Emma - Artist and World Citizen

Emma's drawing abilities have improved dramatically in the past few months ago. 3 months ago, she was drawing Mr. Potato Head/ Picasso style stuff, with eyes, ears, mouths, arms, and legs emerging from all parts of an odd shaped oval. Now, however, all parts are in the right places, and there are discernible bodies and background objects.

Exhibit 1: Emma and I colored together a copycat picture from one of her books, Jonah and the Big Fish. I had to help her figure out how to actually draw such a complex picture (with instructions like "Make a red rectangle here"), but she did all the actual coloring.

Exhibit 2: Emma's self-portrait. We were particularly impressed by the addition of the hair band. (By the way, Korean girls almost always wear something in their hair: bows, clips, bands, ties - something!)

A few weeks ago, we selected a new child to sponsor. (Sarah and I have been sponsoring a boy named William from Guatemala, but he is 16 years old now and almost finished with school. We will continue sponsoring him for 2 more years until he graduates from something like a teacher's vocational school.)
We wanted Emma to choose a child that she can "grow up with." We went to www.ncm.org, and we selected a 5 year old girl named J. Santhiya. She's from India, and our $25 dollars a month will pay for her school tuition and school supplies. Here's a picture of Santhiya. (We aren't really sure if this is her given name or family name, but it's more fun than "J.")

Exhibits 3 and 4: Emma has been pretty enthralled with the idea that we are somehow helping this little girl with black hair and brown skin. She has been drawing lots of pictures with Emma and Santhiya playing side by side. The first picture has both girls with their pets (a dog and a cat), but as far as we know neither girl has a pet. The second picture is the two of them enjoying a beautiful day together. (Simply the fact that you can make out the trees, rainbow, flowers, and clouds is a big improvement for Emma!) We love these pictures.