Sarah presenting her art to the Options students and teachers

Sarah did an amazing job talking about her artwork during morning assembly on Oct.11, 2011 at Options. She prepared thoroughly writing out her "speech" first on notebook paper and then on notecards. She practiced her talk many times out loud the day before and morning of her presentation, and then, she didn't even use her index cards at all during the actual presentation. Way to go, Sarah! Mommy and Daddy were so proud of you. We thought you did an excellent job, sweetie!

Kids' Self-Portraits (Oct.2011)

"Pink Popper"

"Splat" by Fletcher
"Autumn" by Sarah
On October 6, 2011 the kids, their friend, Chantal, and I all went to an art show and had a blast looking at and talking about the pieces on display. One of the pieces was a really neat self-portrait that was a profile painted with bright, bold blocks of color. We decided to make our own self-portraits when we got home. We used a flashlight in the garage to trace the kids' profiles onto paper (not easy! in that the slightest movement drastically changes the profile as you trace/copy it onto paper). The kids then had fun painting them as I read out loud. We LOVED the final products. The kids were quite pleased with their creations!

December 6 in Mrs. Appel's class

Our little waitress passing out the cupcakes she made for her classmates.

She has been WAITING for this day for soooo long!

Maliek and Destiny (one of her two best friends from Mrs. Appel's class) can be seen behind her:

Pay Pay's shoulders hunch in her bashful posture...it used to surface when she was younger as a "chin tuck to chest and left ear to left shoulder while looking out the tops of her eyes" posture. She was feeling bashful as her classmates sung "Happy Birthday" to her during circle time. I was SO thankful I got to see her reaction- it was precious!

Starting to feel timid during circle time...

I no longer describe her as shy, however. She is in many ways more bold than Sarah or Fletcher right now. The go-carts and other recent situations have shown us just how "brave" she is! Small example: Paris will stand alone in a fast food line to ask the worker for a water cup. She no longer needs help or company to do things she might have felt insecure doing alone or independently a year or so ago.