Albert Einstein
This is a follow-up to my previous post. I got way too many questions about Albert Einstein from the boys. I have to sheepishly admit that I know very little about him beyond what was is the kid’s book we read last night.
So I started to hurriedly educate myself and answer some of the boys questions in the process. Luckily for me, I came across a site called Albert Einstein Online that contains LOTS of links to good information about the great man. DH loves biographies and had Einstein: His Life and Universe on his bookshelf and I am also starting to read this.
With these two resources at my disposal, I will hopefully not come across as a complete Einstein ignoramus to the boys. Now its a whole other kettle of fish if they start to ask me about any of his theories. If that happens, I will need to send them on a trip to North Carolina to talk to their Tatha (my dad) and Uncle A (my brother) as much of it is complete Greek to me….
Odd Boy Out
A book we lingered over tonight
Last night we read a book that the boys lingered over and asked many questions about. It’s a very quick read but we spent a lot of time talking about different elements in it. It’s called Odd Boy Out by Don Brown.
The book describes quite well Einstein’s quirky intelligence which led to some amazing scientific discoveries but more often than not, when he was younger, left him as the “odd boy out”.
Woody especially has always felt like the “odd boy out”. He tends to be the one on the sidelines during recess not playing ball. He is the only boy in class who has not watched the new Transformers movie because, quite frankly, it terrifies him. We keep telling him that quirky is just fine in our books as he comes from a long line of quirkies! We have also read a lot of fiction with some quirky and bright characters. But I think it helped him to actually read about a real person who was just as quirky who ended up doing just fine. He loved the fact that Einstein was motivated by math and music — and not much else. He then tried to use this as an excuse to get out of his swim class this week but that didn’t quite work out as he had hoped!!
It was also interesting to see Buzz’s reaction to the book. He is our extrovert. He was quite upset because the book describes Einstein being mean to his little sister! He was genuinely puzzled and wanted to know why “the boy has an angry face” and “why he was not playing with the other boys”?
As I kissed them goodnight, I marvelled again at how two boys from the same pool of genes could have such completely different personalities! I suspect that I will be reading the book again tonight…
Golfland
In April Woody saw an ad for Golfland on TV and started to ask us if we could go there. We were so busy during the last few months of school that we told him that we would take him during the summer break. Being Woody, he insisted on knowing the date we would go and I just randomly picked a weekend in the summer and told him we would go then. Well it turns out that this weekend was the promised weekend. Bright and early this morning (isn’t it great that 7:30 feels early now without the mad dash for school?) , he woke up and said “today is the day that you promised we’d go to Golfland. Let’s leave at 9:45am”.
My husband and I had completely forgotten but not our Woody. He must have seen the surprise in our faces because he pointed us to a calendar in his room and sure enough in the tiny space under July 28th, he had written “Golf Land Trip”. Given that it was going to be a 100 degrees outside today, I had envisioned a lazy day spent inside the house with the A/C and ceiling fan on, reading some books, perhaps watching a movie together…but that was not to be….Golfland it was!
I re-discovered three things about our little fam:
- The boys are VERY VERY competitive. We started out playing in teams with me and Buzz playing against Woody and my husband. Perfectionists + intensely competitive kids = not a fun situation for mom and dad. Even little Buzz got all serious and focused when playing! We then decided that the boys needed to be a team and play against us parents. That worked out so much better. Much fun and laughter was had after this!
- They are also VERY VERY loud. Thankfully we were the only ones there. You know the Noel Coward quote about “only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid day sun”? Well apparently even the mad dogs and Englishmen stayed home today. We were the only ones loud and crazy enough to be putting in the scorching mid-day sun.
- I suck at mini golf. I am not just average or even merely bad, I genuinely suck! I have absolutely no sense of how hard to hit the ball and my ball was almost always out of bounds. I provided endless entertainment for all three boys! The laughter I described above was usually at my expense. I suspect I also provided entertainment to the three teenage boys who came to play once it had gotten slightly cooler.
We had a great time! We do have a summer vacation planned for later this summer but I am hoping that we do more of these child-initiated, completely unplanned and impromptu family outings through the summer! They are just so much fun!
We had the place completely to ourselves
Captain Underpants!
What is it about my boys and potty humor? They can’t seem to get enough of it! And I am talking about all three boys here – the big one and the two little ones. They have been cry laughing over a series of books that they got as birthday gifts called Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey.
I had actually put these books to the side some months ago because I was not sure the boys were ready but also because I vaguely recalled some controversy about the books. Then Woody found them the other day and asked if we could read the books. I took a scan through one of the books and thought that apart from the prevalence of words like “barf”, “butt”, “pee-pee” and “burp”, the book seemed fine and was actually quite clever in many ways. I also looked online to see what the controversy was about. Some examples of this here and also here. I decided to talk to them about the controversy and the concerns in advance.
I then read them the first one in the series ‘The Adventures of Captain Underpants’ a couple of nights ago. Now I thought it was funny but not rib tickling, laugh out loud for a good minute, think its the “best book we have read in a long time” funny! The boys LOVED the book!
Then my husband got home a bit early this evening and he read the second book in the series “Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets” to them. And all I could hear while I was getting dinner ready was their laughter in the family room. They are upstairs right now and DH is reading them the third book “Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space” and….you got it, more loud laughter and this time from their bedroom!
I downloaded a new app to my iphone called iTalk (which is quite cool!) and I have half a mind to run upstairs and record the lovely sound of boys, big and little, laughing out loud……a sound that just warms my heart….
New Obsession
I am developing a new obsession that my husband is starting to get worried about. I find myself thinking about the obsession at odd hours of the day. Have I gotten you wondering yet? Well…its my garden.
For years now, I have paid it absolutely no mind. It has been the most ignored part of our house. Tree branches have fallen, roses have bloomed, ivy has gone crazy in one corner of the yard and I have been completely oblivious to its efforts to get my attention. It hasn’t helped that I absolutely do not possess a green thumb. Everything I have tried to grow has consistently turned a mottley shade of brown.
So suddenly here I am starting to develop an obsessive interest in all things garden related. Who’d have thunk it? Certainly not the DH. He reminded me just the other day of our first date when he came to my apartment in Boston to take me out to dinner. He was sitting on the sofa waiting for me to get ready. He happened to look over at the side table and sitting there were the two most pathetic indoor plants he had ever encountered in his life. I came into the room and found him watering them…one of the early signs of his nurturing side!
Here are a few pictures of the lovely color in one small corner of my garden. I can claim absolutely no credit for this loveliness.
In the past few days, I have tried to make up for the lack of attention of the past years. The boys and I have put some plants down in one corner of our garden, planted some quick growing ground cover around a bare sunny patch in the front yard and also planted two containers. All of this is looking lovely! Fingers crossed that they stay lovely. If they don’t, I will keep going and remind myself of that quote from someone famous who said that there are no mistakes in gardening, only experiments…..
American Revolution # 1: Boston Tea Party
Given that that the 4th of July is around the corner, I thought it would be fun over the next few days to explore the American Revolutionary War leading up to American Independence. The main source we are using is actually a TV series called Liberty’s Kids (thank to Suji @ Funschooling for alerting me to this fun series!).
We watched the first episode of Liberty’s Kids on the Boston Tea Party. I managed to field the kids questions by reading ahead of time. Check out the link to the Boston Tea Party Historical Society that contains tons of fun information on this historical event. I am also starting on the book 1776 by David McCullough that is already proving to be fascinating! The kids and I also read this book last night, which was real fun! Finally, Buzz in particular really liked this fun Schoolhouse Rock clip on YouTube.
On July 4th, Woody and Buzz are planning a party. They are finalizing the invite list. This list tends to be relatively small: the four in our family, both sets of grandparents and also my brother — so expect evites the folks mentioned!. They are coordinating the menu and are decorating the backyard that day. They have a budget of $25 for the decorating!
And finally, if watching TV, reading and party planning are not fun enough, we are also involved in a bunch of fun activities loosely organized around the “chapters” in the series. I plan to post on these activities as we do them over the next few weeks and I want to update you on the first of these activities we undertook this morning that falls under the category of “the best laid plans….”
This morning we made the Beaver, one of the three ships docked at the Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party. This was based on a very simple template I found at the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum.
We then attempted to reenact the Boston Tea Party…
The final product: the brig Beaver!
The Beaver gets a crew. Notice the scary stick figure with the play dough head that is supposed to be Sarah from Liberty's Kids
Scary stick figure is joined by GI Joe Action Figures (supposed to be James, Henri and Moses from Liberty's Kids)
Scary stick figure and GI Joe Action figures throw tea (bags) into the Boston Harbor! Tea bags were completely their idea!
The sad fate of the Beaver in the boys version of history!
Well, as you can see we reenacted the Boston Tea Party up to a certain point! After this point of no return, we pretty much rewrote history massively. In the boys version, the Beaver plunged to the depths of the ocean to ward off an attack from the evil emperor Plankton!
We also did a tea tasting but this was quickly aborted when the boys took one sip of the brew I concocted and said a loud “Yuk!”.
Sigh….it’s on days like this that I start to wonder if DH and I should try for a third child and pray real hard for a girl…..
For those of you that want to explore the Boston Tea Party in (accurate) detail, here is my Notefish page with some links I found on the topic. I will keep updating this site.
Coming up next: The Intolerable Acts!