All About Dean

Hi! I thought I would share this Digi Project I created this weekend for my son Dean's preschool project titled "All About Me". The parents in Dean's class were given an assignment this month to put together a little poster about our child for them to display in the classroom. We were given a little handout with prompts and were asked to include photos and told to "be creative" and were provided with the poster board, which was an 11x14 inch NEON GREEN (seriously. think 1987 day-glo green) piece of poster board to work with.

OK. So obviously these people don't know me very well. I can't work in these conditions. Really? REALLY!? Joel and my Mother actually discussed amongst themselves NOT TELLING ME about this assignment, fearing that I would go way overboard and perhaps somehow damage my young son's status as a "cool kid" with a highly "scrampified" (Joel's word) project. What?! Me? Go overboard on a CREATIVE project. Come on. That's just crazy talk. I got this, Dude. I am ALL over this shit (pardon the language). I mean, this kind of thing IS the reason I had a child in the first place, right? ;-) (kidding, kidding)

Here's the list of things we were supposed to include - This is me, My favorite food, My favorite activity with my family, My favorite book, My special hobbies, My house, My pets, My family, My favorite place to visit, My favorite toys.

So yeah. Dean has the raddest All About Me project in the entire Turtle Class at Children's Garden Preschool. Check this out (credits are listed at the end of this post):


I know you can't really read the journaling (although you might be able to click on the photo and see it larger), so here's what it says:
1. My name is Dean Edward Tapler. I am 3 years old. My birthday is December 6, 2006.
2. One of my special hobbies is reading. I love to read books. I am a very good reader. (this isn't on there, but yes, my 3-yr-old can somehow read. Don't ask me how. I have no idea. He started teaching himself sight words at about 18 months and soon after started reading by sounding out the letters and is now reading at about a 2nd or 3rd grade level. It baffles me. Probably too much Sesame Street on TV as an infant or something, LOL).
3. My favorite food is cupcakes. I especially love chocolate cupcakes with lots of frosting.
4. Another one of my special hobbies is painting. My favorite things to paint are planets and nebulae.
5. I love hanging out with my family at the beach. We go to the beach almost every weekend.
6. I don't really have a favorite toy, but I love my books about Space. I know lots about Space.
7. One of my favorite places to visit on Maui is Keopuolani Park to play "Ninja Warrior".
8. I love everything about Space. I can name all the planets and their moons and lots of other information.
9. Another activity I enjoy doing is hiking. I love hiking to waterfalls and swimming in the streams.
10. My address is *** (maybe I shouldn't post that here?). I live in a house in Maui Lani in Kahului. There are plenty kids in my neighborhood.
11. My Mommy's name is Jen and my Daddy's name is Joel. We are a happy little family of 3.
12. I have 2 cats. Their names are Nani and Spooky, but Nani is my favorite. She loves it when I pet her.

So there you have it! You may notice the recurring Space theme. My 3-yr-old is currently obsessed with Space / the Solar System / the Universe and knows things about Space that I have never even heard of. It is weird. So yeah, there's a Space theme there - but I want to remember that about him at this age.

Oh yeah - so what did I use on that layout? I altered Cindy Schneider's Year in Review II template to make it fit the 11x14 size I needed for the project and used the absolutely adorable Another Galaxy kit by Traci Reed and Julie Billingsley. Both products are available at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

I'm having the thing printed today at Costco in the 11x14 size and am just planning to glue it to the stupid Neon Green poster board (so none of the poster board is showing) and will turn it in Wednesday when I drop Dean off at school. Joel just keeps rolling his eyes at me. But I'm sorry - I just couldn't turn in a Neon Green poster board with a couple of photos and magazine clippings glue-sticked to it and Dean's name written at the top with a Sharpie. LOL. And if Dean's embarrassed by this, well, let this be a good learning experience for him, because if my own childhood is any indicator - it's only bound to get worse!! ;-)