergarten Jitters and Preschool Artwork
Last night during dinner, husband and I were discussing when we needed to enroll Turtle in kindergarten. Turtle suddenly became tearful and upset. The questions came:
"Mommy, will I be all alone in kindergarten?"
"I won't know my teachers names?"
"What if they leave me by myself?"
"I won't know anyone."
She climbed into my lap fighting tears and trying to talk around the lump in her throat continued these questions and concerns. We did our best to reassure her by telling her that she would get to meet her teacher before school even began and she would learn her teacher's name. We told her that all teachers will introduce themselves and that they have special ways of making children feel safe and comfortable in the classroom. We told her that some of her friends from preschool will be in her kindergarten class and it won't be all new kids. We told her that she had an entire year before she had to go there. Her preschool playground backs up to the elementary school playground and one day she saw our neighbor's daughter on that playground and they waved and shouted back and forth to each other. We asked her if her friend looked happy or sad on the playground. Happy. Well, next time you see her, why don't you ask her about kindergarten. We talked and talked and our food grew cold. Eventually she stopped tearing up and was able to settle into her dinner. The brownies for dessert were what really got her over the hump. Gotta love the healing powers of chocolate.
How are you handling preparation for kindergarten? I wasn't prepared to prepare her with still a year to go.
When I tucked her into bed and we were snuggling, she asked about the paper airplane she made in the class before pre-kindergarten. I told her I thought we might have thrown it away (I won't lie - although sometimes it might be better). She began to cry. I apologized and told her that I didn't realize that it was important to her when I threw it away. I said, "Will you tell me from now on what art is important and what art can be tossed?" Her answer in typical Turtle fashion, "Well, Mom, it's all important." Of course it is. I'm the Mom that only keeps the artwork with handprints, footprints, and pictures of her doing the artwork. I keep Mother's Day art and Father's Day art. The rest gets tossed. She brings home volumes and volumes of artwork. Then I remembered the tub of dried out playdoh. "How about if we throw away the dried out playdoh and use that bin to store your artwork. We can keep under the tv." Her little head nodded up and down on my shoulder, she corked her thumb securely in her mouth and drifted off to sleep knowing we had a solution for all future artwork.
What do you do with your child's artwork? Do you keep some and toss some? Do you keep everything? How do you store it?
"Mommy, will I be all alone in kindergarten?"
"I won't know my teachers names?"
"What if they leave me by myself?"
"I won't know anyone."
She climbed into my lap fighting tears and trying to talk around the lump in her throat continued these questions and concerns. We did our best to reassure her by telling her that she would get to meet her teacher before school even began and she would learn her teacher's name. We told her that all teachers will introduce themselves and that they have special ways of making children feel safe and comfortable in the classroom. We told her that some of her friends from preschool will be in her kindergarten class and it won't be all new kids. We told her that she had an entire year before she had to go there. Her preschool playground backs up to the elementary school playground and one day she saw our neighbor's daughter on that playground and they waved and shouted back and forth to each other. We asked her if her friend looked happy or sad on the playground. Happy. Well, next time you see her, why don't you ask her about kindergarten. We talked and talked and our food grew cold. Eventually she stopped tearing up and was able to settle into her dinner. The brownies for dessert were what really got her over the hump. Gotta love the healing powers of chocolate.
How are you handling preparation for kindergarten? I wasn't prepared to prepare her with still a year to go.
When I tucked her into bed and we were snuggling, she asked about the paper airplane she made in the class before pre-kindergarten. I told her I thought we might have thrown it away (I won't lie - although sometimes it might be better). She began to cry. I apologized and told her that I didn't realize that it was important to her when I threw it away. I said, "Will you tell me from now on what art is important and what art can be tossed?" Her answer in typical Turtle fashion, "Well, Mom, it's all important." Of course it is. I'm the Mom that only keeps the artwork with handprints, footprints, and pictures of her doing the artwork. I keep Mother's Day art and Father's Day art. The rest gets tossed. She brings home volumes and volumes of artwork. Then I remembered the tub of dried out playdoh. "How about if we throw away the dried out playdoh and use that bin to store your artwork. We can keep under the tv." Her little head nodded up and down on my shoulder, she corked her thumb securely in her mouth and drifted off to sleep knowing we had a solution for all future artwork.
What do you do with your child's artwork? Do you keep some and toss some? Do you keep everything? How do you store it?
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