Kids' Extracurricular Activities

Our daughter moved into her second season school sport, basketball.  She may be tiny, but she hustles more than any other girl on her team. She's been battling ankle sprains, but I can't get her to rest long enough to let it heal.  She is a fierce athlete.  If her team could shoot as well as they do everything else on the court, they would be unstoppable, but their shooting is really hurting them.  A lay-up clinic offered by a pro as a gift to the school helped our daughter a great deal.  I'm so proud of her commitment to everything she does, but I fear she is just like me in her binary personality.  She is either ALL in or all out.  She will wear herself out and keep injuring herself as I did if she doesn't learn to rest more.  But I know exactly how she feels.  I'm an all or nothing girl myself.

This picture makes me smile because you can tell by the form of her arms and her height from the floor that she is a former gymnast.  She looks like she's beginning a long tumbling run as she throws the ball. She also looks like she could be doing a leap on the high beam.

I addition to going to sports practices or games every day after school, this girl also arrives to school at 6:45 a.m. (thank God for her daddy who drives her that early when he isn't traveling) for drama practice.  She auditioned for a competitive drama team, and they are rehearsing regularly for the state competition in March.  Her electives this semester are Drama and Art.  She is definitely the most right-brained in our family and thrives at this classical school where the liberal arts are such a focus.

Her great-grandfather was a famous wood sculptor, and his life and legacy will be honored with a three-month long exhibition via the Oklahoma Hall of Fame at the Gaylord-Pickens Museumwith a 100th birthday celebration of His art and the art of his descendants beginning Jan 21, 2016 thru April 30, 2016.  She wanted to submit a piece of artwork into the exhibition, but without any professional art instruction and with a mother who is completely incompetent with regard to all things art related, I could not help her.  She is very imaginative but needed some guidance as to mediums to use, how to get started, and how to SLOW DOWN and focus on details.  So, a dear friend who is a professional artist kindly gave of her time to supervise and guide her as she completed a self-portrait of herself with her beloved bunny.  She is still trying to think of a name for it.  She completed it Sunday afternoon, just in time to get it to the museum before the exhibition begins. 

Meanwhile, our son is really beginning to thrive with his piano lessons, though he wants a drum set so he can play drums in the band next year.  I have enough trouble listening to him practice piano.  I'm not sure how I will handle a drum set or where we will put it, but I'm sure he would do a great job, and I certainly enjoyed playing in the drum corps in high school, so I would not want to deprive him of that opportunity.

He is still active in Y Guides with his dad and taking Tae Kwon Do.  He earned his red belt this past Friday.  Black belt is next, but Tae Kwon Do has several levels of red belt and many years of black belt level, so he may continue for years to come.  I'm proud of him for developing the discipline to continue in this sport.  I'm more like my daughter who said Tae Kwon Do was too disciplined for her.  She said she just wanted to spar freely in her own style.  Those two are so different.  One is highly structured, and the other is a free spirit.

Our son will be starting Upward Basketball soon.  He also takes a ridiculously expensive critical thinking / math enrichment course for two hours after my STEM class on Mondays.  It's a long school day for him, but he desperately needs something to challenge him as he continues to sit bored all day in school.  At least he gets lots of recess periods throughout the school day.  And he really loves his teachers, classmates, and upperclassmen who come to visit.

He gives his 2nd grade teacher from last year a hug every single day!

Once a month, seniors dress according to a theme.  Bryan (aka Santa) visited our son's class on Christmas dress day.

Now if only I could get the girls to stop chasing him all over the playground and throughout the school.  He is quite the chic magnet already.