Artistic Expression

Emily has been an absolute joy lately, and now that she is approaching 5 she is becoming more interested in letting Dad help her with things (which has been good for everyone). She continues to be incredibly creative. She likes to “write” books. She conceptualizes the story, draws all the pictures, has us write the words for her as she dictates, and then she staples the pages together and brings them to school for the teachers to read to the class.

She continues to take pride in her artwork. She often disappears into the playroom for some length of time and then emerges with her latest work of art. Here, she became very interested in drawing the pirate on her Band-Aid box. Many of the boys at school are fascinated with pirates, and some of this has rubbed off on her. Of course, when she emerged with this little gem, I was pretty surprised at the attention to detail – the plume, the hook, the ruffled collar, and the sash are all in place.

She also likes to dance and we often catch her in the living room, just letting the music take her little body where it needs to go. :)

We recently had Emily’s parent-teacher conference, and they feel pretty confident that she is ready for kindergarten (which is fortunate because she will be attending Kindergarten at Abbie’s Montessori school next year). When I told Emily that her teachers thought that she was ready, I was surprised as how happy, and proud she seemed. Perhaps there was a doubt in her head? Who knows. Either way, she is definitely looking forward to transitioning to Abbie’s “big kid school.” She has already spent a day visiting there and seemed to enjoy it. Also, I think that Abbie is looking forward to watching out for her little sister and “showing her the ropes.” They will get to play together in aftercare, which I also hope will be a good thing for them.

I continue to be amazed at Emily’s emotional maturity. Apparently, she is a natural Yogi (or something) because she seems to have taken very naturally to the deep breathing techniques that they taught her at school. Apparently, they taught the kids that when they are upset they should imagine that one thumb is a flower and the other is a pinwheel. Then the kids can “smell the flower, and blow the pinwheel.” The result is deliberative, deep breathing. Emily has used this technique both to calm herself down when she is upset and to help herself fall asleep. Also, earlier this week she and I were caught driving in some torrential rains that resulted in massive flash flooding. It was definitely stressful for her because the rain was loud on the car windows and we kept having to turn around to avoid flooded roads. I heard her singing in the backseat, but I didn’t think much of it until she said, “I’m singing a song to calm myself down.” I asked if that was something that they taught her at school, but she said that she just thought of it on her own. Very cool.