A Briana Update

 *Warning* - some mom bragging ahead. Proceed with caution. Heh.

Well, Miss B made it through her first half of 7th grade. She ended up with 5 As and 1 B for the semester. She worked really hard, and I am so, so proud of her. 

Her school report mid-way through the semester was awesome...

 Bri continues to be a hard worker - though she still loves to procrastinate. Which drives me absolutely crazy. She spends a lot of her free time at school and home reading. My kid LOVES to read. She has a 1300 plus Lexile level. She seriously devours books.

She had her 12 year old checkup in September. She is very healthy and she stands at almost 5' 3" now. She is almost as tall as me.

She still loves, loves, loves gaming. She's not really into the "shoot em up" type of games. She loves spending time on Minecraft and Roblox - games where she can build new worlds.

She dressed as a "professional gamer" on the day where you could dress as your "future self" at school.

She probably won't end up being a professional gamer. I honestly believe art will be a big part of her future. This kid loves to draw. She has a number of sketch books and she loves drawing her little "people"...

 She had art class as her elective last semester and she loved it. Her teacher had the kids draw a picture. Depending on how they did, the kids were divided into two groups. One group was designated as the "advanced" group and their assignments were harder than the other group. Bri ended up in the advanced group.

This was one of her assignments (the original is on the left, Bri's is on the right)..

Bri also was one of the kids chosen out of all the students taking art last semester (40 kids were chosen) to have an ornament hang on one of the Christmas trees at the Governor's Mansion (a more detailed post will come later). The students had to draw a picture of their favorite book.

Here is Bri's submission and her at the Governor's Mansion...

Bri is sad that she is not taking art this semester. But, she is taking Family and Consumer Science (Home Ec) this semester and she is excited about that!

Speaking of being artsy, Briana had a science project at school (the kids had to group up and create games about biomes). These game pieces were one of Briana's contributions to the project (full disclosure - she did need a little help from me to spark her creativity), and they turned out so cute...

While I was cleaning out everything in August and September for the new carpet install, I sorted Bri's artwork from over the years. I had boxes and boxes of art. Some papers just had scribbles. I threw a lot away, but I kept my favorite pieces. I put them in albums for Bri to enjoy (take that Marie Kondo - LOL!)...

Speaking of organizing and cleaning, I completely organized Bri's "tween" room before and after the carpet install. I got rid of so many toys that she had outgrown and helped her organize her space. In making it a tween room, Doug and I bought her a new desk and art table to make drawing, gaming and doing homework much easier...

I mentioned in previous posts that Briana was invited to join the Junior Beta Club at school (an academic achievement club) in September...

 I've been told that the formal induction ceremony will be held at the end of February. Bri has been volunteering at a local dog shelter near our home (to get hours for Beta) - spending time with the dogs and reading to them on Wednesday nights. It's so hard not to fall in love with these dogs (I wish I could take them all home)...

There are some kitties at the shelter too...

Bri is still enjoying running club. Here she is walking out of school with some friends after a run...

Wish running club was a bit more consistent (should be once a week), but the weather is just wacky here lately. Hopefully the kids will get to run next week if it isn't raining or too cold.

Bri told me last week that her social studies teacher held a "geography bee" in each of her classes...

Briana got second place in her class! She was happy but was a bit bummed she didn't win. There was no prize or anything - just bragging rights. She got stumped on a question about rice production in Asia. The answer was Thailand, but she of course answered China. Ha! (*Update - the winners of the  class Geo Bee did get to move on to the school Geography Bee. My completely unobservant child didn't realize that. Heh.)

So, overall Miss B is doing very well. The beginning of 7th grade was an adjustment, but she has finally found her groove. I can't believe next year will be her last year of middle school. I thought her starting middle school was scary. High school is much, much scarier to me.

 Like any tween, Bri has her ups and downs. She and I have our arguments for sure. She had a disagreement with a friend recently and she ended up working it out. She's growing up. And she is a really, really good kid - it's all I can ask for...