We feel like her frustration with school is probably more than not having a friend in class. We think she is having a hard time with the adjustment of being away from home everyday. She's tired, and there are a lot of new people and things to learn.
How do you help you child adjust to starting school?
I invited a little girl from her class to come over and play at our house. They had a great time. I was hoping that if they got together to play outside of the classroom setting, they could get to know each other better. I think that I just need to remember that like adults it takes time to build a friendship with a new person. I plan on inviting her over to play again.
We listen to her concerns and try to focus on the positives of going to school. When she says she doesn't want to go back to school, I just tell her that she has to go to school. Please share your ideas and experiences of how to help little ones overcome the nervous feelings of starting school.
Little Emmy is such a sweet girl. She'll make friends soon, I'm sure. It's probably a huge adjustment especially because she has 2 great little sisters at home to play with all the time.
ReplyDeleteI taught Kindergarten for 3 years before having my little one and I saw this a lot with kids.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely make her teacher aware of the situation so that she can keep an eye on your little one. I would have parents tell me of a similar situation and if I saw that child sad because of lack of friends I could encourage another student to play with them or help that child ask someone to play with them. Sometimes kids can be mean, but the good thing with Kindergarten is that they are still young enough that if a teacher is standing near they are more likely to accept an offer to play and not be rude to the other because they are forced to play at first and end up having fun in the end. If that makes sense.
I think you are also doing a great job of inviting friends over. I think that is the best thing that you can do. I would keep inviting that one friend over if it is someone that your child likes and eventually they will bond at school too. Then once she has bonded at school with that one friend, try inviting over another from her class. I wouldn't invite over a different friend each time because then she doesn't get to be close with one particular person and is stuck in the same boat. But if she gets one good friend. It makes going to school so much easier on the little ones.
If she is being really negative about school in general always have her look for one positive thing that happened in the day. Talk to her about happy things in school and before she goes remind her that when school is over you are going to ask her for her one happy thing of the day. That might get her focused on having a happy experience and maybe it will help her focus on the good of school more than the not so good.
Good luck. This is so hard because they are just old enough to get feelings hurt over friendships. The beginning of a long road :)