Reflections 2010

School Reflections entries were due last week.  I love and hate reflections at the same time!  I love that the kids are being creative and developing their talents...I hate how much work it is for me.  Yes, the kids do all their own creative work--but I have to get the supplies, help them find time to think of the ides, plan it out, do it then I have to get the mats, get the pictures developed, get the forms filled out and shrink wrap the entries and get them to school on time.  Since the entries are due within 4-5 weeks of school starting it always seems like a lot.  But, once they are submitted I'm always glad we did it.

This year's theme was more difficult than others.  The theme was "Together We Can."  In the past it has been "Wow" and "Beauty Is"--much more easily interpreted.

After a bit of thinking, Carter came up with this idea for his entry:

I like the way he added all different people to the letters.  Carter is really talented at drawing.  I have no artistic talent at all and I'm always impressed when I see how well Carter draws.  When Matt was in Finland this spring, Carter would come home with some amazing pictures to show Matt when we did our video calls.

Caroline's picture was more difficult.  Inherently, she needed a picture with people in it.   She wanted a picture of Alex and Aaron working together--but that was like herding cats...and she wasn't the most patient of photographers.  After about 30 minutes of frustration we called it quits for the day.  The next day we went out again and Aaron and I were the subjects (well, Aaron with as little of me as possible).  She took several that were really great--but we all liked this one the best:

She sat on top of the monkey bars to take the picture then focused on the monkey bars.  We love how it shows Aaron almost reaching the monkey bars--but we also liked that the focus was on the goal--literally and figuratively.  This is actually something that Aaron loves to do--any time we go to a park, I have to help him do the monkey bars over and over again.

Here are their entries all shrink wrapped, matted and ready for school.