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We only watch PBS around here. They’ve changed programing quite a bit over the last ten years. Now they have several channels & one plays kids shows from early in the morning to supper hour, but when Nate was in preschool, they played shows for schools to use during the school hours – nine to three. Sometimes, we’d tune in, which is how my then three year old got excited about watching Julius Sumner Miller’s Physics demos. He loved them! They are old, but still great. Some things never go out of style. 
There are now many of Julius’ shows on youtube. Check them out. Here’s a classic…
I love my oldest boy’s sense of humor; always have. But I am especially enjoying him as he gets older & all the more sophisticated in his presentation. I just had to write down a few for memory’s sake…
“Here’s my imitation of music class, ‘Okay, Class. Today, we’re watching Elf.’ (Nate turns around to make this sound imitating a teacher hiding a pop can) – kerchunk – s-s-s-s-s-s.” (That’s the sound of a pop can opening, in case you don’t recognize my spelling there.) “Oh-h-h-h-h! He makes me so-o-o-o thirsty!” Does Nate know how to pull his momma’s chain or what!? I SO want to hop up on my soapbox here on various fronts with that little skit (& he knows it, I think that’s why he tells me, just to see if I can listen without going off about how he at LEAST could show a musical for crying out loud)!! But I bite my tongue & he skips right along to, “My music teacher makes weird shapes with his hands. He says he can’t help it.” Me: “Is this the same band teacher with the pop addiction? The one who can’t make it through a class without opening & chugging a can? Might that have something to do with the weird shapes his hand involuntarily makes, you think?”
“Here’s Mrs. C during our country reports. POOF! zzzt-zzzt-zzzt-zzzt-zzzt. Zzzt-zzzt-zzzt-zzzt-zzzt… ‘Wait a minute class, I need to change cameras.’ She forgot her camera, so used a couple throw-aways with really bright flashes. It was annoying.” It hadn’t really dawned on me until then that he doesn’t know anything but digital cameras! He has no memory of the outrageously bright lights Dad’s movie camera used to have, or the sounds of film forwarding in the case let alone the dreaded manual forwarding wheel (didn’t we think those throw-aways were pretty slick a mere 15 years ago?), or of having to wait to see what your pictures look like! Wow, cameras sure have come a long way. I do get a huge kick out of the descriptions of teachers from a student’s perspective again. : ] We teachers are pretty quirky folk, aren’t we?
“Dun-dun-dun!!” – That dramatic little song (baritone, or is it a trombone?, menacingly descending by two & a half steps between notes) you hear in shows where it first hits a character’s brain that something really bad is going to happen. You know the one – where they zoom in on the face real tight & show the look of shock in the eyes. Well, Nate has started doing that little tune at the most hilarious moments: during the climax of a sappy Little House episode while little brother & sister are sitting nearby on the brink of tears, when told it’s time to do dishes, that type of thing. Keeps me chuckling every time! Like I said, his timing is getting pretty good.
I’ll add here it did me a world of good to go in to watch his presentation the other day. It was good for me to see other 6th graders. I may be too quick to worry about Nate sometimes as far as running off to school with unkempt hair & a beloved tshirt worn three days in a row. Keith’s been telling me not to worry so much (remember, he works with this crew & sees them every day) & I now see he (Nate I mean, not Keith) fits right in there with sixth grade, at least where my boy is. Sweet kids, but worried about their hair, clothing, etc. they are not. I had the bar set a little too high in my mind. Sixth grade. What an interesting time in life!
O-o-o-o, this is so good. Callie was studying China at the end of the year & of course, we talked about the Buddha. When we came to these lessons with Nate a few years back, my first thought was that I really didn’t want to be talking to my little guy about false gods. But Keith helped me to see how it could be used to talk more about how our True God, Jehovah, is so very different from other gods, & pray for those in China & other countries who don’t know our God but instead follow after the Buddha even now. That is what we’ve been doing.
This article is a great one for others trying to do the same thing. Jon Bloom, the author from Desiring God Ministries, does a great job of boiling down the essence of Buddhism & how it’s different than following Jesus. Here’s a little teaser to get you over to read the whole article…
What struck (Gautama, aka the Buddha) was the impermanence of the world—nothing lasted. In spite of this, people were attached to impermanent things. They desired to hold on to life, health, possessions, and each other. But life, health, possessions and people pass away. This, he reasoned, was the cause of human suffering. Therefore, he concluded that if he could kill desire his suffering would cease and he would be happy.
But the Buddha did desire something: lasting happiness. Ironically, it was this great desire that fueled his philosophy of killing desire.
There is a vacuous absence of God in the Buddha’s pursuit of desire-less joy…
How different are Jesus’ answers from the Buddha’s. When a rich young man, not so different from the rich young Gautama, sought out Jesus’ direction for eternal happiness, Jesus replied,
You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. (Mark 10:21).
Note that Jesus did instruct the man to become detached from his possessions, but he did not mean a Buddhist detachment. The Buddha taught that nothing lasts, so be attached to nothing. Jesus taught that One Thing lasts, so at all cost, be attached to that!
Callie’s now into writing in Chinese. She loved her calligraphy lessons…
We had a big weekend: sibling class at the hospital, Grandma’s 90th birthday bash, Callie’s baptism, Grandma in from MN, cousins gallore. For a few pix, see Flickr to the left.
A bloggy friend of mine was talking about “care package” ideas for her mother to send the kids, especially the littles, so they would have educational things to do when the olders were working. We have so enjoyed these packages through the years. It’s been a great way for Grandma (several states away) to be involved, and for our littles to have quality educational materials to play with through the years. Here’s a list of those things that have stood the test of time & been most enjoyed…
counting bears or bugs (the ones where you can make patterns with, sort, etc.), – you’d be surprised at how much you can teach with these!
nice musical instruments (tambourine, rhythm sticks, shaker eggs or homemade ones with various seed or beans or corn, jingle bell anything, slide whistles, kazoo, harmonica, etc.),
simple costumes, or accessories to costumes,
gardening equipment (gloves, little tools, watering can, etc.),
tepee or castle to read in (This company used to have a cheap tepee too, keep an eye out for its return),
the Identiflyer,
nice puzzles,
Faerie Tale Theatre ( a great collection of stories, but I got this collection a few years ago for 35$. I can’t find it that cheap now! Keep an eye out on ebay I guess.),
flannel board & or chalk board, felt stuff to put on felt board (homemade is easy, cheap & fun – we’ve made shapes, people with clothes, etc. seasonal fun like a tree with little multicolored leaves to put on, pumpkins, snowman parts, flowers, etc. to teach seasons – felt comes 10-25 cents a sheet – just takes time to make),
magnetic letters (lower case please – harder to find & more expensive maybe, but best for learning – they are going to use lower case a whole lot more than capitals in life!)
And of course books. I like to buy the ones that are more interactive because they’re fun & the library generally doesn’t get those kinds of books (The Jolly Postman type, lift the flap, pop-up, or scratch & sniff, touch & feel, etc.) or noisy books like Buzz, Buzz, Busy Bees where the batteries are dead in the library versions!
I’ll probably add to this list later as my brain gets going. Also, a theme for the week sure helps a LOT for me to get excited about preschool learning as well as Grandma having a direction to go in buying & sending packages. We’ve had a lot of fun with this through the years. Another day I’ll try to post the themes for the year. After doing that for eight years, we pretty much came up with a set schedule for themes that worked well & ended up being predictable every year. For those interested, stay tuned for more info.
Yesterday was a fun day. Nate volunteered to teach history to Callie for the first time. That was a hoot to listen in on!
She is starting a unit on China for the next couple weeks. We had to pull out the chopsticks & fortune cookies, & of course had stir fry & rice for dinner, so used the celadon chopstick holders from Korea & Callie dressed in her finest silk.
Next week, we get to pull out the calligraphy set. She is so psyched! I’ll post her attempts next week.
Callie, Nate, & I were working on science – plants for C & DNA/Heredity for N. Anders was playing outside. Next thing you know…
A – “Cat emergency!! I found a mouse & tried to get it. It can run faster than me!”
Upon closer inspection, this was no mouse, but rather a baby mole.
Soon after, while we were out looking for leaves to study various leaf patterns/veins, etc. to make leaf rubbings with (not an easy task this time of year), we came across this laying in the middle of the yard with three & a half eggs in it…
It’s been there a while (cold) so I’m sure no bird will hatch, but oh the hopes & dreams of three little would be bird parents!
Callie took her egg up to her room immediately & made a cozy nest out of her pencil box on the windowsill. When I went to go take pix, she said, “Mama! Be careful! Don’t shine a light in it’s eyes too much. That’s my baby bird! Oh, I hope it’s a girl bird. She’ll love this pink box!” and on & on she went.
Nate, on the other hand, informed me “One of the eggs exploded already. It had runny white stuff in it. Hey, let’s look at part of the shell under the microscope & test it’s DNA!” grabbing the scope & working away on it.
We’ve identified them as red winged black bird eggs. Makes sense. We have plenty of those around here.
Nate & Anders promptly set up a “mole emporium” for the baby mole while Callie dreams of all the fun she’s going to have with her baby bird. I’ve warned them of what will probably happen to all of the above. But they’re so caught up in the excitement of spring!
Before I could finish this post, the mole gave up the ghost & the kids buried it. See the little marker Nate made for it in the lower left corner? And Anders has a nursery rhyme CD blaring up in the room for the baby bird’s enjoyment. Callie has found a worm & put it in a container to keep beside the egg to feed when the bird hatches.
Callie lost two teeth yesterday – the ones on either side of the two front teeth she recently lost. Yikes! Four teeth out all in a row. Luckily the two front ones are starting to pop in, but it sure looks… remarkable.
To see what else she’s been up to lately, see Flickr to the left. In Science, she just finished up studying the body systems (nervous, digestive, respiratory, etc.) & is starting the plant unit so we started our germination baggies today – one in the fridge, one in the drawer, and one in the window sill – to see if cold or dark make a difference. Amazingly, she doesn’t remember us doing this last year. She loved it then, but I guess that was such a long time ago to her. She will get to be amazed all over again (as I am every spring) at the wonder of God’s beautiful creation.
It’s busy around here. With Spring Break now in full swing, we have a promising list of things to do along with the hopes of getting maybe even a little ahead in the schooling with Grandma coming in from MN for ten days to help entertain the youngest & all. The teacher in me keeps the fire under Nate here for the next month. Until testing is over, he is vacationing daily on Study Island, buddy! I’m thinking next year, with both Nate & Callie having the SI opportunity, I will invest in a pair of leis & a couple of those pineapple shaped sippers with umbrellas & crazy straws to let the kids use while they are on The Island. Keith & I think it’s funny how they give it this jazzy name (Study Island) & cute little logo, but that’s as far as they’ve developed the fun. I guess they figured calling it “Ohio Standard Testing Practice” wouldn’t get very far with the kids. But really, once they’ve been on, they know what it’s all about anyway. It’s hilarious. I tell Nate, “Hey, guess what?! It’s time to go to … Study Island!!!” & do a little hula for him. He rolls his eyes & does what he has to do.
Nate’s first experience with basketball was 100% successful. He loves it! Upward Sports gets my whole-hearted recommendation around here. For the awards ceremony last week, they brought in Seth Franco – a white Harlem Globe Trotter who loves Jesus lots & is great with the kids. Click here for a video sample of his show. All three kids were mesmerized by the show & of course, had to get his autograph & picture with him. Speaking of autographs, we took the kids to see Seussical at Keith’s high school. (Callie always has to get all the kids’ autographs afterward.) They did a surprisingly very good job! I didn’t have very high hopes this year. The fun for us is in seeing Keith’s old students all grown up & on stage.
Oh, and by the way, Keith & I went to the baby doc this morning & had the sonogram we all were waiting for. Now, I haven’t shared this before on line, but I have my ways of predicting gender & so far it has been proven trustworthy. This little one proves it was anecdotal & WRONG!!! We are, as shocked (but thrilled, don’t get me wrong) as I am, most definitely expecting a BOY! We are now working on a name because we usually have one picked out long before this & “sit on it” to make sure. We have a few we’ve mulled over through the years, but nothing that fits quite right yet. We are open to suggestions. I have a feeling this one won’t have a name until he’s here which is a first for us.
See Flickr to the right for new pix of the kids coloring eggs, the Upwards awards program, & Nate’s newest science endeavor – elements & molecular models.
What a lot of fun!! The party was a hit. Best game:
Fruit Basket. Thanks, Mom, for the great game idea!
I missed the best picture of the day. I was laughing WAY too hard to get it. The last round of this game, of course, Michael yelled “fruit basket” (another picture I wish I had) to which everyone must find a new seat. There were four little guys who love to wrestle & used this as a great excuse to play pile up in the middle. The picture in my head is of these boys in a pile with squealing gals scurrying to find chairs while they roll around reveling in the “game”. Anders was belly flopped on top with his legs up in the air backwards when one of the older girls took it & started pulling him out. Oh, it was hilarious! I guess you had to be there. It was just crazy fun. I wish I had a picture.
Best decorated mailbox:
tie between sisters, Sophie & Logan…
Best job of opening valentines – she is one thorough little cookie:
one of the twins – I think that’s Sophie, or is it Samantha?…
Best treat brought:
white chocolate popcorn!! WOW! Thanks, Maggie!
Best item lost:
Callie’s first top tooth on the way home.
Fun times had by all I think. I know I had a good time. The only hint of trouble came at the end as we loaded up the van & I was double checking the church to make sure all was left in good condition. Anders decided to take the opportunity to hop into the front seat, rev up all the wipers, radio, emergency lights, etc. then proceed to honk the horn loudly & continuously with the doors all locked. (And no, he didn’t have the key so wasn’t in any danger, just trouble.) Meanwhile, Pastor came out thinking someone needed help. Nate & Callie were in the van with him. I have two questions: what possesses him to do that? And two, how can C & N sit there & act like nothing was happening? Anyway, Pastor got a laugh. He said he’d pray for me. Yeah.
I mean, just look at my sweet little angel. Does he look like he’d do something like that to you?!
For more party pix, see Flickr to the left.
PS – If any of you other moms took pix, could you email me the good ones? I didn’t get real great ones. Thanks!!
