Peach

Our Tessa is so smart and so fun - I could bore you to death weekly with lists of her accomplishments, the funny things she says and does, stories about her personality...

But that would get old.

So instead, I'm keeping a list in the back of my to-do notebook and writing down things that I want to include on the blog.  Then I can write a boast-post once a month or so.

(this goes for Ash, too, obviously.)

Friday night we had a family movie night - we do that once or twice a month, we usually make homemade pizza for dinner, then watch a movie together.  In the past, we've put Asher to bed about halfway through - he's never very interested in the movie, anyway.  This time he stayed up for the whole thing, though!

We watched Bolt, it was very cute. There's something about dogs that really gets to you, isn't there? Both kids got very worried about Bolt at certain points during the movie. When he comes back at the end and sees Penny with the new Bolt poor Tessa just lost it. She was sitting next to Matt and he said he felt her start to shake - when he turned to look at her she was just sobbing!

Sweet girl - she's very sensitive!

She's reading Charlotte's Web right now...I'm worried about how she's going to take it when Charlotte dies...

That's right - she's 6 and reading Charlotte's Web, on her own.  I swear I was in 3rd grade before I read it!  

Every Monday her class goes to the school Library and they get to check out one book each. Every week she brings home a book, already half way through it. She usually finishes it that night. She reads 2 to 3 books a week, each 100-125 pages.  It's ridiculous!

At school they guide the students to the books that are recommended for their age. She likes The Bailey School Kids books, Magic Tree House books, Disney Fairy books,  American Girl books...basically, she'll read anything she can get her hands on.

I wanted her reading something a bit more difficult, something that would take her longer than just one night to finish.  So we started on the Little House books. They are recomended for ages 9-12, according to Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble, though I think that's a little old. They're longer, though, and more advanced that they other things she'd been reading. For her book report in March she read Little House in the Big Woods. It was 238 pages long and took her about a week to read it. She loved it and asked for the next book in the series as soon as she was done.  I've got a hold request in at the library for her, it should be available this week.

She loves to write as much as she loves to read. In her Language Arts class at school they have to write stories once or twice a week. They do a rough draft and teacher edit before writing their final version with an illustration.  The stories have to be 50 words - occasionally 75. Sometimes at night she asks for paper and pencil to write stories at home, she says so she can make them longer, becuase at school they can only be 50 words.  I've told her that she can write them longer at school, too, that 50 words is the minimum they can be...but she says I'm wrong.  It's 50 words. Exactly.

She brought home this story a week or two ago.  It's my favorite so far.

Here's page one of the story - it continues on the back.  I'll type it out for you - because you really shouldn't miss any of this masterpiece.

One day a 20 year old girl named Peach went through a big maze. 

She didn't take the map! She met a boy named Braden and they 

worked together until they found their way out. That night

 they went out for dinner. The next night Peach was pregnant.

Awesome, right?

I love this story. I love that the girls name is Peach. I love that she's 20. I LOVE that she gets pregnant after going out to dinner. It's the best story I've ever read, I swear.

This month at school they had a "Art Express" contest.  It seems to be similar to the "Reflections" competitions we had when I was in elementary school.

The theme was "Dare to..."

Tessa chose "Dare to be a Doctor" for her theme.  I have no idea where she came up with that. Of all the things she's ever told me she wants to be when she grown up (a writer, a teacher, a hair stylist, a singer, a dancer) she's never mentioned doctor. But that's what she chose.

They have art once a week, and had a couple of weeks of class dedicated to art express.  Here's the picture she painted - I was super impressed!