Good-Bye DayCare..Hello Kindergarten!

Today marks a momentous day for Miss Ava. Today, we say Good-Bye to daycare. While this adventure is ending, another is about to start...Kindergarten

I'm so proud of the little girl she has become because of the amazing care the ladies at this daycare have given to her day after day for almost 2 years. They have kissed her boo-boo's when I couldn't be there, they've held her when she was sad, and made her laugh. They've helped her become this amazing little girl who will be the most kind and caring big sister.

I started reflecting on her time with Children's World Daycare and how influential they have been in our family. I really wanted to say thank you for taking such wonderful care of our daughter, teaching her so many wonderful things and just being these selfless human beings that have one of the hardest most rewarding jobs and don't get acknowledged or thanked nearly enough! I wanted to say thank you for helping her grow!

I got onto Google to look up different ideas on how to truly say thank you andI stumbled across this idea of a flower pot that says, "Thank you for helping me Grow!" with flowers planted inside.  Well we all know that flowers die, so I wanted to put something in the pot that would never go away just as the gratitude we feel will never go away.

I started to create these flowers out of hearts that I cut out using construction paper and had Ava sit down with me and reflect on her time at Children's World.  I asked her several questions to get her thinking.


Her thinking face!

 Together we created a list of answers she had, to questions I asked;

•  "What will you miss most?"
•  "What are you most thankful for?"
•  "What do you love about them most?"
• " What do you think you are better at because of them?"

It was an amazing experience to sit and listen to her talk about others in such a kind way and to hear her talk about the things she thinks she is good at because they've helped her.  I stared at this litter girl and I fell in love even more! I've been falling in love with her as a baby for the last 5 years.  She's done many things in the year or so to show me that she is not a baby anymore but doing this project with her just made me begin to fall in love with her as a child.. my little girl isn't a baby anymore!

 

In doing on all of this, I realized, this is the first big moment in her life where one thing will completely end and another will begin. I think this time is so crucial in her development in teaching her about good things coming to an end, being ok with moving on and allowing her to own her emotions and express them in appropriate ways when she needs to.

So many times as an adult, I know I will get overwhelmed, sad or mad and not display my emotions correctly.  We get agitated or quick to snap and we take things out on people that don't deserve it. I want to be sure to take this time to really connect with her and teach her about emotions and feelings and what is appropriate and what is not appropriate. 

I'm going to be writing down some of her reactions to discuss later on in hopes to maybe help another mom or even someone else struggling with emotions, which I can admit, I have many times. In the meantime, please comment below if you have any tips or suggestions on how to help cope with what might be some hidden signs that she is having a hard time.

Thank you Children's World Daycare one final time from the bottom of our hearts and Congratulations Miss Ava, Kindergarten welcomes you, though I'm not sure I'm ready for that just yet! Thank goodness I have a summer to wrap my head around it!