GratiTuesday - A Table of "Continents"

We had a first in our house today.  Our Big Helper finished her very first book!

A few weeks ago we traveled to Old Salem Village in Winston-Salem, NC, for a field trip.  My goal for the kids was to get a feel for what life was like before electricity  - to start thinking about where early Americans' food came from, what their clothing and houses looked like, etc.

My Big Helper had a much bigger goal.

The day before the trip, as we looked at maps and planned our strategy for the day, she announced that she wanted to write a book about her trip to this living museum.

We agreed on assignment parameters, and off we went.

Upon returning, she immediately picked out 18 pictures that we had taken during our trip for use as the photographs for her book.  Then, for the past week and a half, she's been writing, editing, revising, proofing, and carefully printing her words onto each page.  

When she was about halfway finished, she looked at me with a twinkle in her eye and announced, "Mommy, I want people to learn something from my book!  I want to have lots of information - even a table of continents!"

I loved her enthusiasm, but it was still really hard not to laugh.  I love her word mix-ups, and I love even more that she wanted her book to be just right - she wasn't willing to settle for the minimum requirements of the assignment but worked for a long time each day, adding lots of extra pieces until it was exactly how she wanted it.

Today she put the finishing touches on her book.  It now has a cover page, title page, table of "continents," a blurb on the back cover page, as well as a short bio of the author.  Not counting all of those pages, there are 17 pages of information, carefully arranged in order.  

She's wildly excited about finishing, and I'm excited for her.  I can see her wanting to do lots more writing in the future - this girl is going to keep me busy!

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