Wow - late start this morning. Bloody book week. Every time we say we’ll be organised and every year we’re hot gluing on the day. Interestingly this was the first year that Frank has shown any interest in dressing up for one of these costume days. Alice would do it every day if she could, but Frank has basically refused since he had the capacity to make his own decisions.
I’ve put the change in attitude this year down to him coming up with the idea for a costume himself. Instead of us suggesting characters like Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter (Frank’s blonde hair is asking for it) he was quite clear and committed to his plan from the start. Due to his normal resistance about the whole thing I was excited to hear all about his plan…
This year Frank wanted to dress up as ChainSaw Man - a MA +15 manga character that he is not allowed to watch because the comics and program are so violent. This was a slight parenting dilemma because on one hand he is showing an interest and on the other hand, that interest in something he shouldn’t be into. After quickly considering the pros and cons it was decided that yes, Chain Saw man is the way to go but, because we needed to draw the line somewhere, there was to be no blood on the chainsaws…
Once Frank had the green light he got cracking on researching the design and how best to build his costume. I laser cut some chain saw blades out of cardboard at work (which came under PD of course) and plans were made. During this time Alice of course decided that she wanted to be Chainsaw Man as well because she can’t help but want to do everything her big brother does but we negotiated her around to Pochita who is Chainsaws man's cute familiar that gives him powers.
Now if I was in charge of this art project it would’ve been finished last weekend but I left it up to Matt and the kids so last night there were trips to bunnings after dinner for more glue sticks and paint to get everything finished. It's such a slippery slope as a parent. Part of me wants to not care because I told you to do this weeks ago but there is a stronger part that has you rolling up your sleeves and painting a Pochita face at 8pm.
It was actually super fun making all the pieces. We work well as a team. The kids did most of it with us helping with some of the more structural elements. I swore I would never paper mache again after making Frank a Pinata for a birthday one year. It was so massive that it took weeks to construct and was virtually unbreakable on the day. Yet, here I was again, sitting in the garage sticking strips of newspaper to a balloon while Alice was doing her best not to get the water paste over everything.
This morning both kids were up early and eager to get their customs on. There was a Book Week Parade at 9 which we stuck around for. Both kids proudly marched their outfits around. No one had made Frank take his chainsaws off which was good - we thought that might happen. Parents watched on, probably making sure the outfits they’d constructed held together for the parade at least. One kid had a spider man mask, a bright red afro wig and red T’shirt and shorts combo. When asked who he was, he just said “I don’t know!” - it made me laugh - good on ya kid!
From my perspective, this was the first time that Frank wanted to take part in a school dress up. He worked really hard cutting out the pieces and painting them. He spent lots of time talking about and planning the project because it was something that he was into - even if it was MA +15 and he shouldn’t have been into it. We talk about this all the time at the Tech School, how to best engage students.
Often we have teachers telling us that students who are normally disruptive in class are focused and work hard while there at the Tech School. Because of the cool stuff we’re teaching them it's easier for us to get and keep their attention. We’ve had stories of students finding school really hard academically and socially yet when we see them, they’re super engaged, bright and helpful students.
I know we have to educate young people and set them up for a productive life but I often wonder if we’re going about it in the best way. The education system is so rigid. So many students disengage because they see nothing of value from them there. Seeing Frank light up over this project shows that if we’re willing to look beyond the curriculum there are opportunities to get the learning in whilst shifting off the traditional track. Perhaps that is our job as parents. To give these sparks space to grow into something more meaningful. Who knows if Frank will ever want to dress up again, it doesn’t really matter, but knowing that he can if he wants to is a pretty great outcome.
