First Days - No Stress!

Our nearly 3 yr. old daughter, Sarah, had her first day in a 2 wk long summer school class on gardening yesterday. Over the last 6 mo., in order to prepare her, I've taken her to the school 3 times, introduced her to the teacher, walked around the classroom with her, let her observe the kids and ask questions, and talked to her about going to school. For the past 2 wks. we've been talking to her about leaving her at school, mentioning the teacher's name, explaining that Mommy will drop Sarah off and come back to get her after school. We would lay in bed at night and talk about school as she drifted off to sleep. When the time came to drop her off she suffered NO separation anxiety, had no fear of the school (since she was familiar with it) or the teachers, and moved right in like she'd been there all along! Taking the time to prepare her, to help her to understand what was coming and acquaint her with the environment, teachers, and the process completely eliminated the stress that most children feel on the first day of school and replaced it with curiosity and excitement, which relieved all of our parental fears, too!