She doesn't get it from me. :)

Knowing that the arts can help kids in so many ways, I love when they draw or make up their own art. I have been encouraged in the past to have Kat enter the Reflections program the school has and this year she has been drawing so much, it seemed doable. So we talked about it and she decided she was game. Reflections has a national theme that the children make their art around. There are many categories you can enter into, such as drawing, photography, poems, etc. Drawing seemed the simpliest to me. I thought I'd have Kat draw a small rough draft and improve it a bit. Then she could make it big on a final paper. Yeah, 2nd graders have no idea what a rough starting sketch is.
This year's theme is "Diversity means..." We got out a dictionary and talked about it being a "variety of things." Such as lots of flavors of ice cream. She had a great idea for drawing circles with different groups of things in each one. She made a great first drawing. Didn't want to change anything. Lost the first copy, and a couple days later I bought bigger paper to do the final copy on.
Now, I turned things over to Kelly. Really, he is the one that knows something, anything about drawing. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to tell him the theme. So Kat starts a big picture drawing things that are important to her in each picture. Her family. (Glad we made the list!)
Well, we got things all straightened out and two days before it is due, she draws in pencil. Then she wants to go play. The next night she colors, minimally, so she can go play. Kelly tells her she needs to color more. She does. She goes to bed. The next morning Kelly tells her she needs to color more. She gets really into it at this point and Kelly has to tell her to stop so she can get it done and go to school.
A week later we go to see the projects displayed at school. And, there with her picture is a second place ribbon. She now gets to be judged at the district level.
WAY TO GO!!!