JediBoy came downstairs about 8:30 raring to go; I have extra energy saved up from the weekend and lots of fresh ideas from my time spent reading blogs last night. So we’re a very good match today. As soon as he came into the office, he asked what we could do together.
First I read aloud versions of Snow White, Cinderella and The Wolf and the Seven Kids while JediBoy colored. He continues to love coloring the copied versions of his Robin Hood caricature! Then we did take-turns reading. He read all 12 stories from the orange HOP workbook, and after every 3 stories I took a turn. I read The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola, The Perfect Spot by Robert J. Blake, A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni and The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater. They’re all loosely related - about art, painting, color, decorating; and more so about independence and being self-assured about your own art, color or decorating. “The Perfect Spot” has glorious illustrations that make me feel I’m really off for a walk in the woods at camp, and also really touches on the father-son relationship that JediBoy and PisecoDad struggle to balance.
Then we had a short break for a little bowl of cereal. JediBoy then asked me to read him Even More Parts by Tedd Arnold (JediBoy read the big, bold words on each page and I read the extra idioms along the bottom borders) and then his new Pirates of the Caribbean reader, Escape from Davy Jones (a present from Long John Silver, of course!).
The pirate book got him excited about adventuring and so he went outside to practice all his various pirate, knight and Robin Hood moves. I took advantage of his hour-long burst of independent imaginary play to check my email and put away about three loads of laundry.
We have a pretty easy division of laundry labor here. What I despise about doing laundry is lugging the bulky baskets down two flights of stairs only to have to lug them back up a couple hours later. What PisecoDad can’t stand is having to keep track of when it’s time to do which loads, remembering to flip or retrieve them (he can’t hear the buzzer) or putting the clothes away. That works out pretty well, then. I just point him to a load of laundry, let him know when the washer stops, when the buzzer sounds, and he hauls it back upstairs again. I can do the putting away parts and I’m usually not too bad about it, except sometimes on Sundays when I’m too relaxed! So today I had yesterday’s three loads waiting for me upstairs. But I kind of like putting laundry away, I like the feeling of abundance that comes from filling up a dresser. It was pleasant, with the fall breeze coming through the rooms, carrying the shrieks and hollers of my little knight-pirate-hood playing in the yard.
He came back in and wanted to color some more with stories, so I started reading Abel’s Island by William Steig. I’d never read this one before, so we were both caught up in the story of the mouse who was swept away to a tiny island.
I read about four chapters to JediBoy when he asked if we could send one of the pictures to his Pappy (who is in South Africa until November - but we’ll mail it to his house in the US instead). So we got out pencils and pens and stickers and envelopes and mailed away not one but four pictures he’d colored and not yet given away. Now I think it’s time for lunch!
