Healthy Self Image

Gotta love my girls for their self confidence.  As part of a district-wide program to instill respect and end bullying, each kid at the school was given a list of positive traits and asked to circle the words that describe them.  Here is a copy of Alison's.  Nicole's was virtually identical.

Basically, they circled everything except "good brother" and "good son".  Ali skipped "good at sports", but only because she thought it said "good sport."  She also skipped "leader," which I think is debatable (I think a few of the ones she circled could be argued either way too, ie"neat.")  Nicki wrote "I don't know" next to "good at sports" and "musical."  Hopefully, she'll learn about them soon.  She wants to play soccer this summer.

On Friday, the second grade students had a special animal fair.  Each child had been working for about a month on a research paper about a specific animal.  Alison's animal was the jellyfish.  She worked hard on her project and took it very seriously.  On Friday, they invited parents and friends, along with all the other kids at school, to walk around and learn about animals from the second grade scientists.  It was so fun to watch Ali.  She was VERY animated!  Her paper was three pages long - about two and a half pages longer than many of the others.  She was also holding a book about jellyfish.  I tried to make her hair look like a big jellyfish that morning, but two recesses later, it looked more like a rats nest.  Anyway, when we walked in, Ali was jittering away at a man, speaking quickly and excitedly about her project.  She was even bouncing up and down a little as she talked.  I could see the man grinning.  When she gave me her little speech, other parents were gathering around and giving each other the "can you believe this kid?!?" look.  I'm glad she gets excited about stuff.  It makes life fun.  I tried to visit all her classmates to hear their presentations, especially the ones who looked bored or lonely.  They all learned a lot and even taught me a few things I didn't know.  What a great project. 




If you want to know anything about jellyfish, ask Ali. 

 Speaking of self confidence, check out this short video of Nicki at Zumba!  She's amazing!  She had so much fun and never thought a second about what other people thought.  She would have been doing a little better at following the teacher, but she was having too much fun looking at herself in the mirror.  I love her!  At the end of the video, I scan over to Ali, who was sitting out on the sidelines with a friend. 

I hope my girls always feel good about who they are and what they are good at.  What's not to love, right?  Was I ever that confident and if so, when did I stop?