What Sophie's Been Up To.

Sophie joined a Basketball Team a few months ago. She was a little scared at first since she hasn't really done any sports before. One of her former Young Woman's Leaders urged us to sign her up. She was going to coach and knew they needed more girls to form a team. I thought with her as a coach Sophie would be well taken care of while doing something she had never done before. 

The YW leader ended up not coaching because there weren't enough girls to form yet another team so Sophie started  with a different coach the first few weeks. But it didn't seem to change her mind about Basketball. She has really enjoyed it. She is still rather timid about dibbling and shooting during the games but she is a GREAT defender. Her last game is this Saturday. There are only two teams in her age bracket so she has played the same team every week. They have only won one game but each time loose by less and less and the other team scores are lower and lower each game. I somehow think all the experienced players ended up on one team and all the novice players were on the other.  That YW leader took over as Sophie's coach a few weeks ago and there has been great improvement from all the girls and they play better and better as a team. 

This has been a great experience for Sophie. She has gain confidence and even though she has never done this before she knows now that she can give new things a try.

_______________

April was poetry month so the local library held a teen poetry contest. Sophie wrote a great poem for one of her classes a few months back and when she saw the announcement about the contest decided to enter her poem. 

Grandpa’s Orchard

(inspired by author’s memories)

An Orchard, tall, filled with many kinds of fruit, stands,

Hiding battlegrounds, and quaint fairylands.

Lost in those trees are memories of fantasy,

Where I once imagined, created and saw

That fantastical world that I love.

It didn't win the contest but got an honorable mention! She picked up her certificate today.

___________________

About a week ago Sophie saw an announcement for Auditions. Our little town is going to do a Shakespeare in the Park play in July. They are doing A Mid Summer Night's Dream. Sophie decided she had to try out. The whole day of the Audition she read through the play and tried to memorize a monologue to use as her audition. She ended up just reading a passage they they asked her to read. She was given a part and she couldn't be happier. She gets to play Mustard Seed one of Tatiana's Fairies.  Not a whole lot of lines (which I think is good) but she gets to be on the stage. And now we get to start having multiple play practices a week.

___________________

Oh... yeah... in April our Ward held a Ward Talent show.  Sophie signed herself up to sing Noble Maiden Fair from Brave.  I played the piano for her and of course I flubbed up a bit even though I had practiced it and practiced it, but my nerves always get the best of me. Sophie did a great job despite my mess up. 

I think it is amazing that Sophie is putting herself out there. Either playing Basketball has just brought out a more aggressive side of her or perhaps she is just missing some of the opportunities to perform that we used to have at our homeschool co-op before we moved. But she is certainly branching out and trying new things.  She, of course, is counting a lot of it for projects in her Young Women's Personal Progress. 

For what ever reason she is certainly keeping me busy. All these different practices and such mean I get to taxi her about quite a bit.