A couple of weeks ago Vanessa's school had a favorite time period day. Examples given were to dress as if you're from the 80s, 50s or the Roaring 20s. With jam packed schedules we didn't plan well and I ended up unintentionally ignoring my reminder to talk it over with Vanessa. At 7:15 the night before, about the time we're wrapping up before baths and bedtimes, Vanessa went to work on drawing blueprints and asked if it was okay to draw on an old white t-shirt. I quickly realized that she was prepping for the next day.
Upon listening to her planning I realized that she wasn't going in the typical direction as most others would likely go. I was excited for her and quickly jumped on board to help her pull together her plans before bed. Thank goodness for all the crafting materials I horde in the basement. :-) And hot glue guns! :-)
Vanessa went as Future Girl. She was inspired by previews she had seen for Tomorrowland -- a movie we may or may not see in the near future. She was also inspired by Mrs. Lycan. It worked out perfect. She was extremely excited. She even had stop and go buttons that could be velcroed to the sides of the jet pack. She did a lot of the work on assembling but I helped with finer details and hot glue.
The next day as Vanessa was preparing to go into the school, it suddenly occurred to her that this jet pack would draw attention to her. This worried her. I assured her that others would stare out of curiosity but it's okay because they'll be intrigued and have a lot of questions for her. I don't always walk into school with her but I did this day to help carry her extra stuff. Indeed people noticed. Sydney was excited and guessed her approach right away. And all the other kids wanted a jet pack too. Vanessa repeated from the time she started her idea to presenting it that Mrs. Lycan would love it and be so impressed.
I'm so happy the approach worked out how it did. It was a moment of huge encouragement. Vanessa has cardboard projects scattered throughout our house. She doesn't always get chances to run her own direction with freedom to do exactly what she has in mind. In fact, even at recent invention convention, she was talked out of her original plan because her facilitator couldn't comprehend her vision. It was obvious Vanessa lost inspiration and ownership without the encouragement to develop her original concept. But she loved hanging with her buddies!
She created a game in Mrs. Lycan's class this last Tuesday. After the excitement from bringing it home and demonstrating how it works, she shared with me that she was first told it wasn't a good idea and wouldn't work very well. I was disappointed but happy to hear she persisted.
Maybe that is what Mrs. Lycan is trying to instill in Vanessa -- to defend her idea and to be persistent, even though I was told in the fall that one of Vanessa's strongest traits demonstrated in class is persistence -- could be that she needs to channel persistence to things she can take full ownership and not toward things she can't. Her final product gained a huge approval and love for the game she created and Mrs. Lycan shared how impressed she was. She also apologized for sending home more cardboard. ;-)
Vanessa is clever. She recently wrote a play and performed it for us. She was the writer, director, narrator and performer. It didn't occur to me immediately, because I was distracted by how impressed I was on how quickly she developed her idea and how complete it was, but while organizing things to put in keepsake tubs, I realized that the theme for her play was a clever way to convince us and express her strong desire for a cat or dog. In the end of the play, the princess gets her pet and life is no longer boring. :-)
"Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence." ~ Colin Powell
