Canon's new favorite game involves dumping as much of whatever substance is convenient on the floor and playing in it. Substances used recently include: Flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Anything I leave down low enough ... then he makes tracks in the substance. I think I'll build him a sand box next year (forbid kitty from utilizing it as a litter box). But as for now.... maybe one of those long, under the bed Tupperware with a bag of sand would be easier to clean than all my pantry products.
Sagan enjoys sleeping. And looks so good doing it. I'll shall enjoy it while it lasts, but I think we're about to start the abysmal decent into teethingville, so all bets on my continued sanity are off.Also, Crichton competed in his 2nd Karate tournament yesterday. He did very well on his forms, he was 1:2 in his sparring. His other two events were with his partner and they could have used more practice, but they gave it a good try and now that I know what to expect from all the events, I can help him work hard for the next one. Our Sensai won the adult black belt round ... he beat a blond lady sensai. It was very entertaining ... unfortunately I left my memory card for the camera home, D'oh.
Crichton (lately, aka Dr. Indiana Jones) had a late night party on Friday. I'm kind of anti-slumber parties and it's pointless at this age anyway, but we had his best friend stay over to play PAST bedtime. I made a treasure hunt for them for "reading time" - so fun. Saturday afternoon we watched the new Indiana Jones movie as a family. George Lucas, hack that he is, has a strange power over my boy. Crichton is now working on a book detailing his first official adventure. Here's the cover (Crichton always prefers to have the title and cover art completed before he begins the actual writing of his books):
This evening we took some brownies over to a lovely family and then we got swept away in a flash flood torrent, across the big street. We had to avoid packs of rabid wolves. Then we found a clue to the well of souls. It led us to an Indian marketplace where we discovered how to insert money and receive the elixir of life - a cold bottle of water. We drank some, rationing the rest for later, we were so very far from home and me with no cell phone. We were only able to briefly explore the Bigfoot prints in the ravine - it was a 90 minute jaunt. When we got home Crichton made a map so we could remember how to get back next time.
He'd actually used a globe to find a country and carefully copy its name. He learned the names of the oceans and reviewed the 7 continents song I made up last year. If you'd like a super nerd kid also here's the song (to the tune of 10 Little Indians):Europe, Asia, North America,
Africa, Australia, South America,
Then at the bottom is Antarctica,
These are the seven continents.
*****
As I reflect over my own childhood memories, I wonder which ones will stay with my kids as they grow up. Hopefully more of the ones where I lavish time and attention on them and not so much the times they sit like zombies watching Little Einsteins.
6 Brilliant Bits of Inspiration:
One of the first things I remember about you was bringing Zerin over to play and you had dressed up as Peter Pan and Crichton was dressed up as Captain Hook. Any mom that will go to those lengths to play with their children is pretty amazing in my book.
Has anyone ever told you that even if your children attend public school faithfully all the way through to graduation... you're still homeschooling them? You have such imaginative, fun ways of exploring life with your little ones. That is what they will remember.
Just a brilliant, breathtaking ride.
Have you ever checked out lulu.com? For a fairly reasonable price you (or your child) can publish your own book in a variety of formats and binding options. We're looking forward to making a book by the end of the school year. I think Crichton would love the idea!
Sounds like a fun adventure. Crichton is a very smart kid. I think it's so important to help kids explore their own creativity and you do that very well!
Thanks for the brownies. Dylan devoured them before I could try to ration them, but I did get to sample them before they were gone. Delicious! Sorry for the complete chaos you found on your journey. I seriously appreciated your comments about Dylan and Primary though. I'll do my best to ignore his behavior and pretend he's just another kid in the crowd. I'm sure it's more of a reaction to my being there than anything else because he's been doing much better lately - home, preschool, soccer, etc. Anyway, it's just hard to be the parent with the "naughty kid" when you're trying to teach all the others. Makes me feel a little unfit for my calling. Anyway, just a bad day overall...so thanks!
Dylan was a lot like Canon at that age and I discovered a couple indoor winter tricks that worked for us. Dry beans or rice. They're both super cheap and he still loves playing with them. We get his Bob-the-Builder cars out and he scoops beans up with them or he plays with his animals and dinosaurs in the beans like they're in the jungle (I prefer the beans, but used to use rice) I keep them in a rarely used pan (the 9X13 or maybe bigger so he has a little space to play) and just keep it on top of the fridge so it's easily accessible. It works well and is tucked away to some degree. A bigger under-the-bed tote would be perfect though to give you just that much more space for him to play. If he likes it, beans or rice are a bit easier to clean up than actual sand.
Maria: Dylan is an awesome kid in his own right. Primary would be SO boring if everyone sat still, smiling and singing. I used to be all uptight about the harder to control kids in whatever class I was teaching, but my current philosophy is just to love the heck out of them - they have their whole lives to learn the gospel details, right now, the most important thing is to provide and atmosphere where they can feel that God loves them - I want every kid to feel better about themselves when they go home from church. I don't care if half of my lesson time is spent discussing Halloween costumes, especially if it gets my shyest kid to smile and share herself or my less focused kids zero in on the discussion.
And you do a brilliant job at your calling - happy, enthusiastic, just brilliant.
Janet: I'll check lulu out. We went to kinkos once and laminated and spiral bound a book Cri made for daddy, very sturdy. I count on the fact that it is my job to teach Crichton, to keep him progressing while the school is making sure no child is left behind. I review his schoolwork, supervise his homework AND make him practice reading and math.
Play is work.
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