January 11, 2012
The Girl knows that her little brother loves Lego. She also knows that we already have about a gazillion Lego pieces in the house. So although he had asked for (and received some) Lego for his birthday and Christmas, she came up with the idea that nothing beats homemade Lego kits, complete with homemade instructions.
Here then, are Lego-building, photography, CorelDraw, upcycling, and loving-big-sister know-how, all rolled together into a “Police Racer”, “Mars Rover”, and “Street Speeder”:
January 3, 2012
The end-of-the-year song lists have come out, and I think I agreed with the one that has Pitbull’s “Give Me Everything” at the top.
It wasn’t profound. It wasn’t moving. It was just plain fun to listen to, sing out loud, and made you want to dance whenever it came on the car radio. Sometimes that’s all a song needs to do.
January 1, 2012
The Boy decided on his own, the week before Christmas, that he was going to either re-gift some of his own treasures, or make gifts with his own hands.
Here then, from left to right, are a boy’s gifts to his family: a “lucky charm man” for his papa; a “pen pad” for his mama*; a “lucky charm cat” for his sister.
Not only were these creations full of beautiful details made by little six-year-old fingers, but they were also wonderfully imaginative, and solved problems that we didn’t know we had. Handmade crafty gifts: a wonderful way to start Christmas morning.
* In his own words: “You put this pad on the floor beside your bed so that in the middle of the night, if you drop your pen when you fall asleep, it will hit the pad and not the floor, and it won’t make a loud noise to wake you up.” Ah, exactly what I thought that thing was.
December 17, 2011
The Boy just turned six years old, and what a wonderful year it has been. Six is a significant number because I always feel that it marks the real jump from “babyhood” to “childhood”. Because let’s face it: when you’re holding your five-year-old, or when you can board the bus or commuter train and the driver says, “under 5 is free”, you still feel like he’s your baby.
One of the big changes we noticed in the Boy this past year—other than his physical growth—is how much he has grown and matured in his tastes and interests. Though he still loves his Hot Wheels, Lego, toy cars, and video games, he’s added some more sensitive diversions and activities to his range of interests. We’ve noticed, for example, what a good and thoughtful drawer he is. This skill, and his interest in fashion, has shown up in his new love for an activity that his sister has enjoyed for a few years: Paper Fashions.
What a lot of fun for both girls and boys (and their parents)! You know how fun Paper Fashions is? The Boy declared to me, as he concentrated on cutting little pants and shirts and writing titles like “Summer splash” and “Outfit for a fall day”: “I’m really enjoying this. It’s even more fun than video games.”
“More fun than video games.” Yup, he sure has matured this past year.
December 9, 2011
The Girl and the Boy both picked out presents this week, as charitable donations to disadvantaged kids. While this was quite a big deal for at least one of them (the little one, who still needs to be convinced that ’tis better to give than to receive), it was a valuable learning experience for me too. It made me realise that I’m not the only who feels just a tad uncomfortable about the process.
You see, I appreciate and support the idea that everyone who can, should do what they are able to, to make a child’s Christmas a little brighter. Yet, there was always something that bothered me a smidge about the whole idea of equating happiness with a new toy under the tree. I don’t want to sound like one of these curmudgeons who say, “I didn’t have a lot of toys when I was a kid, and I turned out all right.” Still, I want to believe that children can have wonderful holiday memories, even without a bunch of toys and presents under the tree.
So I was relieved and comforted to know that I wasn’t the only one, when the Girl said to me this week, unprompted, “There’s one thing that bothers me: It’s the idea that a kid has to expect a toy to be happy. It just turns them into adults who think that buying and giving presents makes you happy at Christmas.”
Exactly. Sometimes we need a child to express to us that the Emperor has no clothes. And on top of that, he needs gifts under the tree.
November 26, 2011
So the Girl says to me the other day, “You know how people start their big Christmas shopping on Black Friday? Well, I’m all done by Black Friday. That’s going to be my goal every year.”
What? She’s organised and thoughtful enough to have finished buying all her gifts already? Granted, 10-year-olds don’t have that many gifts to buy, or big budgets, and it’s not as big a deal here in Canada as it is in the U.S. (for an idea of how big a deal it is there, check out these photos). Still, it’s nice to think that she’s thought ahead. I just hope that she doesn’t get into the need-t0-shop mentality later in life, and that she continues to keep it simple.
November 20, 2011
This is the type of song that, when it comes on the radio, you can’t help but sing gleefully, and then your kids ask you all kinds of questions about it and why you’re singing it. The type of song that, when you mention the words, “The Cars”, three adults in the room immediately say, “Oh, ‘You Might Think’! I looove that song!” The type of song that immediately takes you back to 1984, when your older brother was the only one in the house who had a ghetto blaster, and this was on the first tape that he bought, and you all fought over who got to press “play”.
The type of song that is still considered fun and cool enough (or at least has enough of a tie-in to a Disney movie) for Weezer to have done a (substantially inferior) cover in 2011.
Here it is then, “You Might Think”, by The Cars
November 18, 2011
November 3, 2011
It's not just 5-year-olds who get excited over this stuff. I mean, c'mon—just seeing this makes you want to do something creative, doesn't it?
There are fewer things more dreadful to a parent’s ears than these three words: “glitter glue accident”.
This is what the Boy sheepishly declared to me recently, when leaving the arts-and-crafts area, with his friend/partner-in-crime following him. But upon investigation, I found that there really was no point in being upset: the wonderful inventors of glitter glue knew enough about kids to have made their product easily washable. Besides, how can a parent be upset when the son says helpfully, “It’s okay. I showed [friend] how to clean it up, and we did a good job, see?” Cut to the image of the stack of wet cloths to one side, and a wide swath of red glitter glue , following the rough path of two pairs of five-year-old hands.
Two lessons learned from this:
1) Always be on high alert when you hear a couple of kindergarteners whispering quickly, followed by many trips to the washroom and the constant running of the faucet. Be especially worried when you hear them call out “It’s okay. We can handle it.”
2) Even if it takes more effort to clean up after they’ve “handled” it, it is nice to know that your child has moved on from trying to cover up a mistake, to genuinely trying to clean up.
October 20, 2011
Remember that writing contest?
Check it off her To Do list—it’s done. A first-place finish, at the age of 10.
What a memorable moment.
