a big change!

As many of you know, I am a stay at home mom. My kids have all been able to stay home with me up until they start Kindergarten. We have all really cherished that special time of one on one bonding & teaching & loving. So far, none of my kids have entered Kindergarten "behind" in any way. In fact, they've both been in the "above average" category academics-wise & their teachers have told me how sweet & well mannered they are. I spend a lot of time doing homeschool sort of stuff with the kids and they use educational CD-Rom's to learn things as well. All in all, being "stay at home kids" is a very positive experience for all of us....something I'd never trade for all the money in the world!

Now here's where the fun part comes in. Kourtney is only 3 months older than Sarah. Sarah stays home with me & goes to Mother's Day Out 2 days/week with me. She gets a good balance of mommy time & away from mommy time. She still has plenty of a "social life" at school & church. Kourtney is really struggling with this. She's becoming more & more jealous that Sarah gets to stay home with me while she is "forced" to go to school (which she doesn't like). While she's said all along that she doesn't like school & doesn't want to go, it's only been in the last several days that it's become clear WHY. I think she feels a little like Cinderella---the "outsider" who was brought in & expected to help out with chores & things at home, but without the "benefits" that the natural children got. Know what I mean?

With this in mind, I wrote her teacher an email today & asked her to help me out because we were really struggling to come up with reasons to tell K why she had to go to school. I really just wanted her to help us encourage K with positive reasons to come to school. Instead, I got a reply that sort of surprised me, but at the same time confirmed what I had been thinking. Her teacher said something along the lines of :

"You are the first mom I've ever wanted to help keep her child at home. I really think the best thing for K right now would be to stay home & create a stronger bond with her new family & new "sister". I can't really give you any good reasons for her to stay in PreK because I know you will work with her at home & she will be fine when Kindergarten begins in the fall." Her email continued with a lot of sweet encouragement, but that's the jist of what she told me.

With all that in mind, we've decided to let K finish out this week, then tell her next week (Spring Break) that we're withdrawing her. She can immediately join Sarah's Mother's Day Out class & can go with me there every Tues/Thurs like Sarah does. I think that PreK had a good purpose for her before.....but now there is a better choice for her & we're going to take that option instead.

Keep that in your prayers as things change around here. :)