I don't want to go to school!

Zoe has said for the last couple of weeks that she doesn't want to go to school anymore. She has also been crying at school... when asked as to why... her reply is that she misses her mom and wants to go home. As much as this breaks my heart, I also know that she needs time away. So last Wednesday when she said that she didn't want to go... my reaction was the same... "School is fun and you will get to see all of your friends." Then the tears started to roll... I let her go for awhile and then I said that it was time to get all of our winter gear on... then the temper tantrum started... I couldn't send her to school like this... We called dad, but that didn't help. I even asked if she would go if Grandma took her... no way! So I let her stay home (even though I didn't want to as I was afraid that this would start a pattern), but I told her that she was to stay in her room until the kids got off the bus. She kept coming out of her room every 10 minutes asking if she could come out or that she missed me or that she wanted to do a project... My reply was to get back in her room... if she wanted to do a project that she should have went to school... I also told her that it wasn't fun to stay home from school with mom and that if she didn't go to school that I was going to work... I let her come out for lunch, but she had to sit at the dining room table by herself... I did let her stay out of her room, but she had to lay down to take a nap... needless to say that school got out at 1:15pm that day due to the weather. She did tell me before the kids got off the bus that she wanted to go school on Monday... it is no fun staying home with mom... So no matter how much I wanted to cry that morning or how much it broke my heart to be so hard on her... I guess I got my point across and the idea worked because she is all excited to go to school tomorrow morning. What a rough day... and with all of this Todd was working all day (inventory at work) and plowing snow all night... so we were on our own for a couple of days.