Chilkoot had her last day at Day Care today.
Miss K, her (up until today) current primary teacher has been working there since Chilkat started at three months of age, more than five years ago (I think Miss K was 19 at the time). Miss K has been a  regular or a primary teacher in every room Chilkat has been in the whole time she’s been there. Chilkat loves her.
We’ve been trying to prep Chilkat (and Miss K) for weeks. Apparently it was insufficient.
When I came in to pick her up today, Miss K was curled up around Chilkat, and both were red-eyed and wet-faced. After lengthy farewells, Chilkat broke down twice on the car ride home. “I already miss Miss K!” or “I’m going to miss all my friends! Can we invite them to my birthday parties?”
Day care is moderately far from our house. I’m not aware of another family that goes there that lives anywhere near us. None of those kids will be going to Chilkat’s kindergarten. So, I totally feel for Chilkat. This is a big scary transition, without a single familiar face to look forward to.
Unfortunately, we don’t have contact information for most of her friends. We did leave a note with all of her classmates with our contact information, so if they choose to keep in touch with us, they can. But…most people are not so good at follow through, even if their kids do make a big deal of it.
I love my daughter, and I wish this didn’t make her sad. I’m still excited for her going to kindergarten. I hope she gets a really positive first impression, because she’s awfully good at holding a grudge. If she decides that school is terrible, it’s going to be terrible, and it’s going to be pretty hard to dislodge that point of view.