Creative Learning and Educational Supports

Last night, as a 16th birthday present, Abbey took her friend, Alyssa, to a Build-a-Bear store to have her choose a special bear that reflects her entering her dating years. I came up with this idea for Abbey’s 16th birthday last year . . . to join her child-like qualities and love of animals (the bear) with her desire to enter another stage of growth (dating, girlishness and understanding twittery girly socializing); Abbey wanted to share this gift idea with her friend. Going back in time to Abbey’s trip to get her bear last year, it was a fun bonding experience as we discussed her hopes and dreams as it pertains to her future marriage, husband, and family. She wanted her bear to symbolize her standards and beliefs as she entered the dating years. Abbey intends to visit her bear before every date to remind her of her own expectations.

So, she chose a white bear to symbolize purity. She then chose a build your own sound to record a message that she had decided on to reflect a supportive belief for this stage. Previously, Abbey and I had perused the songs that she had most enjoyed singing on her guitar, and carefully listened to the lyrics to see if something jumped out at us. One did. It is from the song, “Beautiful”, and the lines that she chose to state in the message were: “It’s what you give that makes you beautiful; it’s how you live that makes your dreams come true.” Perfect reflection of who Abbey is . . .

Then Abbey chose a heart to put inside her bear. She had thought about the prayerful wish she would like to make about this stage that the bear represented. She then proceeded over to find an outfit that reflected herself. The outfit had to be modest and authentic to Abbey’s style of dress. She decided on jeans and a simple purple top . . . no hat and no shoes. Last, she put the free bows on the bear’s ears to indicate her willingness to “add to” who she is in becoming more girlish without subtracting from who she authentically is.

Alyssa is the friend that shows Abbey how to be more girly, but appreciates Abbey’s comfortableness in being simple and not a “game player” in the girl/boy dynamic. Although she has very similar standards and beliefs as Abbey, Alyssa’s bear looked completely different as it reflected her very own personality.
Always be loyal with your partner, never http://respitecaresa.org/?plugin=all-in-one-event-calendar&controller=ai1ec_exporter_controller&action=export_events&ai1ec_post_ids=950&xml=true cialis uk make communication gap.

It was a fun girl’s night out 🙂

Abbey and Alyssa__________Abbey’s Build-a-Bear

Our family hasn’t been overly about plugging into school type traditions. In fact, Eric “officially” graduated from our homeschool on his 18th birthday, over a year ago, and yet, here we were today, getting what we told the photographer were his “senior pictures”.

There are several differences that have already shown up both in Eric’s “diploma” and his “senior pictures”. Being my first child and all, you’d think I would be all ready and excited about putting together both of these “big events”, but either it’s just not my style to make big productions, which is true, or I just can’t seem to get motivated in putting a lot of stock in these worldly schoolish traditions.

The diploma came about because Eric was starting a job that required one. I sat down with Abbey, who is so good at things like that on the computer, and I was able to produce one that I was pleased with. As I decided and contemplated about when the official diploma date should read, and he was starting this job on his 18th birthday, since it required that age to be hired, it suddenly occurred to me to use his 18th birth date. And so, a potential “tradition” in our home began. Instead of ending our homeschool year in June, it ended in February for this child, on his birthday.

And now senior pictures, which traditionally are taken sometime in the fall or winter of your senior year, are being taken for Eric one year later. Why, you ask? Well, I don’t see it as senior pictures more than I see it as his “year of transition”. As mentioned in my previous post, Eric is preparing to leave in less than three weeks to begin a journey to serve the Lord for two years on a church mission. He chose to work toward this goal around his 18th birthday. So, as he saw a lot of his peers going off to college, he wanted to continue his role in our home as it had always been until his 19th birthday, which is the age in which he can apply for this mission. And so, things continued as always . . . kinda like when we decided to homeschool him all those years ago . . . in order to allow things to continue as always . . . so, I guess we came full circle with the ages of 5 and 18.

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Admittedly, I want to capture that “moment in time”, if you would, about who my oldest son is before he leaves home for the first time for an extended period of time. He chose to have some shots taken of him in his missionary attire (i.e., suit and tie), in some casual attire that he was rather attached to over the past year, and a Japanese outfit along with a couple of Japanese swords to pose with that reflects his particular interest in everything Japanese throughout his teen years. It was fun seeing him enjoy his “professional photography shoot” . . . about 100 pictures taken . . . oh, we’re paying through our nose for it, but as I said before, I wasn’t one to make big deals over big deals, so I tried to do so at this time of closure.

The transition party is yet to be arranged (i.e., usually known as the “graduation open house”). . . last minute as always for me and mine . . . like the pictures . . . so stay tuned to see if “memorable” still occurs!