Back to School Night - Fidget

We moved Fidget from public school to a local Catholic school for first grade after she and her kindergarten classmates were collateral damage last year in a political battle between the elementary school principal and several of the teachers.  Just a few weeks in, Fidget has told us several times how much happier she is at her new school and how much she likes her teachers.

Fidget attended a week-long camp for students earlier in the summer and met her teacher there.  She was ecstatic that she was given a journal to draw and write stories in each day of camp.  Fidget is showing some talent for drawing, and will fill many pages of paper quite rapidly if allowed to do so.  She likes to write also, but the big interest right now is drawing.

Unlike our local public school, back to school night was held within two weeks of the school year starting; both Kd and I were able to go.  We sat through the introductions from the principal and the "specials" teachers, and then headed to Fidget's classroom to hear more specific information from her first grade teacher.  In the classroom, some of the parents, including Kd, sat at their child's desk.  As the first grade teacher was wrapping up her presentation, she passed out paper for the parents to leave notes for the parents.  Kd has significantly better handwriting, so she was writing the note to Fidget when she started looking at the top of Fidget's desk.  She moved the paper and tilted her head to get light just right and called me over.  Fidget had "decorated" the top of her desk with various pencil doodles - a star, a flower, and some other designs.  We asked Fidget about her desktop the next morning and she acknowledged that she had done the drawings and was trying to illustrate the holidays - Christmas, Easter, etc.  We told her that was nice, but she should write on paper, not the desk; she confirmed after school that she had cleaned up the desktop that day.