Ready for School?

I have been contemplating whether to send Alyssa to school already. She’s 2 years and 9 months right now and sooo very smart! She knows her shapes and colors and can count from 1 to 20. She’s very observant and alert and knows so many things that she surprises even me and her dad.

Mier says not to rush her, that she’ll be in school for a long time anyway and that we need not let her start this year. I feel, however, that she knows enough of the basics and that school is not just a learning ground for the academics but as well as for socialization with kids her age and other adults aside from us in the home.

Although Alyssa gets to socialize with her two older sisters, she usually gets her way simply because she’s the youngest and screams the loudest. (Hehe!) I want her to learn how to deal with other people especially with those her age.

I remember enrolling Nadine in a toddler class at age two years and three months. At that time, Raya was just a month old and I thought Nadine needed an activity that was hers alone. I was wrong. She wasn’t ready for school and wasn’t ready to be away from me and the baby. I didn’t want her to feel that she was being sent away so I can spend more time with Raya. I decided to pull her out and wait for a better time.

That summer, when Nadine was two years and seven months, I enrolled her again in preparation also for the incoming school year. Although I had to sit down with her in class for a week, this time she was more mature and more ready to go to school.

Raya was a different matter. She had expressed independence even at a very young age. Four days after she turned two years old, she DECIDED that she was going to school. She chose her bag and her clothes and her shoes and was ready to go with Nadine to school. I thought, let her try it. She’ll probably ask to be picked up in the middle of the class or maybe not even enter the gates once we were there.

Boy, was I wrong again! She neither looked at me nor said goodbye! She went straight inside the classroom. I was left standing by the gate with my mouth wide open. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry! I went to school early to pick her up and she didn’t even want to go home just yet. Although she is always one of the younger ones in the class, Raya has always been one of the top students.

Now with Alyssa, I’m still not sure whether to send her to school or not. She doesn’t insist on going although she does say that she misses her sisters when they leave in the mornings. I feel that she’s ready for this adventure called school and would enjoy it tremendously just like her sisters before her. I also think that she’s old enough to understand about the coming baby and won’t really feel left out. Besides, school will only be a few hours a day for her. Maybe I should let her try a few days and see how things will turn out. We’ll see.