Blushing Is For Wusses

While we were shopping at the co-op on this crowded Thursday morning, Larkin and Finn were perusing the bulk section trying to make some selections. Larkin wanted something fruity and gummy and couldn't remember if she liked the gummy fruit slices or if she should stick with gummy worms. She called (loudly) out to me (while I was 15 feet away innocently scooping granola into a jar), "Jenny? Do I like wedgies?"

At least four solo, adult shoppers giggled.

Finn noticed the public amusement and so I found myself in the middle of the busy co-op explaining exactly what a wedgie is.

Of Earrings and Angry Birds

Larkin has been talking about getting her ears pierced since she was about 3, but was scared enough about the process (you know, what with the actual Piercing and all) that she chose to wait until she was "older." I seem to remember 7 being bandied about as some sort of magic ear-piercing age. Well, after a conversation with her teenage friend Janey and a play date with her slightly-younger-but-already-pierced friend Tia, she was ready to go.

So off we went to the Piercing Pagoda at the mall where Larkin took one look at the selection of piercing studs and promptly chose the most expensive ones available. Apparently, sparkly butterflies are priced at a premium. She barely flinched at the actual piercing and was very attentive to the cleaning instructions doled out by the lady running the booth. She has only needed occasional reminders to include ear-cleaning in her morning and evening routines and is pleased as punch with her new ability to accessorize.

On our way to the Piercing Pagoda, we passed a store with this on display:

I mean the bird, not the kids. Finn has been enthralled by the Angry Birds game on Emile's phone and had been talking about how much he would like a stuffed Angry Bird. I didn't know such a thing even existed so I had been cautious in encouraging his expectations. Suffice it to say, there were paroxysms of joy in the mall corridor when we spotted this.

If you haven't played the game, I highly recommend it. You use a sling shot to fling Very Angry Birds at their demonically smug pig nemeses who hide themselves in complicated tower structures. Since our serendipitous mall find, we have spent many hours constructing towers at which to fling our very own angry bird.

In other news, totally unrelated to either earrings or angry birds, Larkin recently referred to the local elementary school as "that juggling place." I was amused, although it does make sense since her only experiences with the place have been either on the playground or attending juggling club meetings with Emile.

Ballerina Base Two

Larkin started a ballet class a couple of months ago. I had nightmare images of rows of young children standing at a barre performing repetitive movements while being shouted at by a barely mobile ex-prima ballerina. Luckily, local friends with older kids directed us to a class that Larkin has loved.

Miss Tina prepares them for a performance, and the kids are introduced to the basics while learning a routine for the show. Finn, while not interested in formal lessons, has been very excited to discover that some of the ways he moves have fancy ballet names. Most notably, he now likes to announce what he's doing as he "chasses" across the room.

Larkin has been having an excellent time, and I've been amused to see how some of the things she's learning in ballet bleed over into other aspects of life.

Yesterday we were playing a board game that involves rolling a pair of dice and moving the appropriate number of spaces. At the beginning, Larkin announced that she was going to "practice ballerina counting." When, for instance, she rolled something that added up to 8, she would count out: "1-2-3, 2-2-3, 3-2." She never hesitated in her translation of the roll of the dice to ballerina base two.

Challenge Game

I got this idea from one of the unschooling mailing lists I'm on. Emile and I came up with a set of cards, each with an activity/challenge for the kids. They pick one out of the box and do whatever the card says. The primary purpose is for them to have fun... the secondary purpose is for us to have something to fall back on when we're feeling particularly tired or having a hard time engaging with the kids as actively or positively as we would like. To this end, we tried to come up with things that Larkin and Finn could do pretty independently.

So far, they have been having a BLAST. I don't know how long this first set of cards is going to last, so please let me know if you have more ideas! Many thanks to Jim, Alex and Elly for greatly enhancing our original set of ideas. I'll try to take pictures of the more entertaining ones as they happen.

• Guess how many same size lego bricks will fit in a measuring cup. Count to find out how close you are.
• Make a potato person or animal using a potato, thumb tacks, tape and any materials you can find in the craft cubbies. Name your creature and make up a story about its life.
• Draw a picture using only paper and dry beans. Write your name with the beans.
• Find something to represent each color, then construct a rainbow on the floor.
• Get on your hands and knees, put your knees up on your elbows and croak like a frog. How long can you hold that position?
• Draw a star while hopping on one foot.
• Get a pen or pencil, paper and a mirror set up so you can draw while looking ONLY in the mirror-- NOT at the paper. Draw a heart, then a star. Are certain shapes harder/easier to draw?
• Count how many books are in the nearest box of books.
• Push a ball across the living room floor with your nose.
• Find 10 things in the house that start with the letter "S."
• Find or make something in the house that looks like a unicorn horn and figure out how to attach it to your forehead.
• Measure how tall Larkin's bunk bed is in lengths of Finn's forearm.
• Count how many times you can fold a piece of paper in half. Is it different with different kinds of paper?
• Draw a treasure map on your stomach with a marker.
• Sing "Happy Birthday" in a secret fairy language.
• Make as many hearts as you can with a single pipe cleaner.
• Find 10 things in the house that are yellow.
• Create an alien out of playdough and make up a story about its planet and life.
• Say the alphabet backwards.
• Time how long you can do a "wall sit."
• Draw a picture of what you would look like if you were an alien.
• Dress up in Emile's clothes and do something he would do.
• Hide something in your room then draw a treasure map. See if someone else can find the item using only the map.
• How many grains of rice do you think fit in a level tablespoon? Measure one out and see how close you are.
• See how far you can walk while balancing a spoon on your nose.
• Measure the length of the living room in lengths of Larkin's feet.
• Find one purple thing in every room of the house.
• Draw a picture of Spiderman.
• Walk from one end of the house to the other five times, like a different animal each time.
• Act out one of your favorite scenes from Avatar, playing all the parts yourself.
• Tape a coin to your forehead.
• Find 10 things in the house that start with the letter "P."
• Draw an upside down face on your chin, using your mouth as the face's mouth.
• Turn every item of your clothing inside out and then put them back on.
• Walk like a pirate from one end of the house to the other with a toy bird balanced on one shoulder.
• Close every door in the house, including closets.
• Count to 20 by twos.
• Put every barrette in Larkin's hair box in your hair.
• Call a grandparent and tell them about your day.
• Make a painting of a butterfly using only ketchup and paper on the kitchen floor.
• Dress up in Jenny's clothes and do something she would do.
• Using mirrors and a flashlight, shine a beam from the kitchen table to an upstairs wall.
• Design a paper airplane and see how far a flight it can make.
• Put on 3 pairs of pants at the same time. How hard is it to bend your knees? Touch your toes?
• Get 10 big lego and put an empty jar on the floor. See how many lego you can drop in the jar while standing with your arm extended straight out in front of you. What if you stand on the couch?
• Draw a star using only your toes.
• Find a large stuffed animal and dress it in your clothes.
• Walk backwards from the game table to the dogs' door.
• Call an uncle and tell him about your day.
• Turn off every light in the house.
• Count how many articles of clothing you can wear all at once.
• Tape your thumbs to your palms and then try to: write your name, open a door, take the lid off a jar.
• Measure how far you can jump from standing. How about with a running start?
• Find a mirror and see if you can learn to cross your eyes. Then try raising only one eyebrow.
• Draw a circle while keeping your eyes closed. Then a picture of your head with your eyes closed.
• Draw a scary face on a paper bag then put it on your head and make a monster noise.
• Guess how many earth balls are in the jar in the snack cupboard. Count to see how close you are.
• Using only sticks and leaves from outside, build a boat that will float in the tub or sink. See if it stands up to waves.
• Take turns telling one sentence at a time of a story.
• Jump up and clap your hands once while you're still in the air. See how many times you can clap during one jump.
• Find 10 things in the house that start with the letter B.
• Close your eyes, stand on one foot and touch your nose. Keep your eyes closed and try not to fall down while counting slowly to 10.
• Make a picture of a horse using only paper and dry cereal on the kitchen floor.
• Make up a story about who your "real" parents are and what they are like.
• Find 10 circles in the house. Then squares, rectangles and triangles. Which shape was hardest to find?
• Measure how many finger lengths long the stair supports are.
• Arrange things under your blankets so it looks just like you're sleeping there.
• Make the shape of a person on the kitchen floor using only spoons and butter knives.
• See how high you can make a stack of stuffed animals.
• See how many holes you can punch in a piece of paper with a pencil tip before it falls apart into more than one piece.
• Run around the kitchen island 15 times.
• Touch every electrical outlet downstairs.
• Count how many times you can go up and down the stairs in 2 minutes.
• Touch the floor of every room in the house with your elbow.
• Tell a short story about a robot, an alien and a princess.
• Count how many times you can hop on one foot before you have to put the other foot down.
• Pick a poem or short story you know and sing the words instead of just speaking them.
• Slither across the living room like a snake-- keep your arms at your sides and don't push with your feet.
• Count how many times you can spin before you fall over.
• See how many 3 inch long tears you can make in one piece of paper before it falls into more than once piece.
• Pull yourself on your belly all the way across the living room floor without using your legs.
• Sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" while standing on one foot.
• Count how many times you can hop around a piece of furniture on one foot.
• Find your way from one toilet to the other with your eyes closed.
• Make a card to send to a friend.
• Count the number of pieces of clothing in the room you're currently in.
• Make as long a line as you can out of stuffed animals laid end to end.
• Ask Emile if he wants a sandwich. IF yes, make him one.
• Tuck a teddy bear into each bed and bring them a drink from a sippy cup.

 Hopefully a more general kid-life update will be forthcoming shortly.

poetry

(guest post from Emile)


Larkin checked out a Fancy Nancy poetry book when we were at the library last weekend.  She got inspired, and dictated the following:

By Larkin

Having Tea Parties with my Dollies

Having tea party with my ten dollies,
Down in the hall-ie wallies.
One fell off, the other nine cried
"Are you hurt?  Are you OK?"
Then the other one said
"Yeah, but I think that I'll leave for today."
The other ones said
"Too bad our friend left,
We can still have fun together
without her."

One was reaching for the teapot when they lost their balance,
Fell into the mud, the others helped her up.
They asked "Are you OK?"
"Yes I am, but I think that I'm all done tea partying for today.
I'm going to go change my clothes."
The other eight forgot all about the ones they lost.

They continued their tea party, one reached for their cup
And fell into the reeds.
So the other seven helped the doll up,
They asked "Are you OK?"
She said "Yes, but I'm all done teapartying for today.
I'm going home."

The seven were just about to spin around and dance ballet
When the earthquake made one fall down
That one said "I'm going to go home.
I'm all done having earthquakes around."

The six started partying,
But when they were just about to have dessert after lunchtime
They found out that the earthquake knocked over the ice cream.
Everybody went home 'cause there wasn't any dessert.

The End

Ancient Ruins of Mess-opotamia

Discovered in the play room:

Scientific Method

When pea season was over, we had a few pods left on the vines that grew to a ripe old age. We thought we might as well keep the peas as seed for next spring and gathered them up. Since then, they had been sitting in a shallow bowl on top of our microwave. One particularly still evening, we realized that the peas were making some suspicious, albeit very quiet, rustling sounds. We decided it might be best to keep our seed in a sealed jar.

Soon, beetles were hatching out of the seed and Larkin and Finn have been keeping a close eye on them. After they had taken the jar outside and were quiet for some time, I asked them what they were working on out there. Larkin said, "We're learning about beetles. I've noticed you can learn a lot about something just by watching it." Hey: observation! A key step in the scientific method. I admit I'm not sure whether I said that out loud or not.

I went and sat down with them and asked what they had learned so far. The following is a pretty accurate account of Larkin's stream of consciousness: "Well, we know they can fly, even though you can't see any wings when they're not moving. They also like crawling up the edge of the jar and never seem to get hungry. And we know they eat peas because you can see the hole they ate through the peas and they're hollow now. I wonder if they're not eating because they want something to eat that's not peas. Maybe they would eat leaves since they like peas. [hypothesis!] Let's put this leaf in and see if they eat it." And thus an experiment was born.

The experiment within the experiment was how to get a leaf into the jar without all the beetles flying away. Several stern shakes of the jar seemed to keep them in line. I am sure, after more observation, a conclusion will be reached. Then, if necessary, the hypothesis can be revised and re-tested. Then again, maybe not. They've become distracted by drawing a zoo, giraffes first.