The big presentation

Kalina, a.k.a. Theodora!

It's not super often we have a firm deadline, a specific set of expectations and an audience for our schoolwork--unless you count "these three pages of math problems need to be finished before you eat lunch, and you need to have most of them right, unless you're really stumped, in which case you need to do what you can and then ask me about what's stumping you, but not wait, like, 30 minutes to do so." Can you tell we kind of need a lawyer present whenever we assign work in this house?

So when we do (have deadlines, expectations and and audience--not a lawyer), we like to take advantage. Or at least, I do. We figure out the steps we need to take. We begin well in advance so we won't be scrambling at the last minute. We hone in on the exact requirements. And we revise and reconsider at various points in the process. Or at least, I do.

Kalina and her class. She correctly
guessed that one of the two others
girls would be Cleopatra. Because
there just aren't that many others.
P.S., not sure why the formatting is
weird with these pictures.

And this is where my path diverges from my oldest's. In the beginning, we're mostly on the same page. Take, for instance, an assignment to write a paper and prepare a short presentation based on a figure from ancient history. With the unwritten, but generally understood, guideline that if you're a girl, you're likely going to want to choose a girl, since you'll need to dress like the person you present about. Yes, at this point, Kalina and I were on the same page: slightly disgruntled at:

1.) How few women in ancient history we could even think of. Outside the Bible, it was about two.

2.) How little information was out there about any of the women--even the rest of the 40 or so names we found on a list. Unless you count the mostly fictionalized Disney movie, Mulan, about a character who may or may not have been real.

3.) How little age-appropriate information there was about any of the women (or at least, I was disgruntled about this)

Still an animal lover!

I totally would've let Kalina choose a guy at this point, but she wanted to stand by the women. Because apparently virtually no one else did.

After some deliberation, she picked a woman for whom we actually do have one age-appropriate, but possibly somewhat fictionalized, source. According to the requirement, we'd need four more sources--but I figured one good one was probably all we were going to get anyway and we'd really be scraping for the rest (we were).

Armed with a choice, which can be hard to wrestle Kalina into any hour of the day, I nevertheless optimistically started searching...and searching...and searching. Surely someone, somewhere, has mentioned the great Theodora, renowned empress of the Byzantine Empire in the early 500s, in an additional children's biography, or overview of the era? We found a brief mention in a book on her husband, Justinian, whom  Theodora saved from virtually abdicating his throne as we later found out, as well as influenced in the writing of his famed Justinian's code; and another in a book about the Byzantine era. None of these added much to our overall knowledge. Theodora was just an interesting tidbit--a sidebar one could easily overlook. (Spoiler alert: Kalina changed all that.)

Kalina and her birds at the zoo.

I had some luck with grownup books but they were just that: not for children. I pre-screened some sections for her and called it good. And then we looked up all our bigger questions online, because you could occasionally get things answered via Google, which will one day take over all the libraries if the libraries don't find out a way to educate schoolchildren on obscure information they need for papers and presentations. (Can you tell I'm not wanting to type "Theodora kids" into a search box ever again?)

Step one, sources: check.

Step two: Outlines
Last year, for this same assignment, Kalina studied Sacagawea. There's hoards of information about Lewis and Clark, and a very respectable amount about Sacagawea: her childhood, her life as a whole, how she helped L&C, etc. Even as told through the eyes of a dog. The only stressful part about writing an outline last year was the physical act of writing it all down.

We saw two baby penguins
at the zoo!

This year, poor Kalina had to piece together small tidbits of information, some of which disagreed with each other, thanks to her overly-simplified children's book about Theodora. Which was the only source that was actually interesting to her.

I felt for her, but made her wrestle through it--the task was doable, just not as enjoyable as, say, petting the bunny or rereading Harry Potter. I gave her plenty of advice throughout the process, though. So that's something. Because everyone likes advice when their mothers think they're NOT FOCUSING or GETTING TOO DISTRACTED! You can imagine how my advice sounded but, to her credit, she got the job done, and done well. When she actually focused.

Step 3: Write
Many parents feel the need to sit down with their kids to help them write their papers. I've done that before, especially last year, but no longer can:
"Born in Constantinople, Theodora acted in the hippodrome." "Mommy, don't you think it'd be really fun if... tree house, and at the base is a secret pulley that... pet goat... maaaa!!!... hidden under the tree stump that folds back... maaa!!!... and then you could... one room of the house just for cats... meow!!!... *yawn* *stretch*... and how many locks should the treasure box... by helicopter... and when the... oh, but what about... and as you slid down, you'd..." etc., etc., etc. It's hard to write a sentence when ideas get in the way. Multiply that by a bare minimum of 20 sentences to make a (rather short) paper and you'd want to crawl under the couch cushions, too. Or at least start dinner.

Baby penguin!

(Yes, I realize that Kalina's imagination is amazing and shouldn't be stifled. There's plenty of time for her imagination to run wild when I'm not helping her write a paper.)

Seeing as Kalina's a very good writer, and I've seen her pull papers virtually out of thin air, I didn't feel too guilty leaving her to her own devices after explaining the process and making sure she knew what she was doing (which she totally does). "Go upstairs and work on your paper, not play with the bunny, and come downstairs and show me when you have something. And remember, this is your time for working on your paper, and there won't be other time later, so if you don't do it now, you'll have to use your free time. If you get stuck, come down and ask me, but don't sit there and stare at it for 20 minutes if you're not sure what to do. Give it 5 minutes, and then come down right away, or you'll be using up all your time not getting anything done. I'm totally happy to help you if you need it. And if Elise or Naomi come in, just tell them you're working and try not to get distracted by them. See if you can get a good chunk of this paragraph done--possibly even the whole thing, so you'll be in good shape for your deadline. I'll check on you later." (As you can see, this is not the first time I've sent Kalina upstairs to her desk to get some real work done.)

Ready for Easter, or bed, or
something.

The writing process took some time, because of bunnies and other distractions, or staring blankly at the paper and not asking for help, or just not really feeling into it, being annoyed about the project as a whole, or having too many other ideas, or whatever. Plus, we had the introduction to figure out (hook, bridge and thesis statement, Kalina, and "Theodora was intelligent and courageous" is not a full thesis statement!), the conclusion (restate your thesis--yes, now you have to say it a different way!) and the title (at the time of typing this blog, there's still no title).

Now, REVISE the WHOLE THING! Yes, revise it. Because it can be better. (And yes, Kalina totally made it better, and it only took one day of non-focus and another of actual focus, and it wasn't painful, because she has a good eye for a poorly constructed sentence or idea and can totally handle a good revision.)

Elise created a recipe for her
own soup, and then made the
soup! We legitimately liked
it! Yes, she's wearing roller
skates while holding a pot of
soup.

Step 4: The presentation
It's one thing to write a paper, and it's another to present it. Kalina, infatuated with Theodora's (pretty remarkable) speech to Justinian, wanted the full text of the speech, and then to quote from it for her presentation. These were supplied, and she blew me over by actually copying a full note card's worth of speech onto a note card. I counted this as her spelling for the day but I didn't tell her that we could've photocopied and pasted instead. She was actually motivated, and it was such a great quote to copy. Mean mom? Maybe. Smart mom? Absolutely.

It didn't go this easy at first, though. With a relatively relaxed week, plenty of time made available for her to work, and a deadline of a practice run-through Thursday, I believed Kalina had all she needed to whip her presentation into shape--not a difficult task for this girl. Apparently, though, she was missing something: a sense of panic. This was evidenced by the full hour she spent producing half a sentence on a note card. Despite having everything she needed to get the job done in a non-rushed fashion, Kalina finished her presentation note cards in the van on the way on Thursday. She was a tiny bit stressed.

Naomi came up with the idea
of a unicorn puffball critter!

Step 5: The costume
The weekend before the big event--when all the kids in the class would present dressed up as their chosen people--Kalina and I made a trip to Hobby Lobby (after a brainstorming session at Dairy Queen). We hit up the clearance and sale section and scored some awesome trim, gold satin fabric, and other great finds to make a killer Theodora costume. Oh, and we painted a paper plate gold. We depleted a box of 50 safety pins, but the girl looked positively regal and fairly Byzantine. Kalina's favorite part was the sheer purple sashy thing. We totally nailed the costume, and with minimal nagging/suffering.

Step 6: Last-minute panic.
The week before the big presentation left much to be desired by way of actual preparation. And when the week of the presentation--a much busier, shorter week, I should add--began with the same lackadaisical approach, I decided to try again to instill the fear-of-deadline mindset that has served me so well all these years. This time, possibly because the deadline was real, she'd more or less missed the last one, and the due date was truly impending, she stepped up her game.

Every winter and every summer we all
feel like sewing for a day. It used to be
I who sewed for the girls; now they've
taken over!

Still, due to the craziness of the week, the girl ended up practicing her final presentation all of, like, 4 times. And the last time she got so interrupted by life that I'm not even sure if she quite finished it.

By time 4, however, she had the bulk of it memorized, including (especially) the actual quoted parts of Theodora's speech.

Good thing, because during this process she lost her note cards at least twice. She got very little sympathy from me. "Sorry, Hon, it might be quicker to just redo them than to find them." True story. At least one of these times, they were in plain sight on the kitchen table.

Step 7: Show time!
A nervous Kalina cared about her costume (she loved being Theodora--but try to get her in a dress any other time). She kept track of her notecards. She focused. She allowed me to put her hair in a bun.

Elise made this pocket pillow
on the sewing machine after
Kalina taught her how!

And she was Empress Theodora to the core. Kalina spoke with confidence, getting into character for Theodora's quoted speech, speaking to the audience instead of her note cards, telling a good story instead of reading a paper. She portrayed poise, confidence and clarity. She was intelligent and courageous.

And here's the thing--I've probably sounded uncaring, unrealistic, too hands-off throughout this process (with the exception of the nagging). But I've seen Kalina pull it all together at the last minute over and over again. I knew she'd do a fantastic job. Plus, she did actually get plenty of encouragement from me at the end of each step. Just not always when I caught her staring off into space over empty note cards. For the third time.

Kalina's paper was probably not the most polished of all the papers. Her presentation was one of the shortest. And she listed far fewer facts than some of the other kids. But hers was a memorable and engaging presentation, and she can truly say that she did the whole thing all by herself. Because nagging is definitely not the same thing as writing, and writing isn't even the same thing as performing. Many people can write, but it takes a true girl of character and confidence to wow an audience as she di. We're proud of you, Kalina!