Sophia has quite a spread in today's newspaper! The photo below is from the online paper... there are even more photos in the printed paper, but the online version has a video from her class! Check it out: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/356157/

The article was about starting young children in structured activities, like ballet. I think it's a pretty well-balanced article, and I feel good about having Sophia in a few structured activities (part-time preschool during the school year, ballet once a week during school year, and swimming and art in the summer). The ballet in particular has been great for teaching Sophia to focus and pursue something with discipline! I also agree that it's important to let kids lead activities, and we spend LOTS of time in our city's parks or just outside enjoying walks and bike rides (and horse rides!), and Sophia loves choosing a science experiment every week or two from her science books (right now we're growing mold and watching a piece of paper break down outside... she chooses! The mold is GROSS!). Of course Sophia also has a vivid imagination, and spends LOTS of time every day conducting her own activities and even doing her own art projects with her art kits. I feel pretty good about Sophia's life balance. She seems fairly normal and happy so far! :)