Ben's feeling miserable with his broken collarbone so he decided not to take part. Yesterday turned out to be a great lesson in actions having consequences. Shira won second place in the parachute drop and Ben is seriously bent out of shape that she won a gift card to the Discovery Store and he didn't.
I love teachable moments like this. Ben and I had a little chat about actions having consequences. He was convinced that this was only applicable when you did something bad. LOL. It was good to be able to demonstrate that inaction as well as action results in consequences. He decided to play instead of testing egg drop contraptions while his sister spent hours working on different solutions. She entered and won while he didn't.
I've been working with Shira on building her confidence. The child is a perfectionist and never thinks she does things well enough. She also always defers to everyone else and thinks that their efforts are better than her own.
Marc discovered that my little talks are paying off and that she'd been psyching herself the evening before the competition.
Shira's parachute was the cutest there. When she held it up to launch you could hear the collective, "Oooh's and Ahh's". Interesting choice of parachute for a a little Jewish kid don't you think? Shows you how well the dominate culture percolates into our thinking.
Shira's parachute landed closest to the target but lost first place because it weighed too much. She was thrilled with second place though and is already working on ideas to help her win next year.
We were convinced she'd win "Most Creative" but alas, it was not to be. A young girl who used more padding than I ever imagined was possible, won that category.
I took the above picture about half way through the unpacking process.
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7 comments:
What a great story. I am glad that Shira did well.
About the Easter bunny. Yes the dominant American culture focuses on the secular Easter bunny as representing the Easter holiday. Religious Christians are not so happy about the Easter bunny as to them that is a substitute focus for the religious holiday. It is a hot button topic and some Christians won't even buy a chocolate bunny on EAster for their kids. Hence the production of the new chocolate crosses in the last few years. I don't know if you are aware of that big controversy or not but it seems to be growing. Some kids have even said things to my kids about it, basically saying they have a wrong focus if they get an Easter basket with candy.
Sometimes it seems to me more and more people are becoming fanatics and taking some things too seriously.
I didn't know about any of the controversy. I do know that the symbols of Easter, other than the cross, have Pagan origins, but that's the limit to my knowledge.
FANTASTIC!!!! Well done Shira!!!
What a great parachute -- I love it. :) Super great.
Congratulations to Shira!
Oh,condolences to Ben! Hope he's on the mend.
wow, congratulations to Shira :)! she's beautiful too.
Shez, I love this: "...that inaction as well as action results in consequences." What a great lesson for us adults to remember, eek! :)
Follow-up: Yesterday the church we attend sent a letter to my children in colored graphics asking what symbols are about Easter (followed by religious symbols only). The section with a chocolate bunny, Easter bunny, Easter basket and duckling coming out of an egg told the kids they are not symbols of Easter except "in stores and advertisements".
"Sometimes we get so distracted by these symbols that we forget what Easter is all about."
Then it says the real meaning of Easter is the focus of the children's Sunday School from now to Easter.
So there you go with the fanatacism.
The more I hear about Easter as yet another focus of culture war politics, the more I love the Easter Bunny. I may even dress up like her [smile-wink] this year and hide candy. Of course, I'll need extra padding to fill out my costume.
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