End of Month 'Kid Picks'...And Some Mom Picks Too!

First of all, the credit for this idea goes to Joy. She said that at the end of every month we should pick our favorite thing we made that month to show off to all the Grandparents on our blog. Of course picking just one thing is much easier said than done and a whole month of projects to choose from is a little overwhelming...I found that the picks this month happened to be some of the most recent creations and the ones that were still hanging up.  :) Next month maybe we can put a little more thought into what our favorite thing we want to share will be, a month of projects can be a little hard to remember when Mom doesn't have room to keep them all on display for the whole month. Anyway, here are some creations that the kids picked to 'show off' to all of their Grandmas and Grandpas for January...

Joy of course, following her own rule of choosing one creation to share, chose exactly one...

This is her straw art she made at co-op during art week this month. She said they moved the paint around  by blowing through a straw.

Joshua had a bit of a harder time choosing just one. He's really enjoying his 'Draw Then Write' book that shows you simple steps for drawing different objects or animals and then you are suppose to write something about your picture underneath. Often times he just dictates to me what he wants to say about it and I will write it for him, but he does the picture part all by himself and he's been quite proud of some of his drawings this month. This one here is his colorful Hippo...

And here is Leo the Lion. About 99% of the time that Joshua makes up a story about anything, it involves a superhero of sorts. Even his animals are heros and are often saving someone.  :) For this one, he made up his story and I wrote it down for him....

But I will not be writing all of it for him anymore! I discovered this week that this boy can have beautiful handwriting and writes quite comfortably when properly motivated. Most of the time he appears to really struggle with handwriting and would much rather give me answers verbally. I do make him do some handwriting everyday, but not  too much and many of his school activities don't require that much writing, except for things like this Draw Then Write book.

This is how it happened....The kids were making birthday cards for some upcoming February birthdays when Joy made some remark about hers 'will be better because Joshua can't even write his letters the right way.' Joshua shot right back, 'Yes I do! Just watch, MMMMIIIIINE is going to be the BEST!' And so the competition began. After a quick talk about not putting each other down anymore and encouraging them to use their words nicely, I noticed what Joshua had just written, very quickly and neatly in awesome printing (in my opinion for a 4 1/2 yr. old)...

 Seriously!? I said, "Joshua that looks great! I can read your letters perfectly! How did you do it so fast and so nicely?" (When he doesn't want to write something but I've asked him to, it can take FOREVER...so I usually put it away until he's more in the mood to practice, since he's not even in Kindergarten yet I don't want to push it too much.) His response, as serious as can be, "Well, I just wanted to do better than Joy so I decided to try my BEST."....then he whispered his jab..."and I knew MY best would be better than hers. (giggle, giggle, giggle)"  Of course we had to talk AGAIN about using kind words and then about trying our best all the time, especially on our school work when he pointed out to me, the wise 4 1/2 year old that he is..."Mom, don't you think my writing on Dad's birthday card IS more important that my schoolwork paper that just goes in my notebook?".....Hmm, he's right. But I can see some new Joshua challenges in my future. :)

This is another one of MY picks, because this was just TOO cute not to share...

I LOVE the fact that we're all holding hands and that we have big circle shoulders! So cute, definitely one to save! :)

And last, Faith Elaina wanted to show off one of her many rainbow paintings...

And her perfected purple letter 'F'. She's been writing it on everything and is getting quite comfortable with her name letter. :)

So that's it for the 'Kid Picks' this month, Grandmas and Grandpas - They will be looking forward to your comments! :)