My 5 year old starts kindergarten in the fall at a private school. There are several things I am concerned about. They have to wear uniforms, but she is very fashion conscious...yeah I know, I know. She says she wants to be "stylish" and she wants to wear her favorite colors (pink and purple) all of the time. I have sat down with her and explained the uniforms to her. I also bought some of the more formal ones and showed them to her. I am working on getting some of the tee shirts too but the order has not come in yet. Any suggestions on what else I can do to prepare her. I do not want a battle everyday over what she is allowed to wear to school.
The second problem is that ever since we went to open house and let her see the school and meet the teachers she has been saying things like I can't go to Kindergarten because everyone will be mean to me and I'll have no friends. I have no clue why she feels this way. All of the teachers and kids who were at the open house were nice to her and played with her. Is this just anxiety about going to a new school? How should I handle this anyone who's gone through this have any suggestions on how to ease this transition for all of us in the family?
My daughter is nowhere near kindergarten, but I thought I would offer one suggestion as far as the uniforms. Tell her that when she gets home from school, she can pick out whatever she wants to wear. Same thing for the weekends. Maybe that will help.
My son also starts private pre-k in the fall. My son was against going after the open house as well. Luckily his cousin is starting the 1st grade there at the same time and now he is all for it because that is his "best cousin". You should try and find another child that will be starting in the fall and use the summer to bud a friendship. It will help both children going into school. As for the uniforms, she is five and will wear what you tell her. She has to learn that what mamma says goes.
J. - you are preaching to the choir on this one. I have the princess of all princesses and we are just finishing our kindergarten year at a private school where she wears blue plaid jumpers, skorts, shorts or slacks. She only wants the jumpers - therefore we wear little shorts under them and the skorts. I have not had a battle yet with getting her dressed in the morning. Even the hair accessories are uniformed and so are the shoes and socks / tights. She has really enjoyed seeing what her other friends are going to wear that day too. I thought that I would have to have "special" weekend clothes for her to make her feel like the princess, but all it took was letting her pick out her own panties that she could wear and no one would see.
She also is not allowed nail polish she she really looks forward to the weekends when she can wear it.
You have to get your daughter to understand that she is now a big girl and big girls who go to school, not day school, have to dress like that.
Our school also has uniform break days where the children are allowed to dress in regular clothes but still stay in compliance with requirements - belts on pants and shirts tucked in. On these days my little one loves to wear her pink skirts and dresses or even her "pink" blue jeans.
The private school my daughter is going to they have the kindergarten students come in for a shorter first day in small groups - we had 4 in our group. Those are the students that she is still closest to in her class. She has a total of 15 in her class. This way by having small groups they can get to know someone special - we had 2 girls / 2 boys. This was the first day that my daughter had ever been away from her daycare friends - they all went to different schools.
Good luck.
As for feeling like she will have no friends and everyone will tease her- it is a valid fear. Check out Playful Parenting by Cohen. He says that kids like to play out their fears- so do some role playing on what she would do if she was teased... have her animals and dolls gang up on another doll and play it different ways. Let her process it through play.
Try and get the class roster and pick a few friends for her to get to know over the summer. This will also help.
Maybe let her pick out other stuff like a lunch box- and the backpack- coat? that will be in her favorite colors that she gets to use every day. The rest of the suggestions were great.
I went to a private school when i was younger and my mother says that she had the hardest time hetting me to understand that i had to wear these colors and no others but she said it really helped when she told me that i could wear my favorite color in like a hair tie or my undies! that way shell be wearing her fav color ans still be conforming ot school rules also about the anxiety about not having any friends to play with..maybe over the summer you can contact some of the moms of the kids she will have in her class and make a play date for them to get to know eachother that way when she says those things around the time for school you can reassure her that "so and so" will be in her class and remind her that they are friends!!! ITll be a good way for you to get to know the other moms too for furthur play dates! hope this helps you out!
