Ballerina's School Adventures

These pictures were taken at the park at Ballerina's school. Jeana and I swapped watching each other's kids during parent/teacher conferences.
Every day at dinner we ask everyone what the best and worst parts of their day were. One day Ballerina said the worst part was that she missedme at school. Handsome Husband told her that I really like it when she says that she missed me. So she has started to say that missing me was the worst part of her day more frequently. The other night she told this big story about how she was crying because she missed me so much. She said that her teacher was holding her and she was crying so loud that the other teacher came and asked what was wrong and when she said that she missed her mom, the teacher comforted her and said that the school day was almost over and that I would be there soon. That was the second time that Ballerina told me that she cried at school because she missed me. So when I went to parent/teacher conference I was surprised that Ballerina's teacher had no idea what I was talking about. She said that only time she'd seen Ballerina cry was that first day when she wanted to ride the bus home. I was a little annoyed and amused that Ballerina would make up an elaborate story meant to make me think that she missed me so much.
Did you notice that Sweetie has her shoes on the wrong feet? She almost ALWAYS puts them on the wrong feet. This time she even forgot a sock!

The kids had fun with this spiderweb thing.

Every morning I pull out a picture with a scripture story on it and I explain the story to the kids. So one morning I pulled out a picture of Joseph in Egypt, getting his coat yanked off by Potipher's wife. Yikes. So I basically explained that the wife wanted Joseph to hug her and kiss her even though she was married to someone else and that it wasn't ok and so Joseph ran away. Well, that afternoon when I picked Ballerina up from school she tells me that a boy wanted to show her his underwear and that she ran away and hid so he couldn't. And another boy wanted to kiss her, but she ran away and hid from him as well. I was so proud of her for remembering the story from that morning so that she knew what to do when people wanted to do something inappropriate!

Ballerina was excited to show us around her little playground. She said this was the fastest slide.

Did I mention that during the first week of school, Ballerina got in trouble for trying to kiss a boy? Her friend was egging her on. So they both got in trouble. I kind of lectured her in the car on the way home and she said, "Mom! The teacher already told me all this!" And I asked what the teacher said and said, "I can't bemember." I told her that I should definitely be saying it again, then. I also tried to explain that I was my responsibility as a parent to talk to her about these things. Ballerina hasn't tried kissing boys since.

When I was doing Ballerina's hair one morning she said, "Mom? Did you know? There is a girl in my class named Annabella. And she smells bad. But she doesn't know that she smells bad." Ummmm.... I didn't really know what to say. I asked if other kids made fun of Annabella and she said no. And I said good. I told Ballerina that it probably wasn't Annabella's fault that she smelled funny. I have also tried to ingrain in Ballerina that it is not ok to tell someone that they are fat or funny or weird. Now she goes out of her way to be nice to someone if they look abnormal. Which I think it great. Once she told me, "Mom? Did you know? There is a girl who is fat and I told her, 'Hi! I think your hair is pretty.'" I'm glad that Ballerina is trying to be kind.

Ballerina also has a friend at school whose name she doesn't know. She just refers to this girl as her mean friend. Apparently, the girl was mean at first and said that she wasn't going to invite Ballerina to her birthday party. Then a couple of days later she changed her mind and said that Ballerina could come to her party. And Ballerina wanted to know if she could go, even though her friend is mean. Ummm... I said I'd need an invitation, thinking that maybe the girl wasn't really going to have a party. And I think I'm right about that because we haven't gotten an invite. I tried to tell Ballerina to seek out nice friends. I asked if the mean friend was still mean and Ballerina said that she wasn't mean to her. So I suggested that Ballerina be a good example and show her mean friend how to be nice to others.

School has been an adventure already.