Self-Manager

Ballerina is very excited about her latest achievement.  She has become a self-manager at school.  

She gets to wear her nifty badge every day (she calls it a vadge).  She earned it by earning 16 merits called gotcha's (teachers caught her being safe, responsible or respectful).  Once she earned the 16 merits she had to bring home a piece of paper for me to sign and then she had to have each of her teachers sign it.  Ballerina was very driven to become a self-manager because there are certain perks that come with the title.

One day, soon after getting her badge, it was left on the kitchen counter when she went to school because I had her take it off while I did her hair.  I knew how important it was to her, so I ran it to the school.  When I arrived at the school, I saw Ballerina skipping from her classroom to the office all by herself.  I called out to her and she told me that because she was a self-manager she was called on to take the attendance sheet to the office all by herself.  She was SO proud of herself.  I love how the school has promoted being so responsible.  Other perks include: sitting on a chair instead of on the floor during reading time, getting to stay inside with the teacher during recess (the one that Ballerina was most looking forward to because she just LOVES her teacher), having a party just for self-managers, etc.

Ballerina has grown so much over the school year.  She is such a wonderful girl and she wants to do the right thing.  She wants to be a big girl and she likes to think about what things will be like when she is a grown-up (and when I'm a grandma).  She tries so hard to be nice and to do what is expected of her.  The other day she got her own cup, the jug of milk, poured the milk and put everything away when she was done.  I haven't let her do that before and I loved that she could.

Ballerina is also writing really well.  She is sounding out words and writing them.  She can read basic words and she can read some Spanish.  She can read part of Go, Dog. Go! (she gets worn out about half way through).  She loves to copy words and she loves to ask me how to spell things so she can write them down.  She is always writing notes and drawing pictures for me.  Her drawing has really improved as well.  I am so proud of her!