School is in Session

This year, Ella will keep a formal writing journal.  Her teacher currently has the class brainstorming to come up with a list of writing themes.  Yesterday, she assigned the topic "Things That You Fear,"  and the students had to make lists of things they fear.  During dinner, when it was Ella's turn to tell us about her school day, she mentioned these lists.  Naturally, we asked her to name some of the things she'd been putting on her lists.  She said, "Well, under things I fear, I listed black widows, the black death, naturally occurring disasters, and my mom serving eggplant.  Yeah, some of the kids in my class didn't know what the black death was, so I had to explain it to them."

Virginia is behaving exceptionally well in school, and I feel a little guilty at how surprised I am by this.  I mean, Virginia is a great kid.  She's thoughtful and compassionate and sometimes sweet, but man, can she get fired up.  She is full of energy and ideas and energy and more energy.  And she's super competitive.  So, I really wasn't sure how she was going to make the transition to kindergarten.  Apparently, she's doing it very well.  She has come home every day with a sticker for good behavior.  Last week, she even received some certificate for being so attentive to the rules.  And to top it off, she's received multiple rewards from multiple administrators and teachers around the school.  Every time a teacher observes a student doing something particularly well (e.g. good manners, following directions, staying on task, being kind, etc.), the teacher may reward the student with a little yellow dollar.  The kids save up the dollars to buy special privileges at school.  Well, by Wednesday, the eighth day of school, Virginia had already earned eighteen dollars!  Go Virginia!  It's actually almost absurd that she has gotten so many acknowledgements.  While I know she's a good kid, I can't help but wonder if her smile and hand shake are garnering her a few bucks.  Neither here nor there, she's doing well and I'm proud of her.  Ella, on the other hand, she's just plain envious.  You see, Ella received the school's citizen award for her good behavior, and she doesn't want to be outdone.  Upon hearing how many dollars Virginia had gotten, Ella replied, "Well, it's a lot easier to get dollars in kindergarten than it is in second grade."  I almost spit out my water when she said this.  I still can't believe how competitive these girls are.  To exacerbate things, Daniel replied to Ella, "Well, maybe Virginia is just better at being good."  Ella gave him a little snicker and a grin and a "whatever" roll of the eyes.  She was completely unfazed.