Reflections is such an interesting program. We are off and on again in our family. When the kids were younger, I would greatly encourage and nag and finally get them to do projects. Then I realized that I didn't care that much. If they wanted to, they could. If not...that's fine as well.
So the number of kids who did Reflections greatly tapered off. That is, until they realized that one of the prizes for participating is a ticket to our local theater. That is simply because our local lady who runs the Reflections program for our school is a go getter and she always gets tickets. I've never seen anyone do that before. Last year, only Daisy participated and she was excited to go to an extra play with her ticket.
So all the kids got on board this year. After all, they all had art on hand from the summer, so they each chose a piece. The theme was 'I Matter Because'. It was fun to see what each girl wrote for their artist statement. Some were very profound.
Pearl did her Curious Cats
Daisy did her shaded stairs
Ivory entered two categories. Most of the girls did 2D art, but Ivory did photography as well. You'll probably recognize these pieces from the art show.
Robyn entered one piece that was rejected. They said it was too close to the original reference. (Huh...that makes sense.) So she entered this one instead.
June did two entries. 2D and 3D.
I'm not sure I realized how great our Reflections lady, Jana, is until this year. Robyn goes to a different high school and therefore has a different person over her. Her person did practically nothing to award the kids for participating. I didn't realize it was different for every school. I love all the effort Jana puts in. It truly is above and beyond.
I always forget what order the levels are in. I think it starts at District, then Council, Region, then State? We'll go with that.
The girls are never concerned about moving on. The real prize comes from participating, but it is still fun when a piece makes it to the next level.
Everyone received candy and prizes but some pieces moved their way through the system. Each school was on its own schedule. Everyone's projects were due on different days and the awards' ceremonies were separate as well. Ivory and Daisy were first up at the Junior High. If they like your piece, there are two awards you could get. First is the award of merit, which means your piece was admired, but it won't move on. Or you can get an award of excellence, which means your piece moves to the next level.
Ivory was at a performance that day, so I had to give her both her awards of excellence when she came home. Daisy's piece didn't move on, but she was very content with the candy.
Pearl's school was up next. She didn't move on, but she had a great time collecting her swag.
Robyn moved on, but there were no prizes for her. June also moved on with her 3D piece but parents weren't invited. (They just received their awards in the office.) I did like that Jana chose to skip medals for the high schoolers and give more gifts and candy. She figured they would like it more. I think she was right.
Robyn moved up again from Council to Region, with no fanfare. Ivory and June both moved up as well. (Only one piece from Ivory now.) We had a fun little award ceremony on the steps of the school. Ivory was taking it very seriously.
The Region level was all online. We waited to join a zoom webinar sort of thing. Then we watched as they announced each level. We knew Robyn hadn't moved on or gotten an award. They send emails to inform you. (Although she did finally get something from the school for her participation. I secretly think the lady is just pocketing the money and not using it on the kids.) We also knew Ivory and June received some type of award, but not which one. June got an award of merit. Great job!
And Ivory got an award of excellence so her photography piece will move on to State. I have no idea how that works, but we'll wait and see.
Meanwhile, I took all the girls ticket vouchers today and got tickets for a bunch of performances. We should have a lot of fun this year. (Don't worry, I'm taking Robyn to plays as well, even though she didn't get a voucher. That wasn't her fault.)
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