Since going to school Ruby has been into glue and scissors and paper and anything else that is colorful. She'll stick for hours cutting paper, glueing it on top of one another. Especially at school; each week we get back about 10 sheets of art (she's at school 2 days a week!), so it's clear she chooses art projects over other projects most of the time. Mr Reid told us she is a minimalist; after a few lines or a few cuts she will ask a teacher to date it and put her name on it.

I especially like the line of eyes she produced this morning here at home. Anyone care to read anything into it?!

Last week we also had our first parent-teacher conference about Ruby. Besides finding out that she loves art above everything else, we heard that Ruby has very quickly made herself completely at home with her class and all their activities. She transitions well from one activity to another, needs reminders to tidy up but complies without any fuss. Apparently her entire class is not a napping class, which suits Ruby just fine. She has a favorite friend, Katie (who we have yet to meet), and the two will whisper stories to each other during their naptime.

She has good fine motor skills--hence the eyes--but also good gross motor skills (she is apparently watched a little more closely in the playground because if left to her own devices she would be jumping from the tallest structures).

The teachers are also happy with her verbal skills and capacity to express basic emotions. I heard fun anecdotes: how she has sat in a corner quietly reading because she needed "alone time," and how she has entertained her teachers with long stories about her imaginary friends, clips from her favorite movies and telling them about her home life.

However turns out that because she is a tad ahead verbally and emotionally, she prefers to interact with her teachers and less with her peers. She will agree to play with other kids if they ask her, but she will not seek out other kids to join her in her activities. So her teachers are helping set up those interactions and they encouraged us to organize some playdates with kids from her class.

Overall we're thrilled that she's enjoying school and her teachers are enjoying her. It's great to get reports from her teachers and we feel like we lucked out with this last-minute school find. Now the next round: finding a school for next year.