Reading and Writing

Abbie has always loved to read, and lately her passion is for Egypt-related books. She has become really interested in Egyptian mythology as a result of reading the first three books in The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan. She asked me to get her the Survival Guide that accompanies the books so that she could teach herself to write in hieroglyphics. I'm not quite sure why, but the first sentence that she wrote after she got the Guide was, "Shana loves poop." Umm, ok. She was quite pleased with it.

(a recent selfie with my phone)

It is probably a combination of all the mystery and complexity associated with her recent interest in mythology, and her desire to distance herself from her interests in the past, but she has been very adamant this year that she needs to be something scary for Halloween - no princess stuff. She decided on a Phantom of Darkness costume that is all black and even hides her face. I haven't managed to get a picture yet, but I will soon.

Abbie also has a new pen pal in her life. It is a girl that is her age that lives in Austin. The girls have common interests (both are very verbal and like to read) and were introduced through a mutual connection. For the time being, they are communicating via old fashioned snail mail, which is actually good because it gives Abbie a chance to practice her penmanship, and to get comfortable with addressing envelopes - a skill that I tend to take for granted, but clearly must be learned somewhere along the way.

Abbie's big challenge lately has been to work on her organization skills. We have been trying to help her with using checklists to keep herself organized, and with planning ahead so that things don't slip through the cracks at the last minute. I think it has been frustrating for her, but again, another skill that needs to be learned somewhere along the way and there is no time like the present! Aside from that, she is back to many of the after school activities that she did last year - fitness class, Tae Kwon Do, tennis, and yoga.

Finally, just for a laugh, I just found the following story in an old draft post that never managed to get published:

While I was putting Abbie to bed one night, I said, "I love you. You are such a special girl." In response, she seemed to wince in pain, so I sat down to talk to her about how that shouldn't cause her pain. In response to my concern, she replies, "No, it's just your breath. What have you been eating?" Ha!