Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

In August, Carley was the Shining Star Student of the Week at her school. It was fun. She got to be the line leader and go first at Show and Tell. Big Stuff. :) In October, Ms. Sharon started adding a poster to the Star mix. She usually tells the parents on Friday so they can make a poster with the kids over the weekend. We didn't have school of Friday because of the snow so I was surprised at the end of the day yesterday to see Carley was Shining Star again. I guess the first rotation had happened so it was time to be stars all over again. Cody had arranged a mini-spa for me last night that was going to take all night so I knew I didn't have time to do the poster. I told this to Carley's teacher and she offered to let Carley be the Star for two weeks. I knew this was not a good idea, because two weeks of star attention would turn her into quite a diva!

So I stopped and bought a poster board on the way home and some stick on letters. I came home and asked Cody if he would do the poster with Carley. He was super excited. I pulled about 20 pictures for Carley and Cody to choose from and left.

It was hard as a mom not to do this with her. I had visions of this detailed and elaborate poster that I wanted my little Star to have. I knew which pictures I would pick and all of that. I wanted her to have a poster that showed the whole class how much she is loved and what she loves from my perspective.

Well the poster I came home to was PRECIOUS! It did not have the decoration, layout, pictures, or annotations I would have picked, but it was made by Carley and it was perfect. She picked her favorite pictures and told Cody what to write underneath each one. They were SO cute. Also, it is just supposed to be a photo collage, but Carley had her daddy go find some pictures on the Internet of Macaroni and Cheese, Hot Dogs, Fazolis, and a big pink 4. She wanted to tell her class all about HER!

I am so glad I was not home to "perfect" the poster. I will treasure this because it is her opinion of her little world. When I took it to her teacher today, Carley was SO excited. She told Ms. Sharon all about it and that she had picked out every part. When Carley went off to play, Ms Sharon told that it was her favorite poster of the year because it had really been done from the student perspective and not the parent's.

Just to give a little example of her annotations, I have to share a couple. Under her Easter picture I would have written something like "Easter 2009 or Easter when I was 3". Carley wrote "I look like Princess Aurora". Under the picture of her holding Corey I would have written something like,"I love my baby brother". Carley wrote, "This is my first day as a big sister".

Congratulations, Miss Shining Star. We love you!