Seven Snippets (5.27.12)

-1-

About a year ago one of our neighbors, an avid coin collector, gave Gerrick a whole bunch of stuff to get him started with coin collecting.  Gerrick has enjoyed this, especially adding to his State Quarters collection. On Sunday, he pulled everything out and asked Rick to help him look through pennies in search of ones needed for his Lincoln Cents collection.  They worked on it for two hours!

-2-

We've been adjusting to a new rhythm this week--getting Rick to the bus by 6:30 a.m. It's been a tough transition, but I think it'll be worth it in the long run. We're giving it a month, at least, to see if we can adjust to going to bed earlier/getting up earlier. He really likes not having to fight traffic, and we like having daily access to the car.  

-3-

He decided to buy a smaller knife and scrounged up all his change in order to do it. "This one is smaller and is more comfortable in my hand," he said. He gave Rick's back to him. The first thing he whittled were little toy daggers from craft sticks.

His knife is a Bear Grylls knife, so of course he wanted to know who or what that was. A quick online search told us that he is the adventurer of the show Man vs. Wild, which we've never seen.  We have watched a few episodes of Survivorman, which apparently is similar.  Though both shows are available on Netflix Instant View, Gerrick cared nothing about even trying an episode of Man vs. Wild, but was inspired to watch more Survivorman.  We watched several episodes as a family this week.  This led to much survivalist pretend play involving the building of shelters and a raft, trapping, and fishing...which led to a park outing for real fishing.

-4-

Rick read aloud The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy at bedtime this week.  They both really, really enjoyed it and are looking forward to the sequels.  Gerrick was excited to tell me all about it each new day, and is adamant that I read it, too.  It's a fun new experience to have him recommending books to me.

-5-

On two different days, he took the oil pastels to the patio and drew while listening to me read.

Also this week, one of Rick's co-workers sent Gerrick a book about drawing superheroes. (Thank you, Lynn!) He has spent hours tracing and coloring cool superheroes and villains.

-6-

Thursday was my 37th birthday.  We had a great day:  lunch and dinner out, a trip to the Main library, and a visit with two of my dear friends and their children at Dragon Park.  The children spent most of the park time playing restaurant in a great little natural area, while we mamas relaxed under a shade tree and chatted. 

-7-

He loves to tinker with electronics.  (Local friends, please send all your unwanted equipment this way.)  On Saturday, he spent a lot of time in the garage taking apart a remote control to a broken toy and an old cd player/radio.

Have a great week!

This post will be linked at:
7 Snippets from Unschooling
Life in an Instant