Hi all, hoping for some advice! My DD is 3.5 and started in a new pre-school in September. She was in a nursery for 2 years before that. Many of her friends from the nursery went to the pre-school so we were hoping for an easy transition but alas it has not been so.
She is a very sensitive child who has always been good at verbalising her emotions. She now weeps every morning before school telling us that she doesn't have friends, and the other children don't play with her and run away when she tries to play with them; that she cries at school thinking about me and her dad; and that at school she wants to speak her mother tongue (what we speak at home) instead of english (despite her actually being better at english and before always defaulting to it).
When we speak to the teachers they say they don't recognise her description of her days at all! They say she cries at drop-off but brightens up as soon as we leave and is happy, chatty and interactive the rest of the day, and plays a lot with the other children. Obviously I'm glad to hear this but now I am not sure what to believe! I do not think my child is lying, but clearly her impressions of the day are not really matching reality.
So my question is: how do I validate her feelings and give her support, while also encouraging her to think that maybe things are not really the way she thinks they are?! I.e. that the other children do play with her, and that she actually has a lot of fun there? And what do you say to your child when they tell you they think about you in the day and start crying? 😢
Thanks for reading and any advice!