Lessons from the first week of school

The end of the first week of school. Here are the two responses I got from my girls, so incredibly descriptive of their personalities.

Me: How was school today?
Kate: (gives me a thumbs down signal)
Me: Uh-oh. What happened? (followed by much coaxing to get her to talk to me.)
Kate: It's all about the penny jars.
Me: Like the penny jars where your table works to earn a prize?
Kate: Yeah. The blue team won. My team didn't win because there's this kid named Josiah at my table and he keeps being naughty. (starts to cry, real tears) Mom, it's not fair. All the rest of us worked so hard.

Bless her sweet little soul. There's no way in a million years that Kate would ever be naughty at school and I'm sure that all week long she's been thinking about how her team would win the penny jar prize. I explained to her that some kids have a hard time adjusting to kindergarten, and that Josiah will probably shape up soon. Apparently one of the other lessons (life lessons) of school is learning that sometimes you don't win, even if you do your best. Which is a sad lesson to learn, but a necessary one.

Me: How was your day at school?
Anna: Good. We had our spelling test.
Me: How did that go?
Anna: Good. I think I got an A+, but she has to grade them over the weekend and hand them back on Monday.
Me: Okay.
Anna: I really hope I got an A+. So that I can get into BYU.

This kid is such a perfectionist when it comes to school! She freaks out if she makes a mistake on her homework and has to erase or start over. She really is quite smart, which is good, but I hope she doesn't give herself an ulcer if she ever misses a word on a spelling test. And, how funny is it that she's already worrying about getting into BYU? I'm pretty sure that not even Harvard is selective enough to care about your grade on the first spelling test of first grade!

I love these two, and I miss them while they are at school each day. What a blessing to have such sweeties in my life!

PS-- I did take pictures of Kate on her first day, but I can't find the cord to download the ones on my camera to the computer. Bummer about living in a remodeling life.