Lizzy journal

Okay, I probably shouldn't have put this on the list, because it's more a passing observation than a story.

(However, I completely agree with Tara's comment below -- that someone else could write about the coffee stain they got on their pants, or the mystery smell in their kitchen, or their annoying cubicle neighbor, or the crazy episode of CSI they saw last night -- I would still find it fascinating. Because, as she said, when I'm reading someone else's blog, I'm either looking for an update or a break, or both. My ability to be entertained is pretty basic. Heck, I do my most talking to a 4-year-old.)

That said:

I'm repeatedly impressed by the ways Lizzy's school finds to get the children to express themselves on their terms, at their skill levels. Matt and I were concerned -- well, he concerned, I intrigued -- to hear that Lizzy would be completing a "journal" in kindergarten. I think he was worried that all the other kids could read and write, and she'd be expected to. She's starting to put letters together, a little, but to be honest, we don't work on that much at home. (We should start.) I've probably mentioned that she prefers more of a bedtime story format, and loves memorizing them and "reading" them to us. Hope we're not stunting her too much.

So Lizzy's been tearing through this "journal" -- I think the kids have regular journal time each day -- and this is what it is: They draw, with markers, what they've learned about. One day, they recited a "five busy bees" poem. So she drew and colored five bees. The day we all went to the pumpkin patch, she drew that. Some days, the teachers spell out words for them to write down, to practice.

She's very, VERY proud of it. She has tried to show it to us a few times -- and we want to see it, and we look and listen to her descriptions, but the problem is, we pick her up right at the end of the day, and we just can't sit there for 20 minutes and pore over it. But I LOVE it.

She's also, of her own accord, appropriated notebooks at home (probably encouraged by her school experience) and calls them "her journal(s)", and is putting stickers on each page, or drawing pictures ... It's just the cutest thing. We got our first one from Ethan down the street -- his July birthday party (Go Diego Go!) incorporated "field journals" to document all of the things they'd seen on their party adventures. So creative!

It just makes me proud. I'm a journal-keeper from way back, though about ... hm ... the time I had Lizzy, I stopped keeping one. I guess the blog is supposed to fill some of that gap, but it really doesn't. Which is okay.

I love to see her doing things that I'm interested in. (what can I say -- I'm a parent! I guess we're all alike in that way.) I love to see her discover her own interests, for sure, but there's something sweet and special about handing down a skill or interest to the next generation.

Oh, she's also got her first "photo album." I took her little camera in to Ritz and got the photos developed. Dude, they're terrible. A horizontal pic of the top of the vacuum cleaner; a few shots of the clothes hamper; a few blurry photos of the flowers on the table. Endless variations of her animals clustered together on the couch. A half-dozen of Daddy, from the back, as he made dinner that night.

Impossibly cute, nonetheless. But next time we buy a camera for her, she gets more pixels! The thing will break the first time she drops it, but darn it -- more pixels.