I'm all confused this week. Is it Tuesday? Friday? Next week Wednesday? My self-diagnosis is that I have a bad case of vacation brain, and that 4 days off wasn't enough.
Yesterday we were a little slow getting up and moving after our late night coming home, so I had to walk Otto into school and sign him in. We went to join up with his class in the art studio, which is this great, airy, sunny space on the west end of one wing of his school. There are big tables, kid-sized stools, drying racks, a huge chalkboard and scads of art supplies.
We walked in, and he headed for his seat, got settled, and immediately started working on his current project -- a bird poster.
His teacher (smart, funny, super creative and really nice) showed them how to make a bird by drawing a capital letter B and adding a beak and tail. Then they had to add a branch with leaves, and another branch for the bird to stand on plus some additional embellishments.
He's learned this year how to sketch/draw first with a pencil. Once he has the drawing the way he likes it, he traces over it with a Sharpie marker, then adds color and detail with crayons or pastels. It's such a smart way to draw, and he's become a pretty confident artist over the course of the year.
I just enjoyed getting to spend 10 minutes watching him focus on his work.
He's come a long way since the beginning of the school year, and I'm not the only one who's noticed. Several of his teachers -- even the teacher who runs the drop-off circle in the morning and sees Otto for barely 2 minutes in the morning when she helps him out of the car -- have mentioned his new maturity.
Summer stretches ahead of us, and at the end will be the back-to-school picnic and the return to his classroom and friends. Coming off such a good kindergarten experience, I know he'll feel good about that transition. We all will!
