Doing her part to deforest the earth

Lily is learning to write in kindergarten.  They do something called kid writing a few times a week, where the kids draw a picture and then write a sentence about it...to the best of their abilities.  After they are done writing the best that they can, a teacher or volunteer writes the correct spelling underneath.  The hope is that it encourages the children to not worry about being perfect but to just write...the rest will come gradually.

I'll be honest.  I was skeptical when Andrew started Kindergarten.  But it helped Mr. Perfectionist have fun writing.  He loved inventive spelling so much, that he started to do it for everything...even words he knew, like his name.  We had to nip that in the bud pretty quickly, but mostly it was all positive.

Lily has taken to it whole-heartedly.  She used to write a little, but she was constantly asking me to spell things.  I don't know if it is the freedom to not worry about spelling correctly, or the fact that she is reading so well now she just happens to know a lot of words....but MAN.  This girl is writing.

On everything.

Like tables. (okay that was once, and she hasn't done it again since I made her scrub the table clean)

But mostly paper.

Post-it notes.

Lined paper.

White paper.

Scrap paper.

Hundreds of little notes taped on every square inch of the house.  Or stuck on people.  She is constantly running up and sticking notes on us...or often Shadow.

Right now, from the computer, I can see 7 notes.

One is taped to Shadow's cage...it says, "Shadow.  Oooooooooooooo."  (that would be a dog howling, of course.)

One is taped to the side of the counter.  It is a picture of me and says, "MY MOMMY SAD."

One is taped to the dishwasher.  No picture, it just says, "I wat a Big Sissr" (I want a big sister ?!?)

One is taped next to the fridge.  There's a picture of 2 people.  It says, "Lily Loves You.  How Many is taer" (how many is there)

One is a picture of a girl with music notes coming out of her mouth.  It says, "Mom Michael (arrow to picture) Lily S!

Two are taped to the basement door.

One says, "this is my family  mommy and Daddy Andrew Lily Michael and Shadow"

The other has a picture of a unicorn and says, "Andrew Lily Michael  Danbay tiar was a pony beach berry is a viry nays pony" (??? there was a pony.  Beach berry is a very nice pony)

And these are just the ones in the kitchen.  I cannot stress to you how these things are multiplying.  I found one one my pillow last night, for crying out loud.

Of course, it said, "I love you Mommy.  Love your Lily."

Kind of hard to get annoyed by that, right?  Although since Shadow can't read, the dozens of notes taped to her back that read, "I love Shadow.  She is my dog." , are kind of lost on her.  She's just freaked out by the crinkle of paper on her back.