In the course of just one week, Britney Spears has gone from being a patient in a psychiatric ward to mentoring some impressionable and funky youth.

In what appears to be a positive step forward for the unstable star (and a possible attempt at some damage control), she skipped her usual schedule of aimless drives and gas station stops in favor of -- wait for it -- teaching.

On both Monday and Tuesday, Britney led a group of little girls through some hoofing basics at the Millennium dance studio in Los Angeles. (No word on whether she channeled Debbie Allen by grimly informing them, "Fame costs -- and right here's where you start paying.")

"Britney was really nice and a good teacher. It was fun," one of Tuesday's pupils tells E! News. "We had a routine and shook our hips, and then we went down and pointed to the crowd. After class we all gave her a hug, and she gave us autographs. She wrote her name. Britney said we did really well."

Brit at the Millennium dance studio on Feb. 11

Another student gave the fishnet-, hot pant- and boot-clad Spears (alas, her bras remain MIA) a Valentine's card with her phone number inside, a gesture that triggered some waterworks, reports Us.

According to the girl's mom, Britney, whose "butt was hanging out" of her kid-unfriendly leopard-print short-shorts, "welled up with tears and said that she really appreciated it."

The previous day, Spears began the lesson by introducing herself to the excited ankle-biters, most of whom are too young to know her from anything other than the tabloids.

"She worked out this great little routine for them, they were dancing all over the place, she had them dancing in a circle like a choo-choo train," Robert Baker, the co-owner of the studio, told Us (and pretty much any media outlet that would listen). "The kids loved it -- they are having a ball right now. And Britney -- she's just drinking it up. She's totally enjoying herself. It's an amazing class -- she and the kids are certainly enjoying the process."

The oddest part of the jazz hands-fueled proceedings was that the trusting parents had to wait outside the studio while Britney, who hasn't seen sons Sean Preston, 2, or Jayden James, 1, since her police standoff and subsequent hospitalization on Jan. 3, instructed their tots.

So what accounts for Britney's sudden enthusiasm for kicking up her heels?

While there's speculation she's prepping for a video shoot or possibly even a world tour (no, we don't find that claim based in reality, either, especially given her inability to make it through a lip-synched, three-minute performance at the VMAs), a source tells E! that she's shaking her groove thing "mostly for exercise" and "to get out of the house."

"Britney's telling me that she likes this so much that she's thinking about making it a regular thing, possibly every other week," the Spears-boosting Baker bubbles to Us. "She loves to interact with the kids, and she feels that it's important to give back to the dance community."

Spears also apparently feels it's important to give back to the retail community. Before making like Fosse on Tuesday, she enjoyed some cash-burning bonding time with intermittently estranged mom Lynne (her new bodyguards and the usual horde of paparazzi also tagged along).

People reports Brit, whose estate is currently in the hands of conservators, including dad Jamie, dropped about $650 during a 30-minute visit to Miss Sixty, picking out jeans, T-shirts and a blue dress with some sartorial guidance from Mama Spears.

"Her mom helped her get the right size jeans that she ended up buying," a mole tells the magazine. "Britney also held up the blue dress in front of her and showed her mom before she decided to buy it."

But does Lynne feel her daughter is still in denial about how serious her (lack of) custody situation is?

PageSix.com is convinced she confided in former son-in-law Kevin Federline that Britney talks about the tots "like they are toys."

"She is like a little girl with dolls," tattles a "family insider," "and does not understand why she can't have them back."

Federline, maintains the source, "does not want her to see them until she agrees to get more help."

Speaking of help, Britney has received some assistance with one long-standing trouble spot.

OK! magazine reports she just had new extensions tacked on by her stylist, who shall remain nameless so as not to be implicated in the tangled topknot seen perched on her head this week.

The bill for the counterfeit coif supposedly came to around $6,000.

In other money news, former hanger-on-turned-persona-non-grata Sam Lutfi insists that he's not the advantage-taking sleazeball he's been made out to be.

"Sam was inserted into Britney's life in October after Britney had already shaved her head and been in two drug rehabs," his new spokesman, Michael Sands, attempts to explain to photo agency X17.com (fun fact: until a few days ago, Sands was the mouthpiece for Federline's lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan). "Sam became her manager, and then her close friend. A manager does get paid."

But he never held out his hand for more than he deserved, says Sands, who denies that the restraining order-dodging Lutfi has jetted off to Dubai and points out that he's turned down several lucrative tell-all offers.

"He wouldn't take advantage of someone who has a disorder," huffs the flack. "He's not selling her out. There will be no big score."

As for her suspect and still-married photographer beau Adnan Ghalib, who was granted entry to Brit's Beverly Hills, Calif., estate Tuesday night, did he score big during their trip to Mexico several weeks back?

Star (via the New York Daily News) is convinced Britney and Adnan "secretly wed" in a "legally meaningless" ceremony during their run for the border shortly after her January hospitalization, citing the apparent existence of nuptial documents.

What's more, claims the tab, Spears supposedly offered up a $250,000 dowry to Ghalib, money it says was intended to help speed up his single status.

Asserts a source, "He is promising her that they'd get married again once his divorce is final."

Next: Romance Report: Hermione and the Rocker?