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Aidan had his second day of Pre-Art school today. The Pre-Art class is at the Beverly Arts Center in Chicago and is kind of like a preschool, but with a focus on the arts. They do paintings, dancing, singing, and are even supposed to do some yoga at times. His first class was on Tuesday of this week and he was a little nervous going (“Mommy, my stomach feels a little jumpy.”), but I gave him the option of going or not going and he choose to go (“I’m just a little nervous but I still want to go,” he said emphatically.) On Tuesday, I stayed in the class with him at first but within 15 minutes he said I could go (but I still stayed nearby, just out of sight, and would peek in occasionally). He had a great time. There are only five kids in the class and the teacher, Ms. Jennifer, seemed very nice and soft-spoken with the kids. He made a really cool looking 3-D painting of a tree by using scrunched up newspaper glued to a larger sheet of paper for the trunk and then painting on the branches, the leaves, and the sky. I’ve attached a photo of it.

After doing the painting project they played musical chairs. I peeked in at this point to watch a bit and they looked like they were having so much fun. Ms. Jennifer would give them different actions to do during each round (e.g. pretend to be something that flies, slither like a snake, walk like you are walking on hot sand at the beach, etc.) and the kids seemed to really get a kick out of this. And I loved that they played the game without anyone ever “being out”–there was a chair for each one of them every time the music stopped. It was all about them having fun and using their imaginations.

Today Mike took him to the class and when they got there Aidan went right in without needing Mike to be in there with him. They worked on some sponge painting, which we will see next week. And when he got home Aidan was talking up a storm about the class and all the fun things they did. He seems to really enjoy it and says he wants us to sign him up for the summer session of it.

After Aidan’s class the three of us went over to the Main Park to sign Aidan up for tennis lessons, which he decided he wanted to try. And then after that we walked around the park. Aidan was a bit disappointed because this park used to have a large playground that he was looking forward to playing on, but the playground had been removed (it was one of those older wooden playgrounds just wanting to give kids splinters and with metal that was starting to rust). I was proud of Aidan because he didn’t totally freak out when he saw that it was gone. (We’ve been having some trouble recently with outbursts when things don’t go exactly how he wants them to; he can be a bit stubborn, focused, and a little of a perfectionist, thanks to some of his genes.) But instead we walked through the grassy field and found an area with swings. Then we took a hike through the woods, and ended at the sand volleyball pit where we all ran around without shoes and socks and felt the cool sand between our toes! Some pictures…

 

Tags:   art · classes · family fun · photos1 Comment