on wednesday morning, caleb was discussing with me (once again) how many more babies we need to add to the family. he generally likes to come up with schemes that even things out, so when he said we need "three more girls" (i am included as a girl), and i pointed out that then we'd have more girls. he went into a whole thing changing his plan back and forth and adjusting the math accordingly. finally he decided we should have three more girls and one more boy, and then we'd be even with four and four. is it just me or is that basically balancing an equation?!?!
after school, he very excitedly told me that his art teacher was back from having been absent, and explained how they had done some sort of painting project involving paper towels and water and finger painting with paint that's not finger paint.
he described his painting thus: "i made 'so, re, mi, la, so, la, ti'!"
when i unpacked his backpack that evening, to my surprise the paintings were already sent home. i asked him about one of them and he put his fingers on the black dots on the left and said again "so, re, me, la, so, la, ti!"
part of banjo's homework that night had, in lieu of instructions, a sample showing how to do the exercise:
i explained to banjo what to do. when he wrote five smileys next to his name and a birthday cake next to milo's, i suggested that he call all of them "stickers" so that they could be the same item even though they looked different. i assumed based on the initial drawing that he was going to do 5+1, but then when i saw the last two smiley's X'd out, and he explained it to me, i made sure he wrote exactly what he'd said because it was so great.
it says "i had 5 stickers. milo had 1. milo wanted 2 more. now we each have 3." i told him for that he'd need to do two equations, 5-2=3 and 1+2=3. i don't know why he seems to do backwards numbers on his school work but not for things he does at home. (when she returned it, mrs.b added a missing sentence "i gave him 2.")
as for "first fridays", michael had taken the day off (thank G-d! between two kids' school things and caleb's doctor appt, we were busy!). first friday is where the parents stay for first period on the first friday of every month.
with michael's new job he had never been to either kid's school. so he and banjo came along for caleb's drop-off, then michael went to banjo's school and i stayed at caleb's. then i met michael at banjo's school to have the parent coffee and listen to the beginning of a talk on lice, then we went back to caleb's school and picked caleb up and brought him to the doctor who said the thumb looks good. unfortunately when he called the hospital they told him it was staph but couldn't yet answer if it's mRsa (resistant) or mSsa (susceptible, ie good ole staph that can be treated with the 'cillins). then we brought caleb back, did quick lunch and shopping and then started the early friday pickup routine!
anyway it was very nice to spend some time w caleb in his classroom. the way they did the first friday thing is that it was basically open reading time, lots of books every where and you could pick ones and read them w your kid.
for once caleb was willing to sit down at a table right away!
i had him show me around the room, and i took pictures of the pictures the teachers had taken and put around the room.
obviously these are very reassuring! and he seems like he is speaking more positively about school. we still haven't actually seen him interacting with another child, but he did tell me recently that kamilo is his "best friend" so we have a playdate w him for wednesday. and the mom of his classmate theo expressed interest in making a playdate, as she's also worried about theo who she said "makes friends slowly" plus he has an older brother in first grade so it will be a good foursome. and now caleb has asked me to make a playdate with another kid named simon. previously he'd asked me to make a playdate with lee, but then he told me that she doesn't want to be his friend anymore (? :( )
also his teacher, miss parker, is much friendlier to me lately and more smiley. (her affect is not always the most lively/charming). she loves that i take pictures of everything.
as for banjo, michael and banjo worked together on an "i am..." poem. they had to fill in the blanks:
"i am ___ and __
i wonder ___
i hear___
i see___
i wish___"
he filled in with:
i am silly and funny
i wonder how i can climb on the ceiling and swing from the lights
i hear the walls talking
i see (??)
i wish the whole universe was made out of chocolate
(he didn't bring it home yet, that is based on memory)
and michael got this video of them doing some french
i promise not to make future posts this long!!!!
