First, I just want to say how much I love this awesome mom (and awesome friend), even though I will never (ever!) eat her cupcakes.
Now, to the matter at hand. David brought home the perfect Mother's Day gift. Perfect! Want to see it?
Let me show you the picture, and then we'll get to the really good stuff.
I love the details. (If David has learned one thing in kindergarten, it's that it's all about DETAILS. Come on, you current and former English teachers. How many times have you scribbled--in purple or green ink because red is deemed emotionally scarring--More details!!!!! ? Well, they start early in this school district, and David is catching on.)
The light David drew is a perfect hybrid of the light in our dining room and the light in our kitchen. The couch is square, like ours, and, though it's hard to see, he got the color pretty darn close. He remembered the throw pillows and the rug. He also pointed out to me that he drew my favorite shirt. I'm not exactly what shirt he drew. But I do always have on layers--sweaters or hoodies or jackets. And it looks like he's going for some kind of layered effect. And hair pulled back, of course. Love it!
Now, on to my favorite part. The rough draft. (Self-proclaimed fan of the writing process here.) Isn't it beautiful? Look how organized it is. I am swooning.
Do you know what you're seeing??
It's a paragraph. A perfect paragraph!
Look. It has a topic sentence. (A very sweet topic sentence, at that.)
Three supporting sentences.
And a concluding sentence.
Beautiful!
A topic sentence, three supporting sentences, and a closing sentence. It brings tears to my eyes! (My son gave me a topic sentence for Mother's Day!) I am swooning again. There could be no better gift in the world than this beautiful, perfect paragraph.
What makes it even better is the amount of work that it took for David. Handwriting does not come easily for him. He must work at every letter. What patience and persistence this must have taken him.
Look at these letters. See how hard he is working to make the "I" and the "l" and the "k" go all the way from sky to ground? And the others only halfway? He even wrote a silly D'Nelian "k."
Look at the word "best." He got the "e" and the "s" just right--and those are tricky letters.
What effort!
Want to see my favorite word? It's "watch."
He sounded it out perfectly: W-O-CH. (If only it weren't for our silly often-un-phonetic language.) I also see that he at first capitalized it because he had moved to a new line, but then he realized that just because it was a new line didn't mean it was a new sentence. So he fixed the "w" and made it lower-case. Isn't it grand?
This David's favorite part. His name.
Apparently writing your name super small is super cool.
I am so, so proud of my son! The graphite on that paper means so much to me. All the effort and hard work and learning and progress it represents. I love my kid. I think he is the best darned boy in the universe. (It's only logical--I am the best mom, you know.)
And I look forward to many more topic sentences.
