Shifting

As the season is shifting here, so is our little boy.  He's been trying lots of new things on for size, hanging out in new social circles and learning about new aspects of art, religion and politics.

New website
Grady, age 10 vs. Grady, age 8 painted by Kai Samuels-Davis

Last week I shared that one of Grady's paintings, Invisible World (pictured above left), was selected to be in a local art and literary publication.  He had to prepare an under 30 word artist statement and Steve created a simple website www.gradyhecht.com where he could display some of his artwork.  It's a work in progress, but he thinks it's very cool to have his own domain name.

We attended our first bar mitzvah!  What an amazing family learning experience.  The mid-day religious ceremony was a bit long (2 hours), but we followed along in the prayer books and really loved  all of the music and family involvement.  It was poignant and really resonated with all of us that 13 is indeed a turning point in a young person's life.  I kept calculating in my head how much longer we had with Grady before he turned 13 and readied himself to be more accountable and head down that road to becoming a man.

G hung out near the back of the dance floor for the first part of the night
He slowly inched towards to kids and eventually busted out his dance moves!

The after party was over-the-top, complete with a photo booth, taco bar, DJ, cakes, party favors and a full-blown candy bar.  Grady tentatively watched from the sidelines, as he only knew a few of the kids. The kids traveled in packs around the venue - all girls grouped together and all boys huddled up.  The DJ did a great job of trying to get the kids to interact with games, pop music and then pulling in the adults for added bodies on the dance floor.

Steve and I kept marveling from the back of the room as we watched our little guy slowly infiltrating the herds of boys and girls and finally busting out his dance moves when his favorite song, Thrift Shop, came on over the loud speakers.  He was beaming and so were we.

We're winding down the third 6-week session of the chess club at G's school.  This club has been maxed out every time we've offered it and the kids are an absolute delight to work with.  Watching their slow evolution and game strategy develop has been a real treat for me.

I'm also super excited to help do some ground work on creating a free after school art club on campus, along with another PTA mom.  We're in the initial stages of researching costs, writing letters to local politicians for monetary backing, insurance and working with this year's new art teacher to make it happen.  I'm beyond thrilled and really happy to focus my volunteer efforts on something that is so near and dear to my heart.  Crossing my fingers it all works out!

A few week's back, Grady's teacher gave them a homework assignment to write a persuasive essay about why they shouldn't have to do homework.  If any of the students persuaded the teacher, they wouldn't have to do homework for a week.  I thought this was an awesome assignment.

It also prepared the students for this week's 5th Grade Class Representative election for Student Council.  The assignment was to write a speech and deliver same in front of the class.  I've posted a little video of Grady's speech.

My favorite part of his speech?  The ending.

Please vote for me.  I like pie.

He won.

I like to think that our small town surroundings helped influence his speech.

I also hope it's a sign that we're about to win a lot of pies at this year's Valley Ford Pie Auction.

See, then we all win.