Keeping with this theme of mistake-making and perfectionism, the Book Elf brought us a little tome titled Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg. A quick Google search has also turned-up a song and a lesson plan and all sorts of other teaching accoutrement. So now that Jacob is learning to write, and…
When Jakey was three he went through an “ashamed phase.” If you even gently or innocently questioned his abilities, strength, size, or corrected his behavior, he would melt into a puddle of tears and cave baby grunts and would run away and hide his face. Once I balked when he…
About eighteen months ago I was in a training class at work with my friend Monica. She was under the gun to get a little boy present and she asked me for some ideas. That night I looked around the house, jotted down a quick list, and didn’t think about…
We’ve recently had a couple of exciting developments here in the world of child development. First, back on November fourth, Jakey started sounding out words so he could write them down. He wrote “luna” and “mi casa” without me telling him the letters and it was the best. And then…
Surprisingly, I still remember quite a bit from kindergarten. I remember our alphabet letter books and painting outside on easels and little boys hiding under the tables and giggling. I remember my friend Esther inviting me over to play and describing how I would recognize her house because the back…
Last night Jakey left two pieces of Halloween candy in the bag for the Book Elf, which reminded me of a recent story: Spanish-immersion kindergarten brings a lot of new vocabulary and worksheets and cultural opportunities into our world. This year it was a hands-on, speed course in El Día de…
Yesterday was December first. Just twenty three shopping days left. And of course the first day the Book Elf should have come. I think this weird unknown wet stuff falling from the sky must have confused him and he couldn’t navigate the giant, treacherous mud pit that is our front…
One of my mom’s favorite stories to tell is about the day I came home from kindergarten and announced, “Pointing with your middle finger is against the school rules.” Most moms would probably reply, “Good to know! It certainly should be.” But my mom, my mom is not like most…
I’m a girl of many projects. It’s really the theme of my entire existence. It appears it’s genetic, as my dad seems to have a similar propensity. And I think I’ve passed it down to Jacob. This week James asks, “Hey Jake, wanna play Little League?” And Jake answers, “Yes!”…
Last year we were into super heroes. But this year, this year we’re into dragons. OK, we’re still into super heroes, but maybe only if they’re training dragons. Around August, in a quiet moment, Nate took the opportunistic silence to declare, “I want to be a Twansfowmewr for Halloween.” “A…