Sadie and the preschool drama

The last few weeks have been challenging with Sadie. For some reason she has really struggled, which makes her mommy struggle too. She and Micah have been at each other's throats for the past week. They have fought nonstop and seem to be constantly competing for my and Greg's attention.

To make things more difficult Sadie's teacher decided that she should move up to another group. Last year when she started preschool, they decided to put her in the group younger, because of the other American girl in that group. She did well after the initial adjustment, which for Sadie took a litttle longer than it should have (about 3 months!) When they told me that they wanted to move her to the next group, I got a pit in my stomach.....here we go again.

They did have a few good points. Sadie's first group, the butterfly group has kids that are as young as 3. Also, her new group, the mushroom group, will prepare her for school. They have more of a curriculum and go on field trips and such. The downfall of the mushroom group is that the teachers are not warm and fuzzy, even for German standards. They are not as proactive and are known to be a little lazy. I have seen them sitting on their fannies quite a bit. The teachers we had last year where very good and loving. Perfect for Sadie.....

But.......I reluctantly agreed, when they promised me they would make the transition gradually. Also, Sadie needs to learn to function in a class where the teacher isn't going to hug her and hold her on their laps. She isn't going to get that next year in school.

Well, there was a miscommication and they threw her into the group cold turkey, without me preparing her. Apparently, she cried the whole time. So, then I had a girl who was frightened to go to school. Everyday was a struggle. I asked to teachers to delay the change for a couple of days. While we eased her into it.

Finally, on tuesday I dropped her off into her new group. They had to pull her away from me. I worred the entire time while she was gone. When I picked her up, she was happy but little embarassed. "Why did you play tug of war with me, mommy..."

Yesterday was better. I still had to encourage her to go to school and she tried to come up with any excuse not to go. She only cried for a little while and reported that she played with a new friend in the "doll corner."

Today she dragged ME out of the house. She was so excited. Partially, because it is PE day, which is her favorite. I kept telling her that she would be with the mushrooms....."I know mommy." Okay....so she transitioned in three days rather than 3 months....phew.....