Had "THE" Santa talk yesterday...

I had "THE" Santa talk yesterday with Monkey, age 7 (almost 8) last night.  My father-in-law used to pose as Santa on the phone for my boys' cousins when they were younger, and we have continued that tradition.  Occasionally Monkey would want to talk to Santa, so I'd call their house, my mother-in-law would answer, and I would politely inquire if Santa was available.  She would give him a heads up and put him on the phone and the kids would proceed to talk his ear off.  Yesterday he decided he wanted to call Santa just to wish him a Merry Christmas, which I though was very sweet.  So we did.  After he got off the phone, he started thinking about the whole Santa thing and started asking me questions:

Monkey:  I think the moms just go out to like, Toys R Us, and buy presents when the kids are sleeping.  And then they wrap them and put them under the tree on Christmas Eve.
Me:  I think you are using very good logic.
Monkey:  So is that what happens?
Me:  What do you think?
Monkey:  Tell me!
Me:  What exactly are you asking?
Monkey:  Did you buy us presents when we were sleeping and wrap them and put them under the tree?
Me:  Yes, I have done that.
Monkey:  So is Santa real?

I always loved the fun and excitement of Santa Claus as a child, and I do not remember feeling traumatized at all upon learning the truth - just proud of myself and very grown-up.  I had decided that when he was ready to ask me directly, I would give him an honest answer - especially after reading and agreeing wholeheartedly with this post from Dale McGowan at his blog, The Meming of Life.

Me:  Let's go in the other room.  (Bug was sitting right next to him at the time)
Monkey:  Why?  You don't want Bug to know?
Me:  *makes laser eyeballs at Monkey*
We headed to the other room but of course, Bug heard Monkey's last comment and immediately ran after us.  So I had to postpone the rest of the conversation for a bit until they were in separate rooms and Bug had forgotten about it.

Me:  Okay, the conversation we were having earlier... do you want to talk about that?
Monkey:  Yes.  Is Santa real?
Me:  Well, yes and no.
Monkey:  Just tell me!
Me:  Santa is real in the sense that he is a symbol of Christmas, and magic, and of giving and delighting those you love.
Monkey:  But he's not real.
Me:  Does he literally fly around the whole world and give everyone presents in one night?
Monkey:  Of course not!
Me:  You are correct.
Monkey:  *throws his arms around me*  THANK YOU FOR GETTING US PRESENTS EVERY YEAR!
Me:  Haha, you're welcome!  You did a great job using your mind to figure it out.  Now, you are on the big people's side of the Santa game.  I need you to be very careful to keep the secret and not ruin it for any other little kids, ok?
Monkey:  Ok.  When Bug is a little older, then I'll tell him.
Me:  No, I don't want you to tell him.  When he is ready to ask these same questions, that is when we'll tell him.  Ok?
Monkey:  Ok.

I am proud of him for figuring it out... and at the same time so sad that he's growing up so fast!  He is not the best secret keeper in the world, and there is a decent chance that he will accidentally say something and give it away.  We shall see what happens...

PS.  He never did figure out who that was that he was talking to on the phone!

Kids Say the Darndest, Prayer Edition

Just a quick funny bit that I want to record...

This year was Monkey's first time playing a team sport, and tonight was his baseball team picnic.  It was held at the local park, and after letting the kids play for a little bit, the coach called everyone in to partake of the potluck dinner.  He announced that it was time to say grace.  Inwardly, I cringed.  I realized that this is something that Monkey hasn't been exposed to much, since we obviously don't pray and the times he's been around it at other places, he didn't really notice what was going on.  I made eye contact with Monkey and signaled to him to be quiet.  In my head, I was thinking, please don't talk during the prayer, please don't talk during the prayer, please don't talk during the prayer.  The coach rambled on for a few moments:  "... blah blah blah... the shed blood of Jesus Christ..." Oh no, he said blood.  Monkey will certainly notice and comment on that!  "..blah blah blah... amen."  Whew!  We made it!  Got thru the blessing without incident!  Yay!

And then Monkey said, loudly and clearly,  "WHAT DID WE HAFTA DO THAT FOR?"

Facepalm.  For just a beat, it was silent, but then Shane & I laughed and then everyone else did too.  But it was definitely a little awkward.  Ah the joys of being a nonreligious person in a small and very religious town.  Monkey had a great time though, and was beyond thrilled to receive his first ever trophy!

Way to go, Monkeyman!

Later this evening, we did have a conversation where I explained what was going on.  I told him it's just something religious people do before they eat to be grateful for the food they got to eat and the people they got to be with, which is a nice idea.  And that next time it happens, to just be quiet and respectful and wait for it to be over and don't say anything.  He said, "Okay, Mom."  So, that was today's learning moment.

A little confirmation that something is working here... and some thoughts on technology.

Just a small, special moment that I want to remember:  last night at bedtime, as we sat down for storytime and I started to read, Monkey took the book from my hands and took over.  He read The. Whole. Thing.  That's right, my boy read his little brother a bedtime story last night, while I just sat back and watched with a glowing heart.

This was especially exciting to me because lately, Monkey has been very reluctant to do any reading. I have backed off and waited for him to be ready, because my goal for my kids is that I want them to love reading as much as I do, and I don't want it to ever feel like a painful chore.  He was very excited about sounding out words and learning to read for a while, but then he suddenly began resisting.  Maybe I started putting too much pressure on him, or perhaps I was correcting him too quickly when he would made a mistake, instead of giving him time to figure it out on his own.  Occasionally over the past few weeks though, he has been jumping in and reading a few lines of whatever I'm reading aloud - and he is constantly surprising me by knowing many words (and some are big words!) that I didn't think he knew.

I think some combination of watching/listening as I read aloud, and also playing video games has sparked this seemingly spontaneous learning.  After much internal struggle in trying to decide how technology should be handled in our home, right now I do not put limits on screen time, but I DO limit what he *does* with his screen time.  Meaning, I monitor what tv shows and movies he watches and what kind of games he plays, but he is free to choose what to play or watch within the approved selections, and how long to do so.  Some days he spends a lot of time playing on the computer, and some days he doesn't.  But on those days that he does, I do not think it's wasted time.  This is just a format that "toys" have evolved into, IMO, and I think there is a great deal of learning happening during this kind of play.  He often chooses educational games - for example, those on www.pbskids.org and www.coolmath.org.  But even in games that are not specifically educational in purpose, there is still value.  Besides motivating learning to read in order to navigate menus and learn intructions for how to play a game, he is also learning basic logic - what steps need to be taken to solve a certain problem (i.e. get past a difficult level) and the satisfaction one gets for solving a tough problem on their own.  He learns how to deal with frustration when he doesn't succeed right away, and he definitely practices persistence and keeps trying over and over until he figures out the solution.

I am constantly reading conflicting articles about this subject, and you can find many on both sides of it.  So far, I have found the pro-technology side of the argument to be more compelling.  I think technology gives us amazing tools to make learning interactive and FUN, and I think people fear it unnecessarily.  Just because it's relatively "new" to the educational scene doesn't make it a bad thing.

Here's a list of links I've bookmarked over the past year or so, that I've found particularly thought-provoking:

No Thank You, We'll Stay Plugged

TED Talk - Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make A Better World

TED Talk - Gabe Zichermann:  How Games Make Kids Smarter

Limiting Video Games is Delusional

Video Games:  An Hour a Day is Key to Success at Life

Surprising Things Parents Should Know About Video Games

The Many Benefits for Children Playing Video Games

Value and Uses of TV for Unschoolers

Benefits of Video Games

A final thought, which came to me as I was thinking about this one day:  I wouldn't buy a kid a toy car and then say, "Ok, you can only play with this toy for one hour a day, and then I'm going to take it away."  That seems silly, right?  Well, I think the same thing applies to technology-based "toys" too.

I welcome any thoughts from anyone on both sides of this issue.  How do you handle technology use in your home?

MonsterPianos! - March 25, 2012

Here's another crusty old post that had been sitting in my drafts folder forever and got forgotten when I was catching up awhile back...

So, waaaaaay back in March, Monkey and I went on sort of a "date", just the two of us, to an annual concert called MonsterPianos at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall.  It featured "Eight 9-foot grand pianos, with as many as 24 pianists playing simultaneously."  I thought he'd either be totally into it, or he'd get bored and not be able to sit through the whole concert, in which case we'd just leave early.  He loves music and I wanted to at least give him a chance to be exposed to something cool, but I was prepared to go with Plan B if it wasn't his thing.  He liked the music, but got pretty squirmy and chatty before it was quite halfway over... so in consideration of the other concertgoers, we left.  The trip was NOT a bust though!  We ended up exploring the concert hall, inside and out, and we had a blast!  First, we wandered around and counted the huge counterweights that hold up the adjustable acoustic ceiling tiles inside the auditorium.  Yup, there were 27, just like the info section in our program said.

Next, we headed outside and explored the surrounding areas.  Since we live out in the country, walking along the streets in the "big city" was kind of a special treat.  We heard a train passing nearby and sprinted over to a bridge to get a look at it, and watched while it passed directly underneath us.  Then we walked over to examine an interesting and unique sculpture that I'd only seen from a distance... 

 

 

Huge glass sculpture by the famous Dale Chihuly.  I assure you, Monkey thought it was really neat.  He just wasn't in the mood for a photo op at that moment...

There were a few smaller sculptures in the area which I had never noticed before, even though I'd driven past them many times.  We checked them out, and then came across a group of musicians practicing just outside the building next door to the concert hall and we listened to them for a few minutes.  Finally, we meandered back to our car in the parking deck, and then headed to get a bite to eat at Swenson's (if you ever come to the Akron, Ohio area, you MUST go there.) before going home.

This outing could have easily ended badly... at first, I was disappointed to be leaving the show early, but it was a case of having realistic expectations for a 6-year-old boy.  I went in knowing that we might not make it through the whole show, and that was okay.  Our explorations afterward made the trip totally worth it.  

"Build a Toad Abode" 6-28-12

Last week, we went to a really great program called "Build a Toad Abode" at Furnace Run Metro Park.  First we watched a Powerpoint presentation about toads, which was enthusiastically given by one of our favorite Naturalists.  Next we went outside for a short hike to gather natural embellishments to decorate our toad abodes with.  Finally, we came inside and hot glued stuff onto broken upside-down flowerpots (The broken part was the "doorway").  Monkey chose lots of flowers and grasses, and I chose sticks and pebbles.  He thoroughly enjoyed the project.  He told me, "Yours looks really great, Mom, but mine's better.  It's too bad you didn't use any beautiful flowers like me."   Afterward, he made friends with another 6-year-old boy who was attending the program and they had fun running around and playing for a bit.  He said, "Mom, this is my new friend Josh!"  I love how boys seem to effortlessly and instantly forge new friendships.  Socialization for the day?  Check.

Proudly showing off his creation.

Ta-daaaa!  Our finished products.

We placed them at the foot of a big pine tree in our yard, in an area where we often find toads.

 

Oh, and a quick learning moment I wanted to mention.  Monkey is obsessed with the compass / temperature display in our van and often announces our current direction of travel and alerts me to changes in temperature whenever we are driving somewhere.  On the way home, we made some spontaneous and interesting observations about changes in temperature as we traveled.  When we left the park, it was 89 degrees.  (Pretty warm for 8:30pm around here!)  As we drove down the highway we noticed the temperature began to go up a few degrees, reaching 93.  This happened as we were passing through a very developed shopping area with lots of (heat-absorbing) concrete and very little green space.  (This area also happens to be where my part-time job is located, and I always feel like it's hotter there when I come out of work than it is when I get home.  Now I know I'm not crazy.  At least for that particular reason...)  Once we were heading away from that area the temperature started going back down.  We kept paying attention to the gauge and we noticed that the temperature was a few degrees lower when we were at the bottom of a hill than when we were cresting a hill.  I explained to monkey the concept of how heat rises and our observations were consistent with that.

I believe he will retain these simple ideas and concepts, long-term, because a) he was the one wondering about things and asking me questions, and therefore focused and engaged on the subject, b) because we were actively involved in doing something - observing and investigating, and c) I have seen him recall details like this, long after an event; the combination of his interest being piqued and our doing something really seems to cement the information in his mind.

All in all, a very fun outing.  It was especially nice to spend some rare one-on-one time with him, although instead of being glad to have me all to himself, he kept saying he missed Bug (who was home with Daddy) and wished he was there too because he would have had fun.  I love that my boys are such good buddies!

So, this happened about a month ago...

One unseasonably warm February day, we were outside playing and Monkeyman decided he just HAD to ride his bike without the training wheels.  For reasons known only to him, it was imperative that this happen immediately.  He badgered asked Daddy to take them off, but instead, Daddy gave him the socket wrench and showed him how to remove them... so he took his own training wheels off and *poof* now he can ride a bike.  Here he is in action!

Electricity

The other day, Monkeyman was looking out the window and asked me if you could hang from "the computer ropes."  What?  "The computer ropes."  I couldn't figure out what he was talking about until I followed his gaze out the window and realized he was talking about the electric lines, strung between the poles along the road.  He had apparently gathered that there was some kind of relationship between those wires and the computer.  (BTW, I love it when kids invent words and phrases for things when they don't know the real words for them.  They always come up with great stuff that gives you a peek into how their minds work!)  So anyway I told him that no, we could definitely not hang from them, or even ever touch one if it happened to be down, or we could get a bad, bad shock that would hurt a lot.  We then proceeded to discuss electricity and I explained that those wires carry electricity from faraway power plants to be delivered to all the houses, to power everyone's electronic devices.  I asked him to think of some examples of things in our house that need electricity, and he did (computer, tv, lights, etc.).  I explained that the power lines connect to our house in the basement, and that there are wires that run throughout the walls which connect to the outlets where we plug our stuff in.  Then, I decided to bust out an old science kit that my mom Santa had given me for Christmas years ago, and we did a little experiment where we built a simple circuit.  Monkeyman thought this was very cool!

At first it didn't work, which was kind of good because it helped illustrate how a circuit must be completely connected or the electricity won't be able to flow through it.  After re-checking all of the connections, we found the loose one and corrected it and voila:

Then we added a switch.  Here it's open, breaking the circuit, so the light is off.

Here the switch is closed, completing the circuit, so the light is on!

This is the little kit we used.  It's got some good stuff in it - we will definitely be using it again!

Another thing we talked about was what it was like before people had electricity; all the conveniences and amusements we're used to, that people haven't always had, and what they must have done without them.  So, for the next step, we are planning to have an electricity-free evening.  This is the perfect time of year for it too, since it still gets dark pretty early.  I need to get a new wick for my oil lantern, and we'll use that and some candles for illumination, cook something to eat over a fire outside, and play electricity-free games and read books for the evening.  I'm really looking forward to it!

It seems like our best learning moments are spontaneous like this, resulting from him asking a question and us investigating the answer together.  If I had just said "Ok, sit down, today we are going to learn about electricity," I don't think that it would have been as effective.  But since his mind had turned in this direction on its own, and he was actively wondering about the concept, he was ready and willing to absorb the information.  This is what I mean when I describe "child-led" or "child-directed" learning to someone.  My job is simply to be a facilitator - which is why we have this house full of random stuff - so we have what we need handy to jump on whatever it is that comes up next!

Overdue update!

I have shamefully been neglecting this blog lately.  First I blame the holidays, and second I blame my recent obsession with ancestry.com.  BTW, if you've been on the fence about joining ancestry, just do it - it's amazing.  Also, it would make an excellent homeschool project.  I keep trying to tell Monkeyman about what I'm doing but I can't seem to get him interested yet.  But we'll have lots of information to go on when he's older and starts to realize how cool it is.

Anyways, here's some stuff we've done in the past month or so.  I apologize for the brainstorm-slash-bulleted list style of this post but there are lots of little things that I just want to make sure I get written down.  (I know there are many more where I've thought "Oooh, I should write about that" and then forgotten.)

Today's Civics Lesson: Voting

Today I took Monkeyman with me to the polls.  On the way there, I explained that today was Election Day and that on this day each year, everyone in our country gets to go and vote to pick their community's leaders, and also to give our opinions on the rules for how things work (issues).  I told him that when he grows up, since he loves being helpful, maybe he would like to run for office and get elected so he could help make decisions about how things are done.

We arrived and fortunately there was no wait at all.  I signed in and was given my card to put into the machine, so I handed it to Monkeyman and let him do it.  Then I pointed out each of my choices and let him select them on the screen.  Finally, I had him click "Submit Ballot".

He then returned the card to the poll worker, and received his "I <3 Voting" sticker** from her.

His reaction?  He thought the voting computers were really cool, and I know he felt special to be a kid participating in this exclusively grownup event.  I think that actually taking him to the voting booth with me and physically involving him in the process is a much more effective way of helping him learn about Election Day and how our government works than simply reading about it from a textbook.  Just another example of how real life is a simple and powerful teaching tool.  Tomorrow we will be looking up the results together to see how my choices fared.  When he's a little older, I'll involve him in the process of researching the candidates/issues and helping me choose who/what to vote for too.  What better critical-thinking exercise is there?

So - anyone else take your kids to the polls with you?  I'd love to hear about it and what the kiddos thought of the experience.

**Side note:  I personally helped choose that sticker that Monkeyman is wearing too!  After being alerted by The Friendly Atheist to the online poll that was being held at the Ohio Secretary of State's website earlier this year, I did my part in voting for this one and helping defeat the stickers with religious messages on them (how the heck is that Constitutional anyway?!?), and helped keep up that precious wall of separation between Church and State.  Made me smile to see those stickers on the table today.

Learning In the Middle of the Night

Late last night, we had a pretty loud thunderstorm. As Monkeyman has developed a moderate fear of thunderstorms, he immediately came running and crawled in bed with me.  (Bug slept through the whole thing without a peep.) So we laid there in the dark, snuggled closely, and had a long whispered conversation about how lightning and thunder work, and how the light travels faster than the sound. To illustrate I began counting one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand and so on, from the flash until the arrival of the boom, to estimate how far away the storm was from us. About 15 miles was the fairly consistent result, and that seemed to help calm his fears a bit. A few minutes later we were still whispering and even giggling, and a few minutes after that... he drifted off to sleep.

There is something so lovely about being someone who is needed by a child for comfort, where just your physical presence and the sound of your voice close beside him can reassure him and make him feel safe. Of course, that same thought is also a little terrifying, because then you think - who would be there for him like this, if something were to happen to me? Becoming a parent makes you value yourself in a whole new way, and you acquire a self-protectiveness that you didn't previously have. But you quickly shove those thoughts far back in your mind and focus on the joy of the present moment where the world seems to consist only of the two of you in your little cocoon.

That is, until your poor husband comes in wanting to go to bed, and finds the boy sprawled across his spot. Sorry you were stuck on the couch last night, dear!

Bug Stuff Quickie

It seems like it's been forever since I last posted... I have several posts brewing but haven't had a chance to sit down and write them. I promise I will soon, but for now, here's a quickie:

One day earlier this week, Monkeyman spotted this gorgeous green leaf bug on the side of the house. (In hindsight, I think the "grasshopper" I wrote about previously might have actually been a young green leaf bug also.) First, we captured him and put him into our bug house for observation, but we decided that the orange plastic made it too hard to see him clearly. So we built him a new house from a kit I brought home for him recently.

(We decided the most convenient construction location was the playhouse on the swingset. Of course.)

He's proud of his handiwork...

Observing his bug, Henry. (He names everything Henry.) Henry spent the night inside the house with us and was released the following day. No Henrys were harmed in the making of this post.

Piggy bank contents = math manipulatives

One day last week, Monkeyman wanted to know how much money was in his piggy bank. I suggested he count the contents himself and find out. First, we dumped the coins on the table and I had him sort them by type:


Then I had him put them into piles of 4 for the quarters and piles of 10 for dimes and pennies (for some reason there weren't very many nickels in there):


Finally, I showed him how to count out the right amount to put into rolls - for the quarters and dimes we counted by ones (each pile was one dollar), and for the pennies we counted by tens (ten-twenty-thirty-forty-fifty cents). A simple, hands-on, real-life math lesson - boom, done. He was really interested and focused on the "lesson" because he truly cared about the results. (Burning question: Is there enough for a new video game? Answer: Yes!) Oh, and I guess we fit a homeschooling stereotype that day: doing school in our jammies, as you can see Monkeyman in his Elmo pjs. Pretty sure I was still in my jammies too. (And yes I know I use parentheses too much.)

African Safari Wildlife Park, Port Clinton, OH

This week, we had a mini family vacation. I will write about the "Not Back To School" homeschoolers gathering at the Kalahari Water Park & Resort when I get my pictures back - I got a disposable waterproof camera so I have to go old school and wait for them to be developed. But, while we were up there we stopped by the African Safari Wildlife Park, where you drive through and can feed the animals as they come up to your car. Some are in enclosures, but there are many that run around loose and approach your vehicle freely - and they are not shy! They will stick their heads right in and investigate to see if you have food. It was pretty fun, but I don't think it would have been worth the nearly 2-hour drive just to see it alone. It was smaller and not quite as nice as I expected. The kids really enjoyed seeing the animals up close though - well, at least Bug did, as you'll see below. Monkeyman was a bit nervous about it, and when the first animal stuck its head in, he said, "Oh this is not good." (You can click on the images to see them larger.)









I have kind of a thing for giraffes - I must say they were my favorite. They are so beautiful and graceful and unusual.









And here is Bug's reaction to the animals. He was giggling and yelling "MOO!" at every animal that approached our car, the whole way through the park.

First day of (UN)school...

Tomorrow would be Max's first day of Kindergarten, if he were going to be attending our local public schools. At certain points in my life I have moments where I become acutely aware of different paths my life could be on, as a result of different choices I might have made (good or bad) in sort of a quantum mechanics/multiple universes type of way. So I was imagining the other me, on another path, getting ready for that big milestone with Max. Buying new clothes, a backpack, a lunchbox, school supplies from an official list... preparing for that big day where I would hand him off to the world and let go and hope for the best. I'm also trying to imagine the different potential paths of his life, depending on my choices for him now as a child, and also his own choices when he is old enough to make them for himself. I sort of feel like tomorrow is a kind of major fork in the road of possibilities... and I feel positively giddy about the path we are taking. And a bit rebellious. And sure, a little nervous. But I'm confident that this path is the best one, with the best possible unknown forks and branches coming off of it. I am so excited for all that lies ahead of us, and I feel like the world is ours.

I don't feel the need to follow the public school system's calendar and make tomorrow our First Day of Homeschool. It seems crazy to me to lock all the kids away when the best weather of the year - fall - is about to begin. I plan to do a more relaxed, year round, 24/7 schedule - basically just keep doing what we're doing, living and exploring, at least in these early years. We'll try to do more academic stuff in the cold winter months and the hot summer months when we're shut inside, and spend as much time doing outdoor activities in the fall and spring months.

Today Max helped me disassemble Emmett's crib, removing all of the bolts with a wrench. Then he helped me make breakfast, cracking the eggs into the bowl. It's a beautiful, sunny yet cool day, so we went for a walk at a local park. We discussed the cumulus clouds in the sky and the weather, the different birds and creatures we saw in and around the lake (a Swan, geese, ducks, seagulls, pigeons, chickadees, squirrels, fish, algae), and the different cars, trucks, and people we passed as we walked. Next we stopped for lunch and then came home for some quiet, independent afternoon playtime. It was a lovely, relaxed-yet-educational day. Well, until Emmett decided to have arts-and-crafts time with the contents of his diaper. Oy. But I'll save that for another post...

Finally caught a grasshopper!

The other day I wrote about trying to catch a grasshopper for Max. I have tried unsuccessfully a few times since, but today we finally caught one! I swear this grasshopper was actually friendly - it let Max carry it around for quite a long time. I found it fascinating to watch my normally boundlessly energetic, constantly-in-motion kid be calm and still and gentle with this delicate bug.

We observed its head and body, counted its legs, and watched its antennae feeling everything around it. At one point it jumped off of Max's hand and flew to a nearby plant and he was amazed to see that it could fly. He gently picked it back up and continued examining it.



Showing the grasshopper to his little brother.


I even took a turn holding it!


Grasshopper close-up


This picture makes me smile because you can see Max holding one of the ginormous zucchinis from Shane's garden in the background. Does anyone know any good zucchini recipes?


Emmett also thought the grasshopper was pretty neat and his new word for the day was "Bug! Bug! Bug!" (He also learned "Toad" and "Keenie" aka Zucchini.)


Max lost interest in the grasshopper when he found this guy...



and thoroughly enjoyed hypnotizing him.