A new school year often gets parents thinking about the things their children need, right?! Vanessa didn't really need any clothes for school, but recently, while shopping, there was a part of me that figured it might be fun to tell her to pick out any shirt she would like to wear on her first day. She chose a pretty, sparkly shirt. I looked at the price tag and thought of many reasons the shirt was not practical. But I had to remind myself that I chose to go this route. We talked about the pros and cons. The cons outweighed the pros. But there was no convincing Vanessa the shirt wasn't the best choice for being comfortable at school. After talking about it for several minutes, I discovered the shirt was 55% off. I then decided the sale price justified a lesson for Vanessa.
As soon as we got it home, she tore off the tags and put it on. After a short bit, Vanessa started to complain that the shirt was itchy. She realized she shouldn't complain to Mommy, so she mumbled her complaints here and there. Pretty quickly, though, Vanessa began to solve the problem. She discovered that putting on an undershirt made it more comfortable to wear. But then she had a new problem -- the extra layer made it too hot in a school with no air conditioning. Vanessa allowed Mommy to clean the sparkly, itchy shirt for her first day. But guess what?! It didn't matter! The problem worked itself out. She received a special surprise shortly before school started. (Just how did the gift giver know?!) She insisted she must wear the surprise.
Just like with her outfit, the day worked out perfectly too. She took special calls before beginning her new adventure. Our walk to school was great for her release of extra energy and thoughts and for satisfying any random curiosity. After entering the school, she went to the office to give a backpack with supplies for a child in need. She then jumped right in line for entering her classroom, turning around waving and blowing me kisses. When I returned to pick her up, she asked me: "Is that it?! There's no more school for today?"
She went on to describe her day with the green smiley face she earned. She explained that there were a couple of boys who went home with yellow and one boy was even moved to a bench, away from others. She announced proudly that she was incredibly fast to get in line when Mrs. Stolly blew the whistle on the playground. And she asked to collect all of her green smiley faces for the year. As one might guess, she jabbered nonstop all the way home . . .
