week #7 summary

The weather this week was just gorgeous, for the most part, although a little bit warmer than it really ought to be for Autumn, and the end of the week brought a big rain storm (which was so badly needed that we were actually happy about the torrential rains and high winds that came along with it). But most of the week was picture perfect for just being out in it, and we took full advantage of that fact by spending as much time outdoors as possible.

When not out and about, the kids were overflowing with creative play ideas. I already blogged about the Bug Cafe that they opened on Wednesday. The following day they decided to have a treasure hunt -- they hid a play treasure chest, decorated our puppet theater with a pirate flag (which then became their pirate ship), dressed up in pirate garb, and followed their map to find the treasure. Quite an involved scenario, which took them several hours to plan and carry out.

A highlight of the week was the delivery of our Didjeridoo, an aboriginal instrument that we learned about while reading our curriculum story last week and were so intrigued with that we decided we needed to get one. We've all had a blast learning how to use it, and there's been some pretty interesting music being played around here ever since. It's amazing how quickly the kids have picked up on it and are able to make a range of sounds with it. I'm not having nearly so much success with it, but persistence is bound to pay off eventually!

J treated us to a project idea. He suggested buying a balloon while were at the party store buying supplies for his upcoming birthday party. I quickly nixed the idea (I'm strongly anti-balloon), but he countered with the suggestion that we do a project that he read about in his Encyclopedia. Of course, that's the fast way to get my attention, so I let him explain. He said that if we bought the balloon and blew it up, he could rub it on his shirt to create a static charge, then he could hold it over his head and his hair would stand up. So of course, we bought the balloon. Here's the results of his experiment. (Hard to tell from the photo, but his hair IS standing up.)

Yesterday Zoo Boy requested a "mom and me" day, so while The Map Man brought J to his Tae Kwon Do class, Zoo Boy and I headed out on our own adventure. I left the destination up to him, and he chose the mall, which worked out well as I had some shopping I needed to do anyway! At the mall's play area, he hooked up with a handful of other boys about his age, and they all pretended to be various heroes and villains and had a pretty wonderful time for about an hour. Then he suggested lunch in the restaurant pictured behind him in this photo, so we did that too, then browsed the bookstore on our way out, then headed over to a nearby shopping plaza where they were dropping pumpkins from the top of a fire department's ladder (I have no idea why, but it sure was something to see! Wish I could have captured it on film, but the logistics made it impossible -- too tall a ladder, too fast a pumpkin, too much shutter delay on my camera phone). Fun day, The Map Man and I have been trying to figure out a way to give each of the boys more one-on-one time with each of us, and yesterday reminded us how beneficial it might be to do that. And the boys were so excited to share stories from each other's day when we all hooked back up again mid-afternoon.

Books we read this week during Family Story Time: Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace (a bit information-heavy, but the kids have been wondering about the science behind the color changes in the leaves, and while they were happy to talk about Duchess Autumn painting the leaves, they were looking for some facts as well, and this book nicely provided the answers they were desiring in a story format), In the Leaves by Huy Voun Lee (which is more about drawing Chinese characters than about Autumn leaves, and is a pretty cool book in general -- J's been drawing chinese characters ever since the first reading), and Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson, illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke, which is an absolutely GORGEOUS story that I can't recommend highly enough! I'm so glad we bought a copy of it rather than borrowing it from the library -- there are just certain books you've GOT to own.

In addition, our curriculum story this week was an outrageous hit. It's the Bengali folk tale of the Old Woman and the Red Pumpkin. The kids were literally on the edge of their seats (well, their cushions!) while I was telling it the first time, and when I finished, J said "Phew, I'm so glad the old woman didn't get eaten!", which Zoo Boy heartily agreed to. They continued to be completely caught up in the story all week long.