A Wednesday : Saul, integers, bugs, micro-snippets, Etsy, The Great War, ee cummings.
Option 3
Would you like one date or two dates?
I asked.
His two-year old mind processed rapidly.
Umm,
he replied…
I think I’ll have…a lot.
Where do they learn this?
Hey!
The five-year old admonished his younger sibling,
Don’t say that someone is lying! You’re not an adult yet!
Bible : Saul
Talk about a tragic biography. So this tall fellow gets plucked out of a life of anonymity by Samuel, high priest, becomes ruler of the United Kingdom of Israel, makes a mistake or two, and is not only abandoned and rejected, but told that his family and descendants will lose the kingdom as well. So sad.
The Old Testament is filled with so many incredible stories that cover every emotion and feeling. The New Testament has never grabbed me, from a narrative standpoint, to the extent the Old does. What I mean is that the story of Jesus, from birth to death and resurrection, is a wonderful one, but the Old Testament tales, as stories, are unbeatable, in my opinion, for their depth and complexity and breadth. That being said, I resonate much more with the New’s message of love than the Old’s message of ‘the Law above all else.’ It’s especially evident in the story of Saul, where we have a figure who does good…yet makes one mistake too many - or perhaps commits the wrong sort of mistake - and loses everything.
He never asked to be king. But he is asked to serve and does. And when he does, he does so effectively, honorably, and well for a time. Until he disobeys a specific ritual that is reserved for priests, which begins his downfall.
And then this harpist kid, this giant-slaying upstart becomes besties with his own son and ends up destined for his throne. That’s rough.
Great conversation starter.
Lessons for this Wednesday
I practiced folding blankets with a 2-year old
I reminded a 5-year old that his dirty underwear does not go in a pile in the living room. He is a bit irked at me that he can’t just create a new dirty clothes pile there. In the living room. I’m all for innovation, but: no.
I showed a 2-year old where his heart is located and we listened intently to the beat with a (play) stethoscope. Anyone have any real ones lying around I can have?
Assorted
A 2-year old who comes running when there is a task to be done. I’ve been talking a lot about initiative lately, and his older siblings are quickly learning it’s often in their best interests to hop to it right away when I ask something to be done…because he is happy to jump in and help. For example, when his older brother has a giant pile of clothes - folded clothes - that need to be put away, and he leaps in to help carry them himself down the hallway, to the bedroom. The end result is that a previously-folded pile of clothes needs to be refolded.
Reading
I made the mistake of checking out a book on Rapunzel. I then compounded the mistake by including it in a stack of books I read to Mr. Two-Year Old before nap. I instantly realized - after I had started - that it was going to be a hit. A big hit. The kind of hit that shakes off weariness and rejuvenates; rejuvenates in place of a nap. He pored and pointed and queried and filled this book with his complete attention, and there is a lesson in there. Somewhere.
Mathematics
I worked with our 6th grader on integers, absolute value, plotting values, and adding/subtracting negative numbers.
Our 9th grader is working on quadratic equations and plotting parabolas. I wish she needed help, because we are reaching the end of the road, mathwise, where I can be tangibly helpful to her without having to spend a half hour playing catch up.
Note: regarding the above paragraph. We’re already past that point. For the past two months, she’s already figured out that asking me for help is slower than problem-solving herself with math. It’s rough.
Micro snippets
A two-year old clomping around everywhere in beloved and ubiquitous blue dress, green sweatshirt, large clogs, and carrying a dinosaur backpack that holds three twenty-year old non-functioning cell phones and an old camera.
A 2- and 5-year old and their shared enjoyment of the Netflix series Octonauts. Then going on to build some sort of boat-train with cardboard boxes and an intertangled web of suspenders.
A 5-year old taking great delight in building towers out of various materials: Jenga blocks, cardboard, wood, DUPLO pieces, etc, then segueing to beating out beats on a non-electronic drum set.
An 11-year old gently tending to his pond ecosystem and his beloved duckweed and hornwort aquatic plants in the rain.
A 14-year old reading through information FAFSAs and financial aid for college.
A 14-year old segueing from school to putting together orders for her Etsy business. It’s been neat to see her take her interest in making accessories and jewelry grow from being a hobby into a full-fledged side-hustle that’s keeping her hopping to fulfill orders. Check it out here.
Two kids playing Hamilton songs on ukulele and guitar
Two kids rapping along to Hamilton songs while I try to bang out beats on an electronic drum kit.
Best toys ever
Tinker toys. Not up there with wood blocks, balls, sticks, and LEGO bricks. But not far below. Perhaps nestled in the same space as Lincoln Logs, wood trains, and erector sets.
(Is the above sentiment one of the most controversial things I’ve written this year? I can see it generating some pushback.)
Reading
A girl starting Veronica Roth’s post-Divergent trilogy follow-up, but still in the canon: Four.
A boy finishing up a literature packet on Roald Dahl’s Boy.
Thank You, Dr. Salk! The Scientist Who Beat Polio and Saved the World - Dean Robbins, illustrated by Mike Dutton (2021)
The House in the Night - Susan Marie Swanson, pictures by Beth Krommes (Caldecott winner 2008)
Rapunzel - Bethan Woolvin (2017, 2-yr old loved it. Witches? Sold.)
Vincent Can’t Sleep by Barb Rosenstock (2017, picture book bio of Van Gogh)
Outdoors
He and I, we looked for bugs and creatures in the rain. With gardening shovels we crammed under rocks and heaved up mounds of soil from the yard in search of…creatures. I found worms, a millipede, some sort of crawly thing. He found four ants, some beetles, and a spider.
It will forever be a defining image of him for me: five years old, hunched over the earth, rain pouring, completely immersed in investigating the micro-life of the living beneath our feet.
I love it. Although I don’t always love the mud that accompanies his beautiful little feet tromping back and forth between outside and in.
History
We wrapped up a multi-week discussion of The Great War (a.ka. World War I) and its causes, moving to resolution and the period following. We talked of how they went from a big war to pandemic in 1918, and observed how we’ve moved, in the present, from pandemic to big war - though we deeply hope it does not turn into a conflict the size of WWI; a war which is estimated to have claimed 37 million casualties and decimated a generation of European young men. And then on the heels of that…a flu pandemic that wiped out 3-5 % of the world’s population. And in the midst of all that…the Bolshevik Revolution, which toppled the Russian monarchy and set in motion the rise of Communism and eventually the Cold War that would dominate much of the 20th century.
Fascinating.
Poetry
Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussy-Cat (1871)
Clare Harner’s* Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep (1934, *possibly the author? - a companion piece to Dylan Thomas’s Do not go gentle into that good night)
ee cummings [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] (1952, I, like many, love this piece. Read it aloud. The cadence, the rhythm, the alliteration and the romance bursting forth…I just love this.)
Close
We finalize the day with supper, chores, a book, and a half episode of The Middle. Youngers head to bed, and I decide suddenly that it’s time to watch the underrated and unremembered 2004 Julianne Moore thriller The Forgotten. We got halfway through, and one of the most terrifying and shocking scenes ever is still to come…
