Imagine my surprise when Ella came out of the preschool yesterday, took one look at me, burst into tears and came running over, inconsolable. Being four years old and incredibly shy, she doesn't give explanations easily, so I felt like I was playing twenty questions with her: "Uhuh" for yes and "I don't know" for no.
What I discovered was this: her cousin (who is not shy) made a new friend and decided to sit by said new friend at the Thanksgiving feast. She (being unable to even say 'hi' to new kids without a serious amount of coaxing) couldn't just join them. At this point she was feeling lonely, and so the natural course of action is to get mad at her cousin. Then, the teacher reprimanded Ella, which hurt her feelings even more, the end result being that when she saw me she burst into tears. Confused? So was I.
Ella has relied so heavily on Jacob for friendship, but we know, even though she doesn't that there is no chance of them being in the same school next year. I wish she could be just a little bit less shy. Her first year in elementary is going to be tough...new school, no Jacob, unfamiliar teachers...I suspect the list goes on.
Back on track...Ella drew me a picture when we got home. She was pretty upset until that time, but once the picture was finished, she said that she felt better; still a little sad, but not devastated anymore. If that's what it's going to take to get her through kindergarten, well, I'll buy her as much paper and as many crayons as she needs.
4 comments:
Oh... how precious...
Poor Ella! Thank goodness she has such a wonderfully insightful mom!
Sad! That makes me want to cry! I could even tell you who it was that Jacob sat by because he told me when he got home. Poor Ella!
FYI - have Ella pick up the mail tomorrow. There is something in there from Jacob.
It's a good thing Ella gets to hang out with her incredibly cool Auntie Esther tomorrow! I'm thinking a "midnight" spicy fry run . . . of course, not at midnight . . . those hours aren't so great for a four year old! ;-)
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