Claire's 100th Day of School

Today was Claire's 100th day of school celebration.  Her teacher gave her class an assignment to bring a collection of 100 things.  I suggested several ideas that I thought were fantastic. 

Me: 100 goldfish on a poster made to look like they are swimming in the ocean?! 
Claire: No.  

Me: 100 skittles in the shape of a rainbow?!
Claire: No 

Me: 100 pom poms  on a poster of a gumball machine.  You love gum balls!
Claire: No.  Well, maybe if we used real gumballs.
Me: We are not buying 100 gumballs.
Claire: Then, no.  

Claire is very much my child and is fiercely independent.  She likes to do things her own way and likes to come up with ideas herself.  I truly love this about her, but at times it makes things a bit tricky.  So at a loss, I suggested we take a trip to the dollar store to see if anything there sparked an idea for her.  At first she simply wanted to make a poster with 100 star stickers.  I said that could probably work and we grabbed a poster board and a pack of star stickers while we continued to browse.  Her teacher had said to "get creative!" and "think of something unique with your child!".  I wasn't sure 100 star stickers was exactly along those lines, but I mean, she is only in kindergarten.  A collection of 100 toothpicks would probably work.

We kept browsing the aisles a bit and came to the puzzle section.  I pointed out some 100 piece puzzles and she found a 100 piece rainbow cake puzzle.  Perfect!  A celebratory cake puzzle for the 100th day of school.  We both agreed the 100 piece puzzle that we could turn into a poster was a "unique" and "creative" collection of 100 things.  

Claire put the puzzle together by herself and I helped her glue it to the poster.  She wrote "Happy 100th Day of School!" (it is too faint to really see in the picture).  She also still insisted on decorating the poster with the star stickers around the puzzle.  I said that was a great idea!  We could do 100 stars AND have the 100 piece puzzle.  She shrugged and said, "I'll just put on as many stars as I want."  There are more than 100 stars on the poster.  And it looks better than it would have with only 100.  Like I said, fiercely independent.  I love her independence, self-reliance, and determination.  And I love that she is so much like me. That independence will serve her well in life....but like later in life when she is an adult and I am no longer reminding myself of positive parenting mantras through gritted teeth. (Kidding. Mostly).  My parents love that I have a child just like me.  Karma at its finest.