Wow. Thanks for all the information. I will definitely go through it all when my daughter isn't climbing all over me (after my husband gets home).

Her Montessori school was good and her teacher was awesome! She just isn't ready to be separated from me. She is super shy around new people and slow to adapt and warm up to new people and situations. We tried a whole bunch of different things to help her adjust but honestly nothing worked. I am hoping with age and some small encouragement, she will grow out of it but I am unwilling to throw her into 5 day a week school right away. It will backfire.

I can't be the only one with a 4 year old who doesn't separate from mom or dad very well. What happens in those situations?

My daughter overheard me talking to a friend on the phone about school and she suggested I go too. Are there options for school where both mom and kid goes? In the US, there are coops where parents can attend as well.

I would get official teacher reports and evaluations from your School regarding your daughter's development. If you can get an additional educational psychologist report all the better, then send copies of these along with a cover letter to your Schulgemeinde requesting that your daughter attend kindergarten one year later. The sooner you do this, the more chance and the more time you have of coming to a mutual agreement with the School authorities.

Good luck Magnolia, I wish you and your daughter the very best start in Switzerland.

Have you tried enrolling her in a couple of clubs which last a couple of hours max? That way she gets used to you being apart for a short time whilst knowing you will be back soon.

My sister had a phase with her daughter around that age and did this. She also told her daughter that mummy was going to do [insert really boring, onerous task such as cleaning the toilet or sort the sock drawer out] while she was away which made the visit to toddler group or whatever it was much more attractive than standing around watching mum clean the toilet or organise socks.

Getting her used to this will help bring on her independence which can only be a good thing as she grows up.

If I may add another element into the mix: your daughter will also need to learn German before she goes to Kindergarten. There may be parents here who say their child didn't speak German and went to Kindergarten perfectly happily and was fluent within months. This has not been my experience. I believe my daughter's teacher is particularly unsupportive, but I have been to a besuchsmorgen (visitors day) last week and am now organising pulling my child from the village Kindergarten because I was so disturbed by the lack of education she was getting. Basically, she was being left to flounder and treated as if she was slow. Indeed, that's how one of the other kids described my perfectly intelligent child.

The issue is language. While my daughter gets two hour-long sessions in a school-run small group to teach German to non-native speaking children, while in regular class, from what I saw on the besuchsmorgen, she gets little or no explanation of tasks or activities and is told off frequently for not complying with rules she doesn't understand.

Hopefully, you can join some German-speaking or bilingual groups with your daughter and learn to speak German together as well as helping her to feel secure while away from you for short periods. My daughter adored Waldspielgruppe last spring and summer - a woodland playgroup - and it was wonderful experience for her.

But if she can speak German with confidence before she goes to Kindergarten, you will be giving her the best possible start. As I have learned the hard way.