Sunday, April 29, 2007
Dinosaur Toys
Ok, C1 recently finished a week of learning about dinosaurs in preschool. He learned a lot about the prehistoric animals. He can tell you about plant-eaters and meat-eaters. He also picked up some plastic dinosaur toys at the drug store recently. Well, he loves these pieces of plastic! He has them talk to, and fight each other. Evidently all the dinosaurs put aside any hard feelings between them, because they look awfully comfortable sleeping in C1's bed together! C1 decided to sleep on the floor tonight.
C1 and I were playing and I spun him around by his arms several times. When I let him down he tried to stand up but he couldn't. He said, "Whoa! I'm Disney!"
T and I went to Parent Teacher Conferences for C1's preschool on Tuesday. We were told that he is a very good student and in most areas he is doing great. Not to sound conceited, but we expected that. C1 is a great kid. Well, we also were informed of some areas for improvement. Mrs. L said that he needs work on his writing of numbers and letters. We thought... OK that is something we can work on him with. Then she told us even more unexpected. C1 sometimes disrupts class with talking while the teacher is talking, not following directions, and not keeping his hands to himself. That was disappointing to say the least. His teacher mentioned that she has recently had to put him in Timeout because of his behavior. This is not good. We had a sit down conversation with C1 and explained to him what our expectations were. He seemed to understand and his teacher said Wednesday was much better. Then today, when I picked him up, I asked his teacher if his behavior has improved, and she said "not today, I had to put him in Timeout again for being disruptive". We just got finished with the "consequences" conversation. We'll see how that works.
C1 informed T and I yesterday that he has formed a Bud Club. I said "what?" He said that 3 other boys in his class were in his Bud Club. I then asked who came up with that idea and he said he did. Then he told me the names of the boys that were in the club and a couple boys names that were not in the club because they were "mean". He also mentioned that girls were not allowed because they didn't have muscles. I asked him what exactly a club was and he said he didn't know. So, I am not sure exactly how much of this was his idea, but it sure made T and I laugh.
C1 came up with a new game he wanted to play. I don't know the name of it, but he calls it "you be me and i'll be you". We role play as if I am C1 and he is me. It started out quite funny, but has turned into a good tool to see how the one person sees the other. I would say something like "That's it!!! I am not playing with you!! My Daddy's mean!!!' and he would say "Daddy I don't act like that". Well, he does and now he can see what he looks like when he acts like that. It works both ways because he would act out the way he sees me. I wont give you any examples, but it was a real eye opener to see how my 3 year old views me. I would suggest playing this game to anyone with kids... who knows, you may learn something playing as adults as well.
A while back, C1 brought home a note about Spring School Pictures coming up. "What is that?" T and I thought. We already had school pictures done in the fall. When we were kids we only had school pictures once a year. T mentioned that this was probably just a way for the photo company to get more money. I agreed and we decided we didn't need any more pictures and we laughed at their attempt to get us to buy more pictures. Picture day came and I dressed C1 in a nice spring shirt and dropped him off at school as usual. 6 weeks later... T and I had forgotten about these school pictures and when his teacher told me he had pictures in his bag I assumed they were some random pictures they took in class. Well, I get home and open these school pictures and was floored! Our lttle boy is SO DARN CUTE!!! They didn't do the traditional head shot pose, they added an outdoor background and have him standing up with his arms crossed. The way the program works, is that if you do not want the pictures just send the envelope of pictures back to school and owe nothing. We sent back the envelope but instead of the pictures inside, we sent back a check. Again, T and I laughed. This time at ourselves for falling for their marketing, but seriously, he is SO DARN CUTE!
Ok, attention everyone with cable TV. ESPN Classic has bought the rights to American Gladiators and is now airing the show Monday through Friday at 7:00 pm (and 9:00am Saturday and Sunday). Why is this important? I loved this show. Please don't ask me why because I have no idea. It might be because I wrote a 10 page essay about it (and other syndicated shows and their effects on local programming) for my broadcast law class at MSU. Or it might be because all my college friends said I looked so much like Malibu. Tune in and decide for yourself.
Today during Quiet Time, I overheard C1 and C2 talking amongst themselves (even though C2 cannot talk much yet). I heard C1 say "Pick your own nose". Hmmm
I subbed for a class of 1st graders all last week. Wow! What a difference from 2nd graders. Keeping their growing minds on task was a big challenge for me. They were always doing and thinking other things than the lesson I wanted them to. Now I know why the lessons for kids are disguised into an art project or some type of game. Another challenge I had was the restroom break. We would all walk down to the restroom for a restroom break. 5 minutes after we would get back to class, I would feel a tug on my shirt. "Mr. Smith, can I use the restroom?" I told them we just went and they would have to wait. Then, they would go back to their desks and do that "gotta go wiggle" in their seat. I would have to let them go because I certainly didn't want a puddle in the classroom. One day, 5 students asked me to go, within a half hour of going on a restroom break. And this was AFTER I told them everyone must go, no more restroom breaks until lunch. It made me crazy.
I tried to play games with them when we had a minute or two. One day I decided to play Simon Says. I have never been the leader of this game, and was somewhat reluctant to play because I wasn't sure if I had the skill to eliminate the kids. First, I said "Simon says put your right hand on your head". 5 kids out right away using the wrong hand. "Simon says put your left hand on your head". 5 more out for taking the right hand down when they put the left hand up. I was beginning to think I would do ok leading this. So half the class is still in it and the other half is sitting down, so I ask all the kids "If you are still in the game, raise your hand" and all the kids still playing raised their hands. All out! Simon didn't say!
Wow, that was easy.
C1 got a camera for christmas (thanks aunt J2 and uncle B!). He didn't like it because it didn't have a LCD screen to see the pictures he just took. So we returned it and finally replaced it with another model that has a LCD screen. He tested it out this weekend. First picture is of his "best friend" Wormy. The second picture is of me cleaning up the yard.
