An Artist in the Making

Several weeks ago we received a delightful surprise in the mail: a book full of pictures from Brooklyn's classmates in Lyon. (Translation: For Brooklyn, From your French friends.)

I smiled when I realized that most of Brooklyn's girlfriends are now artfully sketching their names in cursive.

Lest you feel too troubled about your five year-old's penmanship, most of the boys are still block printing. (I like how both Quentin and Diane remember Brooklyn with long, flowing locks.)

In general, it's strange to think that Brooklyn's peers in France are completing their third year of formal education, yet here in the States she hasn't even started kindergarten. We love her preschool program, but there's a huge difference in abilities of a 3 and a 5 year-old. The weekly themes of "cookies", "ice cream", and "pajamas" are quite appropriate for Talia, but Brooklyn would certainly be capable of taking on more. I wish there were more leeway in our school system for parents to determine their child's school-readiness, instead of having it dictated by a random cut-off date. While she may have a December birthday, I think Brooklyn would have thrived in a kindergarten program this year. On the flip side, it's been nice to have more time with her at home.

In general, Brooklyn fills her days with art. Like her father, she loves to draw. Our house gets so overrun with pictures that I end up tossing most of them, just to stay ahead of the paper clutter. Today, however, I decided to photograph a few so that we have a permanent record. Brooklyn drew the following face on the back of an envelope. I immediately fell in love with the chin!

Not all of her faces are happy, however. When she gets angry, her artwork becomes equally emotive. (I found this picture in the trash can. Once her fury passes, she usually decides to get rid of her angry art as well.)

Looking at the frown reminded me of this project that Brooklyn did at her school in France. Imagine my horror when I walked into school and saw that all of the children had painted brightly smiling faces on their caterpillars--except Brooklyn. When I asked her why the "chenille" was sad, she told me that they made him take a nap without a binky.

A Brooklyn-style Valentine:

She must have run out of room for drawing people, because she added his portrait on the back, along with the following note: "I love u Dad but you missed family pictures."

It's amazes me that writing to Brooklyn is just as logical backwards as forwards. She wrote this note to Florian completely in reverse. (By the way, she's never met Florian--he's a new classmate who sent her a picture from France, and she liked his name.)

Here's another family picture. True to science, whenever she draws a rainbow, Brooklyn also dutifully includes both the sunshine and the rain.

Brooklyn dominates the party in this picture, where the presents are so massive that they have to be flown in by helicopter.

A close-up of Moses and the burning bush...

A ballerina..

And a reward chart. The chart involves a quite complicated system of iconography, in which bed-making eventually equates to ice cream and hot apple cider. The important thing to realize is that Brooklyn has to work her way up all the squares through good behavior before she earns a reward.

On the back, she drew a reward chart for me. Obviously, much less is expected. Perhaps that's because she wants to accompany me often when I claim my prize at McDonald's (the arches), Applebee's (an apple), or Curtis Orchards (a wagon).

Life with our little artist is certainly amusing. Now if I can just convince her to stop decorating herself...

Addendum: several days later, our tattoo queen adorned herself again with a ballpoint pen. I forgot all about it, however, until she was undressing at the pool for swim lessons. Despite my best efforts with a wet wipe, the art wouldn't come off. I'm not sure whether her teacher was amused or horrified. :)