A Mouse and a Ninja go to school...

St. George's has a week that celebrates children's literature with various activities for all the kids. This coincides with the Book Fair that is a favorite for all!

This year was the first time Evan got to participate in some of the events.

First was the Book Fair Poster Contest. Evan has really taken an interest in drawing and art. Me, who could have qualified for an IEP in art, am not a lot of help, but I did want to foster his new passion. I encouraged him to design a poster. We chatted about it for a couple of days before finally committing to do the poster. Being mom of the year, I kept forgetting to bring home the poster. Funny enough, this lead to why I think he won. I told him a lot of artist sketch ideas before finalizing their drawing/creation. Evan miiiiiight have watched a season couple of Project Runways with me, so he's not unfamiliar with the concept. He spent two days sketching and editing his idea. He changed the title three or four times, but the concept stayed the same. He asked me to look up things on the internet so he could research different types of things he could include. Most, if not all, of this was done after school before dinner on HIS OWN TIME. Like I said, he has a new passion.

The night I brought home the poster, I knew my type A personality had to walk away. He found his sketch and got started. The ONLY thing I helped him with was the spelling of some of the words, and yes, I still had to do that at a distance. His concept was that the ocean is filled with all different sea creatures who had books as their bodies. There was a diver who wanted to 'learn more about stuff' so he was going to "Dive Into the Ocean of Curiosity".  He worked on it for about 2 days. He was three fourths the way through when he broke into sobs. He messed up his turtle. It was ruined. I sat down with him and explained this happens to artist all the time. They take their 'mistakes' and turn them into part of the masterpiece. Perfect isn't what people want. No one and nothing will ever be perfect. I then told him the moment this project wasn't fun, we were done. This wasn't mandatory. This wasn't for a grade. This was something we were doing because he likes art. He said, "I just can't explain it, but I do want to and I don't want to enter the contest." We decided to sleep on it before he made a decision.

The next morning before my alarm had even gone off, Evan bounded into the room and announced he was back in the game! He would fix his turtle and finish his poster! I was very proud of my little dude for making such a grown up decision. He spent the rest of the morning eating his breakfast and finishing his poster. The only advice I offered him was to trace his title in black. Otherwise, this is a completely child created project!

The following week, Evan was awarded FIRST PLACE in the Book Week Poster Contest for his grade. (For the record, our art teacher judges the posters without knowing which kid did which poster.)  He was on cloud nine. He was recognized in chapel by his librarian, Mrs. Williams. He also won a $10 gift certificate to the book fair! That prize helped him buy his favorite book at the book fair. I am still so stinking proud of him!

Evan also participated in the Book Character Parade. Evan dressed as the ninja from The Boy Who Cried Ninja, which was given to him by his California family. We just so happened to have a ninja costume from Halloween. Funny how that worked out. :) I was a mouse from When You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The mouse get up was 50% off at Target the week after Halloween. I love it when a plan comes together.