5 Steps To Prepare Your Child For The 15th day of Daycare

1. Wake her up early. This may seem like an awful step to take but when you wake her up right before you leave and all she does is cry and cry and cry and tell you that she can't go to school you try doing the opposite.

2. Tell her "time to get up and get ready" and when she tells you that "it's too soon to go to school" even though she hasn't been there for a week, tell her you woke her up early so she could sit on your lap and talk for a minute.

3. Tell her that she is going to school, but she's going to have a very good day. First, we're going to drop Jordan off at the rec center (she knows the rec center is where the other kids go all day), then Mommy and Daddy will take you to school. Today is music day and you will have lots of fun and in a few days you get to move to the big girl class.

4. Take her down to breakfast after letting her wake up her brother. Let her pour her own milk, make sure she has a blanket because it's a little chilly downstairs and be sure she has cereal she likes so that's it's not dumped onto the floor. Luckily her dad helped her before the cereal was actually dumped, but there was a threat to dump the cereal.

5. Explain to her while she's eating the "good" cereal, that Mommy and Daddy will be at school to pick her later in the afternoon. Explain all the steps. You will take a nap, you will wake up from your nap, you will have a snack. You might go outside and play and then some of the other kids might be picked up by their Mommy or Daddy. We will be there in a few minutes. Don't get upset if some of the other kids leave before you. She says okay.

After all of the proper steps are taken, you will be able to drop off your unusually cautious almost three year old without any crying. It's a wonderful thing.

I don't know why she doesn't like school but she's gone several times and every time she doesn't want to go. They take good care of her, she has never come home scarred. We spy on her before we pick her up and they aren't mean to her. They even do her hair up and paint her nails. She sings the songs they teach to her, she counts to ten in Spanish, she says bad words...oh wait, we think that's from us. Anyway, she is so funny about it.

The other morning I was getting my coffee about 5:45 am and I turn around. There she is standing in the kitchen with her blankie and she looks up at me and asks "where am I going today?"

I feel a little guilty that my baby girl wakes up early in the morning and her first thoughts are about where she's going and what day it is. She's just strange. She can't help it. We'll have to keep working with her I suppose.