Self-aware.

We did an art/history project earlier this week. After a discussion about the purpose and history of coats of arms (I used this lesson plan that I found online), I assigned each boy to design his own. In my head, it was a straight-forward little project. And it was. What took me by surprise was how well it also illustrated each boy's self-awareness...and how accurate they were. ;) 

Here's Noah's coat of arms:

And an explanation:

• Noah quickly gravitated toward the use of black (duh, lol) and was thrilled to discover that, according to the chart we were using, it symbolized constancy...which works for him. He was a bit sad to discover that he probably couldn't use much gold, as it represented generosity...he recognized that that's not one of his primary or even secondary character traits. :) He also recognized that green (hope and joy) and red (magnanimity) didn't really fit. :)
• Not too surprisingly, he opted not to include an animal of any sort, as he's a perfectionist and didn't want to draw an animal. (Initially, though, he gravitated toward the snake...which represents ambition and would have been appropriate.)  
• He opted to include a sun...glory...and a moon...serenity.
• He also included lightning bolts to represent decisiveness (which is pretty true...he doesn't get that from me, though, lol), a star to represent nobility (yes, we talked about what nobility means and he figured that he'd have been part of nobility), and bows just because he likes archery.
• And, he chose to make the background blue to represent loyalty and truthfulness. 
• (I'd like to note that, true to form, Noah utilized stencils and straight edges in his work and was very deliberate.)

Here's Asher's coat of arms:

And an explanation:

• Asher realized that the dragon was maybe not *the* most appropriate animal for him but figured it would be easier to draw than a camel (perseverance) or bee (industriousness) or horse (readiness to serve)...all of which he recognized were fairly representative of him. The dragon...defender of treasure...still worked, though. (Hmmm. After writing that out, the dragon actually seems pretty appropriate.)
• He opted to make his dragon blue (for loyalty and truthfulness) and breathing fire (zeal).
• He picked a green background to represent hope and joy.
• And he included an axe because he's dutiful. (The axe is gold (generosity) and black (constancy).)
• (Here, I'd add that Asher's great tendency to hold himself to very high standards came through clearly as he struggled to draw his dragon.)

And, finally, here's Micah's coat of arms:

And an explanation:

• Micah quickly decided on a griffin to represent bravery, but also the Gryffindor house in the Harry Potter stories. ;) (And, with the exception of the dentist and scary movies, the boy actually is pretty brave...often stepping up to try new things before his oldest brother, lol.)
• He made the griffin gold because he's a generous sort...and apparently the griffin is on fire (representing zeal)/surrounded by red (representing magnanimity). (Btw, it was hilarious listening to the boys try to ask Siri on their iPods to define various words. The voice recognition of kid voices definitely needs more work, lol.)
• You may note that there's a wee bit of black on the griffin. Micah readily acknowledged that he couldn't really use black, as he's incredibly indecisive. (It also made him sad that this meant he couldn't use lightning bolts like Noah, lol.)
• He picked a mostly green background, like Asher, to represent hope and joy...with a blue border to represent loyalty and truthfulness.
• (Personally, I think that if he weren't so gung-ho about Harry Potter right now he might have chosen the fox to represent cleverness, which would also have been appropriate.)

And that was our coat of arms project.