Thursday, November 18, 2010

Liza, our nonconformist

Liza doesn't just march to the beat of a different drummer . . . she marches to the beat of an entirely different band.  I find her nonconformity charming and entertaining, unfortunately, her 1st grade teacher isn't quite sure how to handle our little day dreamer.  Really, Liza is in her own little world during school and it does take some effort to keep her focused, but it doesn't seem to phase her at all since her mind is conjuring up the next art project or make-believe game she and her little friends will play at recess.

I'll never forget last holiday season while in kindergarten, I was helping in the classroom and the teacher put these giant gingerbread men paper cutouts on each child's desk.  In the middle of the tables were markers, buttons, ric rac, etc. to decorate their cutouts.  As I was walking around helping the children, I noticed Liza's project was turning into something quite different from the others . . . it wasn't a gingerbread man or anything close to it.  When I looked closely, Liza had made hers into a rabbit (holding a carrot in one hand and an egg in the other).  I said, "Liza, you know we're all making gingerbread men, right?"  She didn't even look up at me and replied, "Oh, I know, I don't want to be like everyone else, so I'm making mine the Easter Bunny."  And yes, during the holidays our hallway was decorated with Liza's bunny :-).

Here are a few more Liza creations for your viewing pleasure:

The kids drew an outline of an acorn and they were to make it into a face . . . Liza decided to make hers into a frightened alien who dropped his books while running from a giant monster.

We're really happy she has so much self confidence . . . ahhhh, it must be the backward Z that is preventing her from "start student" status!

Expressing her elation that she's not in school . . . again, more aliens.

Hmmm, maybe a career as an illustrator?

Liza's latest attempt at nonconformity (sorry, I couldn't flip this pic) . . .
she has decided that since we are true blue BYU fans, she will wear RED and become a loyal Utah supporter, as you can see by her words, "I cheer for UTAH, it makes me happy not sad, BYU makes me sad." 

Traitor.

4 comments:

Marti said...

Go Liza! Go UTES!!!! :-)

Michelle said...

Love Liza! Ainsley's a contrarian too—she likes to tell us she's a BYU fan. Maybe we can trade kids on game day! :)

Melissa said...

Thanks for the laugh. I love seeing her quotes that you post as well. I wish I knew how to teach that desire to be different and be yourself. I think in the long run its good to have - even if the first grade teacher doesn't know what to do with it.

Kristin said...

I think straight A, BYU blue fans are just plain boring. Don't you? ;)

She's awesome. You might want to start looking into Charter schools that offer a bit more flexibility though... Montessori would be great for her.