Ella still crying

Well, Ella is still crying. It's a very strange thing; it started with ballet the other week. The following week she went into ballet ok, but the week after THAT she couldn't even go into the room. Last week we didn't go out because of the ice storm. I'm simply going to stop taking her to class; there are only 4 classes left, and I don't think she needs the anxiety.

The anxiety has spilled over into other classes. She was skittish about it on the car ride to Gym and Swim yesterday, but once she was in she was fine (she actually has no trouble asking the teachers to be understanding in advance, in case she cries). And then, oddity of oddities, I couldn't get her to even go into karate (which she has been doing for over a year and loving) for the first 20 minutes of class yesterday. She just leaned against me miserably, tears rolling down her cheeks, until she felt ok enough to go into the class. The senseis were concerned but were terrific, especially once they realized it had nothing to do with karate.

She's even crying more at odd times that have nothing to do with anxiety per se, when "it's time" for her to make some kind of effort on her own. This morning she was working on some multiplication cards, and started sobbing because "her neck hurt when she was looking down so much."

Here is my interpretation:

I have watched the world suddenly open up for my 6 1/2-year-old over the past several months. She can read. We've been doing a lot of work about other cultures, she's having new experiences, and much less about what's going on in the world goes over her head. She's busy, busy, busy absorbing it all. She's dreaming in detail, all the time, and telling me about it...where she never used to remember her dreams at all. She's losing her baby teeth.

And so, suddenly, instead of this very safe, snuggly, SMALL world that she's used to, she's perched at the edge of this wide-open vista. And I think it's a little overwhelming.

That's my take on it. So I'm not too worried. I think it will resolve itself. But I feel for her.