What have we been up to in the meantime?
The kids and I read a French/English flap book in bed this week. Leif found the concept of feminine and masculine nouns baffling and I had a tough time explaining it. I talked about how, because I learned Fench immersion style (the best way IMO) I never focused on the rules of the language, I just know what sounds right. This lead to a discussion on how a child born in an English counry but raised in say, Germany, will grow up speaking German, because that's the language it hears all around. Then Leif said "Can a kid know 2 languages?" and I said well yes, look at me. (It's funny the hings you can discuss ad nauseum with kids and thus think they *know*, only to realise years or months later that they did not absorb the info at all how you thought they did). He was amazed that as a child I could speak french and english. But this is old news in our house, so it was funny that he just clued in about it now. So we discussed my talking to them in french and seeing if they could just figure out what I meant. Doing our own at-home immersion. I'm game, but really need to brush up on my slang and conversational terms.
We were at Costco this week, and they had Canadian school-curriculum-based activity books. Canadian! As much as I loathe workbok learning, I had to look at these. We grabbed a Gr 1 for Hannah (she's already done a couple grade 1 books, but they seemed fairly easy compared to this one) and a gr 4 for Leif. I said we'd do a bit each day, for fun. Yeah, even I didn't buy my tone and false joy, but I wanted to do a bit of lame workbook stuff, just to expose them to the ritual, if nothing else. So far it's been good. The books are challenging, but not over their heads. We have run into questions where I can tell what answer the books want them to give, yet the answer the kids really have makes just as much sense. Argh, workbooks. So limiting.
Leif needs a hobby. He loves playing outside, building/playing with Hannah and reading hockey stats. But he has no particular interest that entertains him on his own. He's commented this week, after exhausting his other activities and Hannah's gone off to colour or read, that he doesn't know what to do. I said he needs an interest, a hobby. Maybe something to do with his hands, or a project to create and work on. I tried to brainstorm ways to use the mountain of hockey info in his head, but came up empty. I can think of loads of things that interest me, but that's useless. Give me your ideas people.
A new activity for Leif this week is skateboarding. Our neighbour has left us his old board and Leif's been trying it out. It amazes me a) how fearless he is (but in a safe way) to try new things on it, and b) how easily it comes to him. I'm going to try to find some books/DVD's to inspire him. Though I'd like to avoid the pile injuries my brother got from his years-long passion for skate boarding. Please. But I also know how fun it was for him.
Hannah and I did some rhythm clapping games. She'd clap out a beat and I'd match it, then she'd change it a bit and I'd have to match the change, then we'd trade roles. This was during a drumming practice at home, where she was trying to make up a new beat of her own to show Damian.
Hannah and I spent a few mornings this week watching birds. She usually sleeps in until about 8:30, but this week she woke up at 7 sometimes, which is right when the birds come out. We say all the wrens at the birdfeder, and then Hannah discovered if we sat on the diningrom bench by the window, there's a whole group of Juncos that were hanging out in our current bush. We saw the house sparrows go in and out of their cedar tree, so we suspect there are a couple of nests in there. And then later in the morning we saw a lovely red-headed woodpecker in our willow tree, though only for a brief visit. Our birdhouses are not pleasing to any birds. While many come by to check them out, no one moves in. We've also hung out a bag of wool clippings for then to build with, but no action there either. Hannah pointed out that eating all that peanut butter suet would make her thirsty, so we've hung a birdbath beside the feeder so they can get a drink if they need to.
Hannah and Leif have created a new game, and I don't understand it one bit. They play multiple people in the game (Leif is both a 1 year old baby and an 11 year old boy, different names for each). They gave Ivy a role too (a boy named Sage) and they play it for hours, running around outside. Between the Playmobil civilisation and this new many-peoples game, they are playing together all day. Always great.
Um . . . and then they decided to make cigarettes together. I just did my thing in the house as they set up their factory scene, cutting strips of paper, dipping them in water and then laying them to dry on the heater.
Leif went outside to get some 'tobacco' (yard clippings) and then they struggled with rolling, getting the right shape, do we need tape, it keeps falling apart, etc . . . finally they were both done and asked for a light. My brain was going a mile a minute as I thought about how I was handling this. By making it no big deal, letting them explore openly in my presence, showing no judgement on them and their crafting (but openly sharing why smoking sucks, an opinion they've heard before) I hoped it'd be the best way to proceed. Shaming and reprimanding would only cause them to still want to do this, bur now need to hide it from me. So, I took a deep breath, and lit their smokes.
I've decided not to post the pics of them smoking, it's just too awkward. I myself found it wierd, but that's because of my own hang-ups about what a mother *should* do. I'm working on letting those go this year.
Between downpours this week we got out for some tennis. But before we did, we had to dry out our equipment. :)
Hope you and yours are well!
C
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