Grant finished his studies in the Joy School Program!  

He was found to have joy in The Body; The Earth; Obedience and Decisions; Spontaneous Delight; Sharing and Service; Order and Goal Striving; Interest and Curiosity; Trust and Confidence; Honesty and Candor; Relationships and Communication; Imagination and Creativity; Individual Confidence and Uniqueness; and Family Security, Identity and Pride!  

Wow!  That's quite an accomplishment for a four year old.  

We celebrated his achievements with a small graduation ceremony at a lovely nearby park.  

Grant?  How'd you get so big??

Maggie completed her first school report.  They study mammals in 1st grade and Maggie chose to learn about Panda Bears.  They spent about a month learning all about the characteristics of mammals, writing a 4 page report about their specific mammal, making a clay model of their animal at school and then making a shoebox diorama displaying their mammals habitat at home.  I'm grateful that Cory was able to help Maggie reproduce the forested mountains of China... cause writing that 4 page report was no small feat for Maggie and I.  Phew!  It's done and now I think she can move onto 2nd grade!  

I haven't been blogging... because quite frankly... I've been quilting!  But now that the quilt is done... I will blog about quilting!  I am the art docent in Maggie's 1st Grade class... just my little way of volunteering once a month.  So, at the end of the year, the class is supposed to create a group project that will go up for auction.  Since one of the famous artists we were studying this year was Faith Ringgold, a story quilter-artist, I had a lightbulb moment to have the class create a quilt.  My friend, Claudia, is a quilter and she agreed to help... errr hold my hand step by step... to create this masterpiece!  I gave each child a block of the quilt to draw one of their favorite moments from their 1st Grade year.  

I am happy with the way it turned out.  It actually was a lot of fun.  I learned a ton and now that I am done, I want to make another quilt!

I am totally biased, but I thought Maggie's square was one of the best!  She drew the school bus from when they went on their field trip to The Tree People in Beverly Hills.  I guess she really enjoyed the bus ride. 

I had the teacher create a block too since I had 3 leftover squares.  It turned out so cute!  I was originally planning on putting her square in the bottom corner but after I saw how cute it turned out, I had to make it the center block.  

Now it's going up for auction in one week and I hope it sells for a lot of money to support our school programs, like the art program.  I petitioned all the parents in the class to pool our money together so we can give it to the teacher at the end of the year.  She was a good teacher and this was her first year teaching her own class.  What a nice keepsake, if we can pull it off!