Starting School Tomorrow

Tomorrow, my oldest starts back to school. She'll be a third grader this year. I have some mixed feelings about this. I'm excited for her because she loves school and she loves her friends. She's been ready for school to start pretty much since summer started. Don't get me wrong, she loves summer as well, but she's ready for school to start.

When I tucked her in bed just a while ago, I told her I was going to miss her being gone all day again. She said, "Mom, why'd ya have to say that? Now I don't want to go." See, she's kind of a momma's girl too. I didn't mean to make her upset, I just wanted her to know that her mom would miss her and be thinking about her on her first day back. I guess I should have thought about it and said something like I can't wait for you to get home or something clever. I don't know. This whole parenting thing is so hard sometimes!

Part of me has seriously considered homeschooling. As a momma, I'm scared for her. She's just getting to that age that "girls" can be really cruel to each other. She's already experienced a little of that, but I know it's only going to get worse. Why does it have to be that way? How can you stop it?
I try my best to teach her that God wants us to love EVERYONE. She's so sensitive. She gets her feelings hurt VERY easily and she has to have the reassurance that people like her, kinda like her momma (although not so much anymore, I don't think?). I try to tell her that one of the hardest things to do in life is to love someone ESPECIALLY when they don't deserve it. BELIEVE me, I know. I struggle with it myself, but just like I tell her, the reward is even better.

Anyway, kind of got off the subject for a minute. I'm going to pray about this fear that I have and ask God to guide me or to give me wisdom to know what to do. She's such a social butterfly. I'm afraid that she'll miss all of her friends too much if I did home school her, but then I wouldn't have to worry so much about all the negative influences that she'll be around. She has told me before that she wants to be home schooled, but I never know how much of that to believe. She really does love to be with her friends. If you have some wisdom to share, please don't hesitate! I would love to hear what others have done to conquer this delima.

Now tomorrow is a whole NEW story. My youngest (baby) starts preschool tomorrow. It will be her first, first day! Everyone asks me if she's excited, but truly I don't even know if she really gets it yet. When I talk to her about it, she gets confused. We had her enrolled in a different preschool and we took her to that preschool for a tour and now she thinks she's going to both. The preschool that she IS going to is the same elementary school that my oldest is going to just down the street, but we didn't find out that she was accepted into that program until July. By that time, if you didn't already have her enrolled somewhere, it was too late. So we had to enroll her in two different preschools and just play the waiting game. CRAZINESS I tell ya! I told you this whole parenting thing is hard sometimes!

Anyway, I know they'll both be fine, but momma can't help but worry! That's what we do!!!!!!!!!