Starting school and paper dolls

My daughter's first day at school is looming, two more sleeps and we'll be walking to the school gates together.

My daughter is so excited about starting school. I'm using her positive energy to keep me going. I'm shedding all my tears when she's in bed. I wont let her see me upset. School is a daunting experience and she doesn't need to see me cry because she'll wonder what's wrong...

I’m feeling incredibly emotional about her starting school. I feel like I’m going to have a big part of me missing without having my daughter at home. I thought she was adorable as a baby, but as she's grown and developed her own personality, she's even more amazing…I want to keep her close to me, always.

But I know I can’t. So I’m writing this down to try and help me…

We made a trip to the library last week and my daughter decided to borrow ‘The Paper Dolls” amongst a selection of other books. It wasn’t until I read it to my daughter at home that I realised how special the parent-child bond is.

We couldn’t have read “The Paper Dolls” at a more poingnant time. I love the happy-sad tone of the book and the final image of the mother-daughter relationship is really wonderful.

It’s one of the best children’s books I’ve read and it really moved me. Virtually everything Julia Donaldson writes is amazing as far as I’m concerned. Her work has been a huge part of my daughter’s childhood. Her words are teamed with beautiful illustrations by Rebecca Cobb. It touches on love, memory, childhood, loss and finally on the role of motherhood. I feel children’s literature should resonate with the adult reading the story just as much as it does with the child. Some of the best children’s books I’ve read haven’t been afraid to address the big subjects, the things that affect adults and children alike.

I feel so privileged to have been able to spend these precious early years with my daughter. We’ve played, created, sang, imagined, learnt, explored, loved and bonded.

My daughter was fascinated with the idea of making paper dolls. So, just like in the story, we made our own set of dolls. When she’d finished decorating them and I looked at their faces I realised she’d captured how I feel about her going to school...happy-sad-happy.

I’m going to miss her terribly when she starts school, but I know it’s the next step on her life journey. I hope we can keep making new memories, just like the little girl in the book does.

I'm linking up with "The Prompt" over on mumturnedmom.com