As I watch these girls grow and mature my biggest hope and prayer for them is that they are now, and remain, comfortable in their own skin.
That they surround themselves with positive friends.
That they focus on their character more than their looks.
That they will reach out and help others.
That they will find something they love to do in life and make it happen.
That they will embrace their uniqueness and not try to be like everyone else.
It's really hard with all of the social media, magazines and tv shows that put so much emphasis on looks and status. So, in an effort to at least get a discussion going we talked about it today, looked at and compared some images and watched a video or two about girls being self assured of themselves.
You may have seen this but it is a commercial called "Always, Like a Girl" and it is amazing how girls view themselves or at least comments they hear from puberty and beyond.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs
We also watched this short commercial "Verizon Inspire" which makes me really want to check myself on the comments I make to the young girls in my life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP3cyRRAfX0&feature=kp
They were surprised at what happened in both of these videos. Likely because there are still in elementary school but I told them to work hard to remain true to who they are and what they want to be even though some people may tell them differently.
We compared a few images. This wasn't about who was more attractive but I asked questions like:
What did we think these women did during the day?
Do they look happy?
Do they look healthy?
Would they be fun to hang out with?
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| My personal fave |
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| Everyone agreed she looked hungry! |
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| 1st woman president of India |
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| Katie, only 19, missionary in Uganda who adopted 13 girls! |
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| The human barbie |
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| They all loved this one. |
After a good talk we headed to the craft table and the girls created signs that was either one word that they wanted to describe them as they got older or what they wanted to do as a career.
Then, I took photos of them looking happy and confident so they can look back and remember what it was like to be pretty care free and have some dreams at 6-10 years old!
I love all of these photos!
It was time for treats and it happened to be Miss Ella's birthday so we had special cookies and some kool aid.
We tackled one more small task before we had some free time.
They filled in the blanks on a letter to themselves. We talked about how as you get older sometimes you forget what you had dreamed of doing or what was important to you when you were younger.
So, they can keep this letter with the photo (I'll have them this week) and look back on it once they are in middle school and even high school. I will keep a copy myself to send them in a couple of years in case they lose it!
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| Gals with glasses |
Time for a some dancing (we learned the Wobble) and exchanging of favorite songs and videos and then the parents were here!
See you next week...
