“You Need to Be Proud of Yourself Too!”

Every Friday morning, I sit with T for virtual art class before lunch and it’s been quite calming!

Four weeks of virtual learning hell is behind us and it has been so so hard.

Much of the school day is punctuated with meltdowns and battles. But we find a way to get to the end, so we try not to sweat the small stuff.

His teacher and child & youth worker have been so understanding and flexible. They go the extra mile to showcase his work to the class to let him shine and build confidence.

Fridays are more chilled days.

In the 30-minute session before lunch, the class draws a picture by following a short video.

I’m glad T gets to work on his fine motor skills, because he is less developed in this area, because he doesn’t enjoy practicing his handwriting.

Drawing is a fun way to practice skills such as the pencil grip, while flexing his creative muscles.

Every week, I sit next to T and draw along with him. It is important the hubby and I model the behaviour we are expecting.

The first week, we drew a penguin floating on ice.

T’s proportions were off and it looked like an amoeba but I still loved it.

In a later class, he drew another penguin and came up with his own sentence to describe it.

I was impressed he came up with “Penguins can waddle” on his own!

I wrote the sentence lightly with a pen and he traced over the words with a crayon.

We put up his completed work on our living room wall to show him how proud we are of him.

The following Friday, we drew a dragon from the movie How to Train Your Dragon.

I noticed an improvement in T’s ability to follow along and plan the space on the blank paper for the entire illustration.

This Friday, we drew a polar bear floating on ice in the Arctic, because the class learned about the importance of helping the environment.

I gotta say, his polar bear drawing was his best illustration yet!

Later that evening, I was finishing up my work when I noticed T rummaging through our pantry.

He pulled out a piece of paper and came to me all flustered. “Why is this in the recycling bin?!”

“Oh, it’s my drawing,” I said. “I only put yours up on the wall. Cuz I’m very proud of your work.”

He furrowed his brow. “You need to be proud of yourself too!”

I nearly laughed out loud at how unbearably adorably endearing he was. “Did you want me to put my drawing next to yours on the wall?”

“Yes!” He shouted.

The hubby, listening in, tried to hop on the bandwagon. “Are you proud of Daddy too?”

“No, cuz you didn’t do any work!”

The hubby and I laughed at his earnest response.

Just so we’re clear, the hubby does plenty. The three of us wouldn’t be surviving this pandemic schooling hell if it wasn’t for our teamwork.

Our days are far from perfect but we give each day our best. Then crash from exhaustion during the weekends.

I seem to get stuck with weekly art classes though! And you know what, it’s been very fun!