Yes, it's time for "CapVille".
The 6th graders look forward to this week all year long. For two days, they get to sit out in the hallways selling their wares or running their stands, while all the other grades wander up and down trading bottle caps for trinkets or face-paint or bookmarks or games of skill or games of chance.
Each CapVille student has to come up with a business plan and a marketing plan, and they have to keep records of sales and things like that. There is a lot of creativity involved, and everyone has a great time eating the candy that is passed out for prizes.
Deborah is not the type to do anything ordinary, so of course she picked something unusual for her shop. Instead of creating a little crafty toy or setting up a game, she made a movie. Two caps per view.
Since it was a little different than everyone else's, most of the kids were a little confused by the concept. They read the signs - "Fun 'N Fuzzy Studios" - above her shop and saw the laptop sitting on the desk, but many either just didn't get it, or weren't interested in sitting down for a minute to watch her creation. She was a mite disappointed. The teachers (and other adults) were the majority of her customers.
It bothered her a little bit that it wasn't as popular as she had hoped, but we had already talked to her about it, the uniqueness of her project, and how sometimes these things take a while to catch on, and she was stubborn enough to soldier on with it regardless. And she really believed in her project.
At this stage in her life, she doesn't take advice very well, and it probably won't get any better as she moves on into the teen years. Once she's got an idea in her head, she'll go with it, and most of the time it doesn't pay to try and change her mind about anything. We had tried to help her with some of the mechanics of the movie production, like putting in the titles and fades and things like that; but she didn't take kindly to any criticism of the movie itself. Like her stories, she's not as interested in what her readers (or viewers) think of the product as she is in the act of creating it.
Perhaps this summer we'll spend some time on that little issue.
The elementary schools in the district had Field Day on Friday, and Mary was all dressed for the occasion in a t-shirt and hat and a nice set of running shorts. She ran the 400 meter relay as well as participating in some of the other team sports (tug-o-war, for one). She was pretty tired by the end of it all, but seemed to have had a great time.
Please note that she is NOT missing an arm; she just crossed one behind her. I didn't notice that til the picture was on the computer. Now I can't look at it without getting a shiver. But she still looks cute.
1 comment:
Capville sounds fun. Sorry the movie idea didn't catch on; we've got a similar strong-opinioned type at our house. The good news is, I'm pretty sure the self confidence and extreme independent streak will be an asset in the future... a little frustrating to live with as it develops, trying to gently instill humility without increasing self-doubt and applauding high standards without encouraging a paralyzing perfectionism... but a great asset nonetheless and one that has to be in-born. You can't teach a kid to have that kind of passion.
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