Wow, I actually had a little time last night to scrap for my own challenge! I miss doing this! I have had to post my challnges but never got to actually complete them, it seems, because I have had so much homework. Tomorrow I will be taking the last of my final exams and I'm prepared for it, so took some time to do a layout. Heeee...should have ben wrapping presents, but alas...they'll be there tomorrow!

This LO is for the Calendar Crop tonight from 10-11pm et in the SBB chatroom. All papers and tags are from Dianne Rigdon at Shabby Elements, and ribbons are from Vera Lim at SBB. And the girl...well she is our gift from God! :)

BEFORE THE MELTDOWN. Anyone raising a perfectionist child? Yikes! I keep trying to find ways to help her loosen up, but she is soooo afraid of making a mistake that it either traumatizes her to tears to try a project like this (making paper snowflakes) or she refuses to try (school work from time to time- in school and they have to call me because she refuses to proceed!). What is it about these children that makes them soooo hard on themselves? I have been researching and am not really finding answers, just strategies to model behavior that shows it's okay to make mistakes, that wrong turns can turn into grand adventures, that the most wonderful creations can come from things we thought were mistakes! I was one of these kids too, pressured myself to achieve, but I don't think I started this young! But I do remember when a B grade would set me off to crying for hours. And I've tried very hard to NOT model THIS behavior. I took me 3o years or so to stop sweating the small stuff! I hope I can help her do the same. Any insights would be grand!

So we only got 4 paper snowflakes made before the meltdown because the shape she cut wasn't perfect enough. But we'll try some more this afternoon, after a little snack and before she gets tired. And the tree looks better already- sorry crummy photo. Our basement flooded last year and we lost all the Christmas decorations (including the hats my children wore in the hospital because 2 were born at Christmas time so we hung them on the tree- sniffsniff) but it was just "stuff," so no biggie (now, was kind of a biggie when it happened!).