Ellie's Preschool Update

Ellie loved GKEL ("my" preschool) last year and the year before, but I wanted something else for her this year for a lot of reasons:

1. If I'm not working there, I'd have to pay for preschool anyway! No more free GKEL for us!
2. She won't have BSF in addition to GKEL's one day a week this year, and she's going to kindergarten next year.
3. She needs more than one day a week socially.
4. It might be easier on Kyla (and all the parents) if I'm not at GKEL to pick up and drop off Ellie.
5. With a new baby, I'll want additional structured activity and attention for Ellie.
6. We could find a preschool closer to home.

So for all those reasons, (not at ALL because I don't believe in GKEL), I checked out preschools closer to our home that met 2-3 times a week.

Today we toured Central Lutheran School, which is only four blocks away from us. (I had a lot of questions for the poor assistant director. She was wonderful, but I was probably walking the line of being an overly concerned parent.) I realized that it feels really different to be on the other side of the preschool choice. I thought I was prepared for this, but it's harder than I thought.

Ellie will be AWAY from me, in her own little world that I am not a part of. At church and at GKEL, I've always been part of her world. I know exactly where she is and who she's with and what she's doing and how she behaves. Even when I'm away from her, I'm friends with her teachers and the other parents in her class, so I can talk to them. Now she's going to a great big school (okay, her class won't be big, but still) with lots of teachers (okay, just two for her class, but still) and lots of different rooms that she'll play in and a whole bunch of kids that I don't know.

I think it's the other kids that make me the most nervous. I won't know if they're nice or not, or what outside influences they've been exposed to that Ellie hasn't. I won't be able to control what they say to her or how they treat her. I won't know their parents or how to set up playdates with them or how they behave. This is a big step for me (and of course, for Ellie, too).

I think I could go on typing advantages and disadvantages and reasoning and questions and logic for pages more. So. Three afternoons a week, for two and a half hours each, Ellie won't be mine. She'll be at Central Lutheran, four whole blocks away. In her own little world. That I hope she learns to love and thrive in and become independent from me in. It's kind of sad and kind of exciting.