Julia is now in the "big leagues", being a "big first grader" and all. Someone at work joked about this the other day, but the funny thing is, Julia really is taking school very seriously. We haven't specifically said anything to direct her behavior, other than praise, so we think it's just her personality.
It's fun to see her personality develop. We already knew she was very smart, and we all knew that she's pretty specific about what she wants, or likes certain things to in order. Looking back at play times where she's created specific scenarios and has told each person what to do and what to say, seems to support how she's approaching school.
A few days ago I was coming downstairs at the same time that Julia had woke up. She stumbled out of her room, half asleep, rubbed her eyes, and the first words out of her mouth were, "Dad, can you help me with my homework?" A couple of days later she seemed worked up about something, so we asked her about it before breakfast. She was having a spelling test that morning and was worried about it. The thing is, she had already nailed all ten of the words on the test. She was worried about the EXTRA CREDIT words, not the real test. So, before we left for school we practiced the extra credit words and she got them all correct.
We're starting to get back her homework and schoolwork and she's basically getting 100% scores on everything, with a few exceptions. In some areas she's close to moving on to the next grade level. I've always said that I'm never going to worry about her as she gets older when it comes to these sorts of things, and this post is an example why. If anything, we're going to have rein her in and encourage her to stop and smell the dandelions on the playground.