We requested a conference with Logan’s teacher to see his progress.  Logan was quite nervous about it and wondered what kind of report the teacher would give us.  The teacher was pleased with Logan’s progress with comprehension and suggested what we should keep doing with him to continue the improvement.  Logan has been doing fine with other areas as well.  Connor on the other hand was confident and excited to find out about his report, and he told us that he would have good grades.  When we received his report card, Connor indeed had received many satisfactory progress and even a few excellent marks.  We reviewed it with Connor, and he was quite pleased.

     Connor loves to clean up and he even wrote that down on his Star of the Week poster as one of his favorite things.  He takes pride after helping Daddy cleaning up the yard or inside the house.  He also likes setting up the table for dinner.  The past few nights he wrote us menu; he asked Stuart and Logan to order food, and he would serve them the plates.

    The funny thing is that Connor does not like to clean up his bedroom, and his room is often messy.  Connor misplaces his things often and Stuart has to go find his missing items all over the house for him. 

   I took Friday off to do both of the boys’ art lessons.  They involve quite a bit of work and preparation so getting ready for them is not something I look forward to.  I have to send messages to my partners and coordinate our lesson plans, but when the day does come, I do enjoy it.  I walked the boys to school in the morning, then Connor and I went to line up with his class.  A few of his classmates came up to us and cheered for Art Vistas.  The other mom was not feeling well, so I knew I had to do all the talking for this lesson.  Right after drop off, another mom and I gathered the materials then quickly headed back to the classroom.  The teacher already had the kids sitting on the rug ready for us, so I began the lesson.  The topic this month was texture.  I reviewed some previous and the new elements with the class, and showed them a few of the drawing techniques, ie. stippling, hatching and cross-hatching.  For the hands-on project, we had the opportunity to take the class outdoors and have the kids draw a landscape.  It was so cute that the teacher had the kids all sitting in a straight line, and the kids enjoyed  this change in scenery.  They were content being little artists drawing with the clipboard; they used the techniques taught and made incredible artwork.  The weather was nice, and we had a good time out there.

   I went home for a couple of hours, then it was time to head back to prepare for Logan’s class.  The other mom and I were all set up at the cafeteria, then the class arrived.  The topic of the lesson was Non-Objective Art.  I began by discussing with the kids how Non-Objective Art is different from abstract vs realistic art, and shared some famous artwork as examples.  Then after the other mom explained the project, it was time for the kids to make their own non-objective art.  They were taking their time using geometric shapes and lines for the design and then using vibrant colors to fill in and complete their artwork.  The teacher gave us extra time as many of the kids were determined with their creation.  At the end of the class, we also had the kids paint the clay masks they had made a few months ago.  It was a bit stressful when a few of the kids could not find their pieces, and one was still missing at the end.  We also used up all the time to the end of the school day, and finally wrapped up just few minutes before the bell ring.  But we were productive and the kids made lots of great pieces at the end.

    My legs were so tired by the time the boys and I walked home; I had more than 12K steps.  Later It felt great to relax while the boys were on the computers.  When Stuart finished working, we headed out to enjoy a dinner and a cocktail to end a good Art Vista day.

     The Merons invited everyone over on Saturday for barbeque.  Prior to this Logan had another 2-hour tennis lesson, and as soon as the lesson was over, we headed over to their house.  The boys had brought their Tablets and they joined Rohan and other kids to play games.  Later, Guy put Sing on TV, but only Connor and Raz were interested to watch, and I had periodically sat with Connor since I really liked the movie too.  The adults mainly just sat around the dining room, chatting, eating, having desserts and drinks as it was too cold to be outdoor.  Since Bar’s birthday was a day before, we also had a little celebration for her and had some birthday cake.  After eating, the kids went out to the backyard to play tags.  It was cold out there, but none of them seemed to mind.  Later the whole group came back in and all returned to the electronics.  Few hours of gathering, we had to say goodbye so we could go to Color Me Mine to pick up the ceramics before we headed home for a late dinner and late night.

    On Sunday it was Marcus’s birthday party.  We were the first one to arrive and the boys had the opportunity to join Marcus to start the gaming in the video game truck.  The rest of the guests arrived shortly and joined in the games.  Logan started out playing the Xbox inside the truck; later he moved out to play Wii Smash Bro with the other boys, but somehow he found the Wii remote console and he moved back inside the truck while he continued to battle the other four players who were standing outside.  Mckayla had chosen to be Lego Harry Potter and Connor decided to join her.  The two of them were not as familiar with the game, so I heard later that Logan was giving them advice while he was still playing Smash Bro.  The three of them basically remained inside the truck while the rest of the kids playing outside in the cold, but of course no one minded the temperature at all.  Since the kids were occupied, Stuart and I joined Michelle and a couple of parents inside the house instead.  By 12pm, the truck was leaving and the kids all came inside to enjoy the pizza lunch and later some cake after we sang Happy Birthday to Marcus.  By then it was no longer raining and was actually quite sunny, all the kids went to the backyard to play a little.  The boys had returned to the house to play with Lego and we hung out a bit longer, then we thanked Michelle and Ted and headed home to finish our chores for the week.

   As the 120th day of school is approaching, Connor’s class is having the kids make an artwork with 120 pieces of a material.  Last week, Connor and I went through the house looking for ideas.  I threw out different things and pitched ideas to Connor, but he turned down most of them.  Finally when I suggested cutting out short pieces of yarns and arranged them into a picture, and I used a vase with flowers as an example.  This was the one got sold to Connor.  I tried to think up other designs for him to consider, but he was happy with the vase and flowers.  On Saturday, I helped cut out the strips, and Connor decided how much he wanted from each color and counted out a total of 120 pieces.  I had suggested how to arrange for the vase and the flowers, and Connor put in his ideas to make the flowers with different number of pedals to be more natural.  I assisted by squeezing glue wherever Connor wanted to put the pieces of yards, quickly we put together his artwork.  He decided to put a border with the few leftover yarns and used crayon to draw in the stems and leaves.  I was amazed how fast we finished that project, one hour, and how great it looked.  Stuart worried that the final product did not look like coming from a kid which made me worried, but Connor was the one indeed making the majority part of it other than it was my idea. 

    On Friday after school, we found out that it was Connor’s turn to be the Star of the week this week.  For that, Connor had to make a poster of “All about him”, and he had to gather a few of his favorite things to bring to class, and the family also had to write about why we love Connor.  So instead of just the 120th day project, Connor had to work on this other one as well.  Fortunately he was quick enough that we finished one on each day.  Logan also wrote why he loves Connor on the paper before Stuart and I shared our thoughts too.  Connor is so excited and looks forward to getting some attention in class every day of the week.