The Sunchild has developed a strong rekindling of his fascination with Lego recently. We cleaned up the trains, and now the space is filled with a large & detailed project, as well as the detrius such a building frenzy elicits. There is a contest at Lego to design a fortress for the new Bionicle Toa, the Inika. Five winners will be chosen in September. He was inspired by the idea of a goal to design for, and has been spending a lot more time in his room, working on it.

This morning, we spent a relaxing period just talking about the upcoming birth, looking at pictures & discussing what happens. We looked at the Sears Pregnancy Book, and Sheila Kitzinger's Homebirth. It was fun.

After a late breakfast, and a bit of tidying up, we found the stash of green felt that had been given to me by my fried Ian long ago in Santa Fe. From that, and following the directions in the book "Knights and Damsels", we fabricated a Robin Hood hat. This is apropos, as we watched the Errol Flynn version not too long ago. He has been running around in that, and his Jedi cloak, drawing arrows from an invisible quiver.

He also spent some time today working on his latest software adventure- Zoombini's Mountain Rescue- which is all about math and logic, and doesn't even use digits. Some of the problems are complex enough that I find them tricky, but he perserveres, trying to figure out how to crack the various codes.

We watched part of a movie this evening, too. It was about the Yogis in Tibet. It spoke of their lineage, their history, and the tragic events of the last century. It also showed their nonviolence, and there was an interview with the Dalai Lama. The Sunchild made me promise for us to wait to watch the rest of it with him. I think that means he likes it ;)

We moved back into the realm of chemistry this week, and began studying gases. The Sunchild made CO2 gas by putting baking soda in a ballon, and attaching that balloon to a bottle that had vinegar in it. When the two mixed, the balloon was blown up. He also did something involving an egg, a glass, water, and salt. He was seeing how changing the density of the liquid influenced the buoyancy of the egg.

We joined the summer reading program at the library, and he has been making fair progress with that as well. He set himself a goal of 22 books over the summer, and has 8 more to go before he hands in his list to the library. The great thing is that he has read all of these books out loud to me, with some assistance with the more difficult words. He is really moving towards fluency. Most of what he has been reading lately have been Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer.

He has been tapering off on the paperwork, although several weeks ago, we bought a 2nd grade math workbook that he was really enjoying. I had been making a rule about doing some sort of paper activity every day, but I am thinking that I am going to ease up on that until autumn, and just let the summer play out as it will.

He has been getting into music again, as of late. Much to his papa's pleasure, he has been walking around with his guitar, and they once again went over how to play the Darth Vader theme from Star Wars. We have also been playing around with percussion, and drumming, and he loves playing the kazoo. I got some books out of the library on music for kids, so maybe we will learn a new song or two.

This afternoon, he had been playing Legos with his friend Muthu. He has been working on a piece for the latest Lego competition, and was excited to show it off to his friend. He is also looking forward to the return of his friend Tristan, which is one of the highlights of his week. 

It has been hot. Really hot. Finally hot enough, in fact, to warrant a trip to the beach. The water was refreshing, and the Sunchild was still very comfortable in the water. We spent the afternoon there with J & her friend M, and after we were suitably refreshed, we went to see M's house. He lives in an old Grange building, which is painted purple, and bears a sign announcing to arrivals that they have reached 'The Hall of the Woods'. There is enough space inside that they actually host roller-skating parties. And yes, that is a broomstick that the Sunchild is practicing his moves on. Apparently, M works with kids & video, and they had recently done a film that crossed Pirates of the Carribbean with Star Wars and the Harry Potter movies. There was a big sign that said 'Hogwarts' bearing testimony to the recent fun. Sun had a blast practicing his Quidditch moves, and is excited to go back and visit again sometime soon. 

Today we made a trip with our friend J to Mima Mounds. It is a pretty neat place, with regularly shaped 40ft mounds all across a prairie. Apparently, their origin is somewhat of a geological mystery. The foliage was wonderful, and there were nice interpretive areas with information on the plants we were seeing. We had a good time, and it was only slightly marred by the continuous gunfire we heard from the shooting range next door.

Since J was along, I actually got to be IN a picture! How is that for exciting? For photos of the mounds, follow the link above- their pictures came out a lot better than mine did. 

For chores today we cleaned up the Sunchild's room. It didn't need a whole lot of work, but we did sort all the lego pieces back into their proper bins. We also worked a bit on the train town that has overtaken his floor. It is funny how much more fun it is to play with when it looks like something coherent.

We went to the farmer's market today, after making blintzes for breakfast. Then we stopped at our friend J's house, where the Sunchild jumped for a bit on the trampoline. We found the book 'Miss Rumphius' on the shelf there, and just had to read it before returning home.

The gang of three managed to get along a lot more peacefully today. I think they are beginning to work things out. Luckily, we are down to just M until thursday, so things should remain a bit calmer until then.

We played a round of DaVinci's Challenge this morning. We have yet to tally up the score, but the Sunchild is getting pretty good at this game.

We have been pretty regular about doing some sort of educational activity in the morning before playtime. After breakfast and chores, we sit down at the table and practice writing, or do math, or play a game or read or draw or do experiments. It has been a bit tricky keeping the focus, what with all the neighborhood kids passing back & forth in front of our window like fish in a tank. Luckily, one of our neighbors, M, also does some bookwork before he is allowed outside to play, so there is some community support in that. T has a hard time with it though, and tends to ring our doorbell excessively. Luckily, I am finally coming to terms with the fact that I can be a good influence on the neighborhood kids as well, and am trying to help him learn that ringing my doorbell a whole lot doesn't speed up Sun's appearance outside.

We have been chugging along at the library's summer reading program, as well. He finished his 8th book this morning. All of the books for that list have been ones that he has been able to read aloud with very little help from me. It is fascinating to watch how quickly this reading thing is taking hold.

Yesterday, we did several math worksheets. They were about measurement- both volume and length. We played around with a ruler for a while, and measured things like the circumference of each of our wrists. Strangely enough, there was only 1 inch difference between us! He is excited to finish off this workbook so that we can find a new one to work on.

Well, he wants to do something with me, so I had better get off the computer and get to it! 

Our friend J just moved into a new house with a trampoline in the back yard. We had a housewarming party at her place on the 4th of July, where she cooked up a lovely mango salsa steak. We spent most of the evening there, with the Sunchild bouncing away on the trampoline. He and his papa were up there together for a while, and they had a blast. He has now mastered the butt-bounce & the 180. He can't wait to go back again.

We waited until that last possible moment before we drove over to Tumwater to watch the fireworks. That was fun too, but we were out pretty late. It was midnight before we made it home.

Papa left yesterday morning for Santa Fe. He is recording music with our friend Will down that way, and he took the Great Grey Hound as his chariot. He should be there in a few more hours.
We had a wonderful playdate at Priest Point yesterday, and met some new moms from MDC. There were a few more kids a bit older than Sun who he was having a blast with. After a grocery run, we made it home, and he got to play with the neighbors T & M. The interpersonal dynamics of this triangle are very interesting, and I have more to say on that at a later date. Suffice it to say that the Sunchild is getting a lot of diplomatic experience these days.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Unity in the Community festival down at Sylvester Park. It was organized as a response to a neo-nazi rally that had received a permit to gather on the Capitol steps today (a total of 11 nazis showed up- apparently our counter rally worked!). The Unity festival was pretty cool There were speakers from all sorts of local groups, from WROC to YA-YA Media, and many others as well. There was also live music, of varying flavors, with our friends in Rag Dharma playing when we arrived. There were plenty of activities for the children, as well, from a free tattoo stand (in the picture), to a game run by the Y camp staff involving a big parachute & lots of giggles & laughs.

There were a lot of people talking about diversity & how unwelcome the nazi presence is in Olympia. This led to some neat discussions with the Sunchild about nazism, racism, diversity, and prejudice. His favorite sign said "Nazism? That is so 1938!"

After the festival, we went to our friend's house, where the Sunchild could play with his buddies O & Q. There is a ton of land & trees & stuff for the boys to play with, and they always have a great creative time. We were glad to get a chance to see them, as they are travelling back east for a month or so to visit family.

 

The neighbor's kitten decided to hang out with the boys today in the garage. I think the Sunchild was getting rather attached. Luckily, the kitty was pretty patient with the boys, who were a bit less than gentle at times. She had a hideout behind the washer & dryer that she could escape to when everything got too intense. I had to put my foot down, though, when I found the boys trying to make a litter box in the garage. The last thing we need is a neighborhood cat thinking that our garage is a fine place to pee!