U is for unique

Since the beginning of the new year, Annika's preschool class has been going through the alphabet, focusing on a different letter each day.  The kids are encouraged to bring an item starting with that letter for show and tell.  First of all, I have to say, I'm so impressed by her teachers that every single item that she's brought to school has come back home.  I thought for sure she'd lose some along the way, but the teachers are very good at making sure that the kids keep track of their items and that they put them back in their backpacks each day to take home.  That must be no small task, so kudos to you teachers.

We're now onto letter U and I have to say, I'm glad that the alphabet is almost over.  It's been a bit of a challenge for us (or perhaps just me), remembering which letter it is each day and finding something to take along.  As we've been going through the alphabet, I've discovered something about Annika, something that is actually very cool - she has a strong desire to be unique.  She learned that word from a Fancy Nancy book, and while I don't really like Fancy Nancy books in general (I'll save that rant for another day), I like that Annika has learned that word and that she understands the concept.  She doesn't want to be like everyone else, and she definitely doesn't want to bring the same thing for show and tell as everyone else.  I remember on "O" day when I was trying to get her to bring a toy octopus, she told me, "I don't want to bring an octopus, EVERYONE will bring an octopus" (and she was right - there were quite a few octopuses that day).  I think that was right around the time when she learned the word unique and decided that her show and tell should be unique each day.  Which is great, but also a lot more challenging!  (By the way, she ended up bringing some fake orchid flowers for "O" day, and was quite satisfied that no one else had brought flowers - although I'm pretty sure she mispronounced "orchids" every time she said it).

Last night we were trying to think of "U" words for today - umbrella was definitely too common, we didn't have a unicorn or a ukelele, and we decided it would be inappropriate to bring underwear to school (wearing it is okay, showing it is not).  I told Annika she should just bring herself, and tell everyone that she's a "U" word - unique.  She wasn't too impressed with that (and I thought I was being so creative!), so I googled "U words", and came up with "ultrasound".  So today she took in her ultrasound picture, from when I was pregnant with her.  I made sure that she understood that it was a picture of her, so that nobody would think that she was making any announcements (hopefully no more of those kind of announcements around here - I'm done!!).  :P  She thought it was quite unique and that made her quite happy.

As for her wanting to be unique, I think that's great (even if it's sometimes more of a challenge, and who knows what she'll want to do to be "unique" as she grows up!!), and I try to tell her every day that she is unique and special, no matter what she's wearing or what she brings to show and tell, because God made her.  :)