In January we found out that we had secured a lottery spot in the Charter school we picked out for Juliana. We started to slowly talk about the new school with Juliana. At first she was very sad about leaving her current school and her friends and her teachers. She is very nervous about going to a new school where she won’t know anyone. We talk about it a little bit each week and each time she is less concerned. Juliana thrives on routine and when her normal life is interrupted or she is under stress, she has night terrors…so I do my best to talk about new situations and prepare her for changes.
Instead of walking around the block each day, she will be riding the bus to Kindergarten. The bus makes me nervous – what if she refuses to get on it – or she gets on in tears and I have to watch it drive away with her crying. Since we are moving I am not sure where her bus stop will be (and yes, add moving to a new house to the stress). We are one house from the corner so it will probably be there, unless they turn down the street and pick-up. So new school, riding the bus, new house…and uniforms.
There are a lot of things about uniforms that I think will be good. Far less choices of clothes, shoes and accessories should make it easier to get ready in the morning and manage her weekly wardrobe. It is much easier to say no to some choices when it is against the rules. Her tall, skinny build will pose some potential fit issues. Skirts will probably not be an option – we would need to buy a small size to fit in the waist and then it would be too short. She is finally more agreeable to wearing pants to school, for a long time she would only wear dresses so she would be pretty…so that provides more options.
When I first talked to her about uniforms she had lots of questions. So we went online and looked at all sorts of websites with uniforms so she could see the jumpers that she would be able to wear. She is not thrilled about the color choices (standard khaki, yellow, navy, white, black), but she is warming up to the idea. At least she will still have the weekend to dress in her own style.
