Eclectic Parent

Summer - and heat - is finally here. Well, heat’s been coming for a while. We spent the last few weeks having water balloon fights and playing on the slip n’ slide and eating tons of frozen juice popsicles. We’re trying to keep busy, and mainly inside, for the summer. But this last week had more going on that previous months.

Monday morning we went to the Arizona Science Center and then went to some friends’ house to swim and eat dinner.

Tuesday started with a pool party and then we found out at the last minute that the boys had gotten into classes at the Mesa Arts Center. D is taking a Harry Potter Puppet class, which hopefully will continue since it was under enrolled.  C is taking Visual Arts Explorers trying different artistic mediums.

Wednesday morning started with a kids summer movie, followed by a quick picnic, and then we went to a trampoline place for a birthday party. The party continued back at their house where all the kids played for hours. The boys stayed for a sleepover, while B came home with me.

Thursday started with dropping books of at one library and then pick up the boys from the sleepover. Then we headed out to lunch and then to another library to return books, pick up a book we had on hold and grab a few more. Finish it up by bringing lunch to daddy.

Friday. TV, legos, reading at home. No one wanted to leave the house.

Saturday started with the boy both taking a pottery class at the Mesa Arts Center and then B taking ballet with a friend. Then daddy took everyone over to Bookmans used books to try to sell some books - we’re decluttering…still, always - and wonder around. And then they headed to lunch with a friend and brought her home to play for a while.  When B’s friend from ballet, lunch and hanging out here got picked up, the boys went to their house to play with her brother.

Which brings us to…deciding what to do tomorrow.  First Sunday of every month is free museum admission in Mesa: Arizona Museum for Youth,Mesa Contemporary Arts and Arizona Museum of Natural History. And the Arizona Science Center is having a member’s night. Decisions, decisions….

They started playing a game last week where they would hum and song and then have the others guess what it was. I showed them how we could do it on the with the ipod hooked to the stereo. So that’s what we’ve been doing in the car lately. I’m surprised how many song titles they know; I usually just hit play and listen. I’m even more surprised by the number that, even though they don’t know the title, they can name the artist or sing the lyrics.

After a week of playing stuff they know - they can nail Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult in the first note - today I played some classical pieces. I knew they wouldn’t know the names, but they recognized the distinct sounds.  I started with William Tell Overture by Rossini, Bolero by Ravel, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, which they actually recognized from the tv show Little Einsteins and knew was by Mozart, and In the Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg, which D knew that name of.  They are each distinct pieces and easy to recognize.

So now I’m trying to think of iconic pieces of music for different genres. If you were only going to recognize a handful of classical pieces, jazz, blues, opera or oldies, what should they be?

After years of growing their hair out, wanting it long and shagging and only wanting trims, the boys decided to get haircuts today. B went for a bang trim (and wanted a picture just to show the rest of her hair), while D and C took off inches and inches of hair. Long as everyone’s happy, it’s all good.

Well, first of all, the combination of tickling someone squirmy and a laptop keyboard doesn’t always work out for the best. So if my typing gets a bit…lackadaisical, it may be because I’m missing one of my shift keys and too lazy to reach over and use the other.

The interest in big words diminished but didn’t  completely cease. I found a website for SAT prep and started to have a word of the week that we would make an effort to use. Abhor was easy. And it was frequently countered with adore.

“I abhor pickles!”

“I adore pickles!”

That site had thousands of words though so I switched to the top 100 SAT words. Now whether these are the most frequently asked words on the test or most common in actual usage, I don’t know. But one hundred seemed a much more manageable number.  In many ways, having a word of the week seems artificial and forced, especially when compared to the joy they found in exploring words like perambulate and defenestrate. (We had also figured out by saying words like perambulate, defenestrate, and urinate that the suffix -ate probably meant it was a ‘do’ word.)

While I much prefer the natural acquisition of language, and knowledge in general, having words we are trying to work with helps me more than them. Our vocabularies are rapidly shrinking. Read some Austin or Eliot and do a unique word count. Those chicks had tons of words they used and their vocabs rocked. Seriously, we just don’t use as many words on a regular basis as previous generations. We may be aware of them, be able to define them and use them in a sentence; but outside of a crossword puzzle, we don’t use them. Language is acquired through repetition. If you frequently sit around discussing antidisestablishmentarianism, your children will know the word and what it means. But most of us don’t. Well, we don’t anyway. No matter how many syllables a word has, children can learn it if they hear it often. But we truly don’t use that many words any more even if we know them. So having a list helps to remind me to use a variety of words.

I get a word of the day email from wordsmith . org. I frequently end up deleting it because it is just one of the way too many emails cluttering my inbox.  The other day I received sisyphean, which is from Sisyphus. With the Greek myth obsession we’ve had around here since Percy Jackson, we have discussed how some words came from Greek myths like echo and narcissist. Seeing sisyphean, however, made me think to look up how many other words come directly from Greek mythology. I found websites on words from classical mythology, combining their interest in Greek myths and interesting words. (Greek Mythology, Calliope, Muse of Eloquence) So we’re going to start looking at the basis for words like atlas, atrophy, cereal, cerebral, chaos, chronology, echo, furious, halcyon, harp, helium, herculean, hydrant….  this should be fun.

So today was an odd celebration of spring. Lots of normal warm weather stuff: riding bikes, playing in sprinklers, having friends over. But the biggest squeals of joy were over…peep jousting. Daddy heard about it and decided to try. Didn’t know it would be quite as much of a hit as it was though. Take two marshmallow peeps and stick a toothpick in each. Place them, facing each other, an inch of so apart on a plate. Then microwave. As they swell they, well, joust and skewer each other. They had way too much fun cheering for which one would win and then eating the “dead.”

Having enjoyed one demented pursuit for the day seemed to encourage thinking…outside the box. They decided they wanted photos taken of a chocolate bunny being eaten. I think they got the idea off a tshirt they saw online with two chocolate bunnies facing each other. The one with the bite out of its tail says, “My butt hurts.” The one with its ears missing answers, “I can’t hear you.”  Twisted, twisted children.

Ah the joys of childhood and wonders of springtime…

So in a nontraditional move, which is fairly traditional for us, we welcomed in spring by having a rave. Yup, a rave. After finding a box of Halloween decorations in the garage - still unpacking from the move - we decided to actually have the dance party we’ve always said would be fun but had never gotten around to. So blacklights, strobe lights and a disco ball all went up. Throw in a large mirror, because who doesn’t want to watch themselves dance…especially if you are glowing, and a variety of loud music and more than a dozen kids and you have insanity.

The kids enjoyed chocolate and capri-sun while the adults enjoy booze and the chance to chat.  The consensus has been to leave the lights in place… We are definitely going to have to do this again.

Ever since the first viewing of the trailer for Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief, D has desperately wanted to see the movie. After hearing about it for weeks, C jumped on board. I finally found a copy at our used bookstore because I try to get them to read - or listen - to the book before seeing the movie. They love it. And it has inspired tons of google look-ups (Greek architecture, Minotaur and satyr images, descriptions of the gods and a family tree). While I sometimes struggle to get them to listen to a chapter a night, we’ve flown through half the book in three days - and that’s only because I couldn’t read anymore. We also found a copy of D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths today and were reading blurb about different characters from the book as reference.

B, who is too young for Percy Jackson, has been listening to her brothers. While they were debating whether they’d choose to be the god of the sky, seas or underworld, she decided she liked the sound of the beautiful goddess of love. So she found a pink scrap of cloth and made herself a toga to wander the house in. That’s the spirit.

Yesterday was taken up by a long snorkeling trip for the boys. They love seeing the sea turtles that this area is famous for. While they snorkeled B and I walked along the beach collecting shells with one of her cousins. The rest of the day was the usual eat, swim, snack, play in the sand, eat, swim. B and I took our second dance class. The staff always laughs to see her out there learning to salsa or merengue.

We haven’t been writing because we’ve been packing and moving and holidaying and just go, go, go. But then the 4th annual Mexico trip arrived and we luckily get to sloooow down. Travel took all day with two flights separated by a long layover and a 90 minute van ride. But we got here; here being about 90 minutes south of Cancun.We got here in time to see everyone, grab dinner and head to the show. Then off to bed.

Day two started with the boys going to archery. Then we lazily wandered between swimming, playing in the sand, eating and swimming again. B painted pottery while the boys played. After dinner all the cousins - plus an uncle and daddy - headed into their favorite Mexico game: manhunt. They came up with it a few years ago and it’s a cross between tag and hide-and-go-seek. They play boys versus girls with kids ranging from 5 to 19. That lasted until it was time to head to bed, which happens hours later here than at home. Just another thing for them to love.

Finally got the pictures uploaded. Halloween was the usual candy filled fun. Had a party the day before with our homeschool group and then went trick-or-treating on Saturday. Kids had a blast. Boys decided to wear the same costumes as last year because they’d outgrow them soon and B whipped together a quick cowgirl outfit mostly from things she already owned. Phew…that was easy.

And my personal favorite…when they got the giggles over switching headgear.