What do you think they'll win first, Nobel Peace Prize or Pullitzer?

So I had this long post (okay is wasn't that long, quite short actually) going on about how difficult it is to post everyday because I just don't have anything profound to say everyday -- or most days for that matter. Then I came home and was greeted by my brilliant children and dumped the post in favour of bragging with abandon.

Today Sam wanted to draw so I figured it was a good as time as any to start teaching him to write his name. His name is seven letters long. It took forever to teach him to spell it. He isn't all that great at recognizing it when its written. I'm not even sure he can consistently identify the first letter -- then again it's hard to know with him because if he's not interested in demonstrating an ability you're sunk. He's never been all that interested in paper and crayon and subsequently has pretty piss poor abilities in that department. Kamryn's real name is 4 letters long - two of which are the SAME letter. Teaching her to write her name was awful (she was a lot younger than Sam is though). Needless to say I didn't go into this with a lot of confidence. I did go in with a commitment to take it slow. REAL slow. He surprised me, both in his enthusiasm and his abilities. He can write the first three letters of his name. It took about 5 minutes to teach him that. He writes them well. In no particular order of course but he CAN write them and it wasn't hard at all. He was so proud of himself. I was proud enough of him for both of us though.

Then there is Kamryn. Each month she is responsible for a show-and-tell presentation on some assigned topic. First month was family, last month was her Halloween costume and this month it's her favorite stuffed animal. They aren't supposed to present the stuffed animal per se. Rather they are to present the animal it represents.

Kamryn has a snow leopard named Sammy that we built at Build-a-Bear last March. It's one of those that has Build-a-Bear donating a teeny-tiny percentage of their millions in profit to the WWF. It's one of her favorite stuffed animals. I thought it would be appropriate for her presentation. She is the last kid to present in her class. We've had all month to prepare. We have done nothing formal but I've been filling her head with useless facts about snow leopards all month. I didn't want to do her homework for her but its not as if she's going to hop on the internet or head for the local library and look up information on snow leopards, whip out her highlighter and get to it. I planned to at least take her to the library but we had a whole month to get to that and my library card expired and I owe fines and to renew my library card I need to pay the fines and I'm lazy and there weren't that many Kindergarten level books on snow leopards as it was. So we didn't go. But I did spend the month quizzing her on various facts about the snow leopard. The presentation is on Thursday.

Today I sent her upstairs to get her snow leopard. When she came bounding into the room I asked her to do her presentation for me. And out came all the silly little facts I'd peppered her with all month. She was coherent. Her presentation was cohesive and logical. It was in her own words (which is good since my french really isn't up to par here lol). It was great! I only had to offer the tiniest recommendations here and there. My daughter is BRILLIANT! I'm so happy for her. We'll drill between now and Thursday so that she is confident but really she's just wonderful. :)

Wasn't that better than a whole post about how I have nothing to say. Maybe tomorrow ... ;)