AJ has a monthly project due each month (obviously). They have ranged from a puppet of a historical figure, to creating a game, to this month's theme of designing a park.
AJ was ready to go. He started the project weeks in advance. Shawn and I sat down with him and we went over project planning for the 4th time this year. (But whose counting?) The assignment was to build a park for $5,000 or under. Each object had a price tag. And there were certain elements that were required so that ended up eating up some of the budget from the beginning.
I am sure at this point you are thinking- "Wow! A design project! Didn't you go to school for that? AJ is the luckiest kid alive to have such a knowledgeable and talented mother to offer such valuable advice and guidance." I know !!! That's what I told him!
That did not go over well. He is a bit stubborn. He's an Aries. What can I say? So, I decided that after that initial discussion about project planning (and lugging out examples of my drawings, schedules and plans of projects I had done), I would let him figure things out on his own.
I was very proud of how he did the project. He was totally into it, and was trying his best to do a nice job. The park looked great, and I told him so. And then I causally (yet meaningfully) asked (2 days before the project was due) how his budget was looking. There were blank looks, then confused looks, and then panicked looks. And then there was a lot of yelling (Shawn and I) and a lot of crying (AJ).
But to his credit, AJ was able to recover the project and his spirits. After having to back track and do is budget after the fact, it all ended up being ok. I am hoping that this will be the "lessoned learned" time. But, I doubt it. Oh, well. I have to earn my keep somehow.
Here is a picture of the project.
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