It is always fascinating to witness the flow of ideas in a kid's mind. This past week I got several fun or cool glimpses of Lorena's.
"Let's go to the movies, let's go see the stars..."
We were in the car, listening -not surprisingly- to the Annie CD (for months her choice has been Annie or Sound of Music). Lorena asked what seeing the stars meant. I stumbled in my explanation of what a Hollywood star is, and gave her some examples of people she might be familiar with , i.e. Julie Andrews.
She replied, "oh, like Patty Collins!". It took me a while to get what she meant and who she was referring to. By the way, that seems to be one of my main jobs as a mother, trying to figure out what they mean. "Patty Collins" appeared in a story I read her from my old Reading book. I just now looked for the quote from the book, "Patty Collins was a famous tennis star".
SIDE NOTE. A couple of weeks ago, I had looked for one of my old elementary school Reading books. Arantxa had been to Robot Building summer camp and she seemed to be confusing machines with robots. I remembered that there was a nice explanation of the difference in my 4th or 5th grade English Reader (compilation of stories). I looked it up, and was going to give it to Ax to read, but Lorena asked me to read a story. She picked "Maria Loves Tennis". (To the people that went to school with me, do you remember the story? Maria runs away from home to go to Patty Collins' tennis camp....). I am now laughing because I am surprised by her memory, but I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I even remembered, before turning the page, that it was going to have an illustration of mallards. In my defense, English classes were boring and so I entertained myself reading ahead in those readers. At first, I just read to finish the story, but then I went on to the next one and the next one. I read many of them who knows how many times. I always kept my brain listening to big words when the other kids read aloud. That way I could find my way back to where they were reading in case I was called on to read.
Back to Lorena and the same car ride. I noticed the moon was visible and pointed it to the girls. As expected, Arantxa said "very nice, thanks" acknowledging my comment, but probably just barely getting her sight off her book. Lorena, on the other hand, was super excited. This is a short version of our conversation.
She told me that a character in the Space Chimps movie was called Luna (moon in Spanish). They saw the movie a couple of months ago.
I told her there was an orphan orca whale living in our local waters a couple of years ago who was named LUNA.
She asked what happened to her.
I explained it died.
She replied that maybe the same thing that had killed all the little fish had killed her as well.
Me. Fish? Oh, right, at the beginning of the summer we had seen many small fish death and washed to the shore of the lake.
Now, I am going off track again. Our girls are too young to remember Luna, the baby Orca whale who was a celebrity and much followed by local kids. They are also too young to remember Hansa, the baby elephant born in the Seattle zoo. They know of Hansa and have seen her memorial (she died 2 years ago). However, this marks a very clear generational divide. Kids just a few years older, remember and had to deal with the dead of those 2 famous animals.
Same day, later on. We drive past a McDonald's and Lorena points out that the roof looks like it had scales, like those on a fish. I think she is right.
Final comment while still in the same car ride. "There are so many pineapples in Hawaii I think they can bake pineapple pie for a LOT of people".
This next one will be familiar to my Facebook friends. It is, however, tricky to explain. Her wording doesn't make much sense in English., because the differences in the word "lightening" in English and Spanish. In Spanish, lightening is a noun that can be numbered. "Vi 3 rayos", you can say, which doesn't work in English, where it would be more like lightening rods. Not sure about that.
I saw a car whose whole roof was made of glass, it looked pretty cool.
Lorena said, well, that might not be a very good idea. It would break if a lightening rod fell on it. I asked her to explain herself, and she said that it would break it with its point. Oh, I then proceeded to explain that it is not like lightening rods have a point. She replied with, but they draw them like that, with the points!. I could just visualize those zig-zagging pointed rods that they indeed use to illustrate them. Not very eloquent explanation on electricity followed. I get it, she added, do they have batteries inside them, then? More explanations on how they are not something solid and not even a single line.
No wonder I am exhausted at the end of the day!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
The Big DRAMA of the 4 year o...Squirrel!!!
These last couple of days, Pablo and I have been laughing at Lorena's drama. Yes, I know, that sounds bad. Let me explain.
I went to teach a class (tutoring) on Sunday, and Pablo and the girls had stayed home. They had picked many strawberries from our garden and saved some for me. The following day, I was going to eat my strawberries but Lorena really wanted for me to split them up. Yes, I could have, but more strawberries are coming all the time, and we wanted her to be able to do without. She started dramatically crying, like it was the end of the world: "BUAH!!! BUAH!!! I DON'T HAVE ANY STRAWBERRIES, I WANT SOME... BUAH! BUAH!...", then, all of a sudden she changed her tone to a normal voice and pointed out the door, "SQUIRREL!", and then went back to her end-of-the-world-tone dramatic crying.
If you have already seen UP, the new Pixar movie, you will have probably found this hilarious. If you haven't, the dogs in the movie are allowed to talk via a machine invented by their owner. They still talk like you'd imagine dogs would talk. Here, take a peek at least 40 seconds into this short. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxoWHeoYU3g While the dogs are dramatically chasing and almost catching the stories heroes, they get distracted all the time by the sight of squirrels.
Fast forward a couple of days. We had had breakfast already, and Lorena, AGAIN, was crying for whatever reason. She cries and it can almost break your heart, she is so convincing; except of course, that half the things she cries for are tiny inconsequential little things. This, by the way, has been a huge part of being 4 for both our girls. Anyway, I am holding her to comfort her as I listen to her her broken voice, and then, just like the other day, she cheerfully says "VITAMIN!!", pointing to the bottle on top of the fridge.
Pablo and I were thinking that she is really like the dogs in the movie. Then we got worried, is this a sign of ADHD? Lorena does seem to get distracted awfully easy. Then it dawned on me, we are guilty! How many times, over the years, have we resorted to distraction to get them over the little disappointments in life? For example, when they are crying after falling down on the playground, and we cheerfully say "airplane!"; or while they are tired of being in the car, "doggie!!!". So maybe, she has just internalized this.
Regarding ADD/ADHD, Lorena is just so aware of every little thing that she finds it harder to concentrate. Arantxa lives in her head and in her stories more, frequently oblivious to outside stimuli. A few days ago we were talking in the car about stopping to eat somewhere. The 3 of us were discussing where we'd go to, while Arantxa was, as usual, reading. When the car stopped and we were ready to get out, Arantxa asked, "why did the car stop? where are we going?".
Lorena, on the other hand, is always listening and always observing. She is the one that will point out to something I change in the house. She compliments me on clothes I haven't worn in a long time asking me if they are new and where I got them. She is happily playing about, but will jump into the conversation we are having in a different room. So, yes, Lorena seems to be distracted very easily because all the information that she is surrounded with seems relevant to her.
I went to teach a class (tutoring) on Sunday, and Pablo and the girls had stayed home. They had picked many strawberries from our garden and saved some for me. The following day, I was going to eat my strawberries but Lorena really wanted for me to split them up. Yes, I could have, but more strawberries are coming all the time, and we wanted her to be able to do without. She started dramatically crying, like it was the end of the world: "BUAH!!! BUAH!!! I DON'T HAVE ANY STRAWBERRIES, I WANT SOME... BUAH! BUAH!...", then, all of a sudden she changed her tone to a normal voice and pointed out the door, "SQUIRREL!", and then went back to her end-of-the-world-tone dramatic crying.
If you have already seen UP, the new Pixar movie, you will have probably found this hilarious. If you haven't, the dogs in the movie are allowed to talk via a machine invented by their owner. They still talk like you'd imagine dogs would talk. Here, take a peek at least 40 seconds into this short. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxoWHeoYU3g While the dogs are dramatically chasing and almost catching the stories heroes, they get distracted all the time by the sight of squirrels.
Fast forward a couple of days. We had had breakfast already, and Lorena, AGAIN, was crying for whatever reason. She cries and it can almost break your heart, she is so convincing; except of course, that half the things she cries for are tiny inconsequential little things. This, by the way, has been a huge part of being 4 for both our girls. Anyway, I am holding her to comfort her as I listen to her her broken voice, and then, just like the other day, she cheerfully says "VITAMIN!!", pointing to the bottle on top of the fridge.
Pablo and I were thinking that she is really like the dogs in the movie. Then we got worried, is this a sign of ADHD? Lorena does seem to get distracted awfully easy. Then it dawned on me, we are guilty! How many times, over the years, have we resorted to distraction to get them over the little disappointments in life? For example, when they are crying after falling down on the playground, and we cheerfully say "airplane!"; or while they are tired of being in the car, "doggie!!!". So maybe, she has just internalized this.
Regarding ADD/ADHD, Lorena is just so aware of every little thing that she finds it harder to concentrate. Arantxa lives in her head and in her stories more, frequently oblivious to outside stimuli. A few days ago we were talking in the car about stopping to eat somewhere. The 3 of us were discussing where we'd go to, while Arantxa was, as usual, reading. When the car stopped and we were ready to get out, Arantxa asked, "why did the car stop? where are we going?".
Lorena, on the other hand, is always listening and always observing. She is the one that will point out to something I change in the house. She compliments me on clothes I haven't worn in a long time asking me if they are new and where I got them. She is happily playing about, but will jump into the conversation we are having in a different room. So, yes, Lorena seems to be distracted very easily because all the information that she is surrounded with seems relevant to her.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Lorena singing both languages.
Like most preschoolers, I guess, Lorena loves to sing. She really, really does and is frequently seen both singing made up songs, or songs she learns in preschoo, or those from her favorite musicals (Annie, Sound of Music, Mary Poppins).
Yesterday she was singing in the car. She started in English and switched to Spanish at the end. She ends up by saying her name in both English and Spanish. Most people find it funny and interesting how they pronounce differently according to their target audience.
Yesterday she was singing in the car. She started in English and switched to Spanish at the end. She ends up by saying her name in both English and Spanish. Most people find it funny and interesting how they pronounce differently according to their target audience.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The Encampment in Arantxa's words.
Arantxa was super excited about her first big Girl Scout adventure. Most of the older girls would be camping for the weekend. Her Daisies troop (K'ers and 1st graders) would be there "just" for the whole day. Each girl had to prepare and pack her own bag, and since they'd be there for the day, the packing list was not that short.
Yes, she is a bit sunburned. They applied sunscreen in the AM and one other time. She also has the remnants of some of her face painting. She was quite proud of what she painted and that was another of her favorite parts.
Here she is, all set and ready to go!
They met at 7:45, after wisely deciding as a group that they would have breakfast at home. They called us to know when to pick them up, if the girls were doing OK, they'd stay until the campfire. Pablo picked her up at 10;45 pm!!!!
Since she is SO much into writing, I provided her with a little notebook and pencil. She barely had any time to sit, but she managed to write a couple of pages. Here they go:
ARANTA'S ENCAMPMENT RECOUNT WITH INSTRUCTIONS.
We wached a movie! evrione in my group was exided. it was Lady and the Tramp. There were Maeny things befor it started. we saw maeny wonderful plaeces on the way. We went on a scavenge hunt then we ate and washd dishes but a splinter Got in my hand. after that we suiched (switched) bubidd (buddies). on the (scavenger) hunt we saw Deer.
Her writing is becoming much more fluid and her spelling has improved a ton in the last couple of weeks. She, however, has not internalized the capitalization after periods... Her school, as far as I can tell, stressed writing as communication in Kindergarten.
After that, she started dictating the rest. The funny part was that she kept reminding me to "add a period there".
For the scavenger hunt, which was in and around a big river as big (wide) as our house, we had to go around. There were plastic animal plates with duct tape on them. There were activities to do. We had to use nature or our voices to do them. The last thing we had to do was to (make up and) tell a circus cheer to the Juniors who had set it up. The circus cheer was:
We are green Daisies
and we are trapeze artists
with a tah-rah-tah- tah!
Go Girl Scouts!
Then we got beads. After that, we made necklaces, anklets, bracelets, or key chains out of the beads. Then we were able to move to the next station. It was not a tent but I like to call it a tent. (since she was dictating I did not get a chance to ask for clarification, maybe just the canopy?).
We made dog toys to donate to little puppies. We braided cloth ribbons together to make a toy. There were knots on each end of the toy.
At the cooking station, we made hot dogs. Some of the ovens (stoves?) burned but the ovens were just old cardboard boxes with aluminum paper and they hot coal inside them. Some girls in my troop thought that they were cooking coals, but instead they were just setting them up. Everything we made, we ate. We also made popcorn and lemonade.
To make popcorn, you have to put a big pot and fill it with tiny kernels to the top. Then put aluminum paper on top and press it down. Then you start shaking it up for a long time you shake. Then you stop, take out the aluminum paper and you have popcorn!
After that we made wish sticks. The older girl scouts explained to us that wish sticks make wishes come true.
How to make a wish stick.
- First you grab a bunch of sticks (no matter the size) and tie them together.
- Then you throw them into a campfire and the wishes come true.
How they work:
- Is a different question though, sticks go to the wish gods.
- Depending on what they think is good for you, some come true. Sometimes none comes true.
- For example, if you wish you will not eat candies for a month (maybe better a week we suggested), it comes true.
After making wish stick, we went to the bathroom and then went to the campfire.
At the campfire all the troops had a little skit of a song that they shared with the rest of the Girl Scouts.
When it was our turn we sang a song. We got special lights and bracelets to wear ((those glow in the dark kind..)). We went over to the campfire, we dropped our wish sticks and sang our song. then we curtsied (sp?) and bowed.
When Pablo picked her up, she was asleep in her car seat. He transferred her to Lorena's car seat and buckled her in. She did not blink. She went then to the driving mom's car to remove her car seat; when he opened the trunk to put the car seat it, she woke up. She told Pablo, "I thought I was sitting next to the other girls...".
One of her favorite parts was the swapping. Here she is wearing her troop hat with her swaps. All the girls brought little things they had made, and they all swapped with each other.
Yes, she is a bit sunburned. They applied sunscreen in the AM and one other time. She also has the remnants of some of her face painting. She was quite proud of what she painted and that was another of her favorite parts.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Lorena's Food Senses
I might have mentioned how Lorena has always had her senses focused in getting food. Here are some examples. They are all from this week. The senses are hearing, seeing, and smelling.
HEARING 1.
We were coming back from the Tulip festival. Abuánis (grandma) was on the Mei's back row and the girls were naturally in their car seats in the middle. Grandma had been munching on some kettle corn. The girls were listening to a story on CD. After a while, Lorena, in her usual roundabout way asked, "Abuánis, what are you doing?". She kept asking, still indirectly, so grandma was able to get away from admitting she'd been having popcorn. She however, had to stop eating. On a completely unrelated side note, I really love kettle corn and is probably the food item I'd missed the most if I moved away from here. (Nota para los que no lo conocen. Son palomitas que hacen en ollas gigantes en ferias y eventos. Mientras las hacen les avientan puños de sal y de azúcar. No quedan carameladas, tienen mucho menos azúcar que eso.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettle_corn
SIGHT 1.
We were having dinner in the patio. Lorena asked, "What are those rounded white things over there?". We hadn't offered them pickled cocktail onions. Neither of them is big on vinegary/acidic foods (but they are getting better with tolerating/enjoying lime).
SMELLING 1
After dinner, the girls were playing and my mom wanted something sweet, just a little something. I found 2 Girl Scouts Thin Mints, and we each had one. Later, we were watching some printed photos (such a rarity!), and Lorena came to look. I had her stand on a chair, so she'd be level with us. Pretty soon she asked, "what is that smell? when did you eat chocolate? Why wasn't I offered?".
HEARING 2.
The girls had not watched TV at all this week, so they sat down to watch a movie yesterday afternoon. We were talking about who knows what and had said galletas that means both cookies and crackers. She immediately came out to ask,""who is talking about galletas, what galletas are you talking about?.
HEARING 1.
We were coming back from the Tulip festival. Abuánis (grandma) was on the Mei's back row and the girls were naturally in their car seats in the middle. Grandma had been munching on some kettle corn. The girls were listening to a story on CD. After a while, Lorena, in her usual roundabout way asked, "Abuánis, what are you doing?". She kept asking, still indirectly, so grandma was able to get away from admitting she'd been having popcorn. She however, had to stop eating. On a completely unrelated side note, I really love kettle corn and is probably the food item I'd missed the most if I moved away from here. (Nota para los que no lo conocen. Son palomitas que hacen en ollas gigantes en ferias y eventos. Mientras las hacen les avientan puños de sal y de azúcar. No quedan carameladas, tienen mucho menos azúcar que eso.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettle_corn
SIGHT 1.
We were having dinner in the patio. Lorena asked, "What are those rounded white things over there?". We hadn't offered them pickled cocktail onions. Neither of them is big on vinegary/acidic foods (but they are getting better with tolerating/enjoying lime).
SMELLING 1
After dinner, the girls were playing and my mom wanted something sweet, just a little something. I found 2 Girl Scouts Thin Mints, and we each had one. Later, we were watching some printed photos (such a rarity!), and Lorena came to look. I had her stand on a chair, so she'd be level with us. Pretty soon she asked, "what is that smell? when did you eat chocolate? Why wasn't I offered?".
HEARING 2.
The girls had not watched TV at all this week, so they sat down to watch a movie yesterday afternoon. We were talking about who knows what and had said galletas that means both cookies and crackers. She immediately came out to ask,""who is talking about galletas, what galletas are you talking about?.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
A multiple choice get well card and other odd things
Our neighbor had to stay home from school after she had taken a bad fall earlier this week. Teh girls wrote Get Well Cards. I was busy working on something else, and just overheard Arantxa murmuring to herself, sounding out words.
This is what she wrote:
I hope you get better soon. Whow did you get hurt?
A Run and fall
b run to a wall and fall
C Go down a slid in or land on rock
if none of these send a note saying whow.
From Arantxa (and with the obligatory girly little heart).
When I glanced at what she had written I almost laughed out loud. One would think that she has taken multiple choice tests.
Today, when I picked her up from school., I realized that she had a little red mark on her cheek. This is a summary of the conversation we had.
M: What happened to you? How did you get hurt?
Ax: Oh, it is that we were playing hockey during 1st recess, but there were a lot of kids playing. It was both K classrooms, so that is 32 kids, plus, I think there I counted 10 other kids. That means there were 42 kids. Mom, quick, I need paper and pencil.
(passed her a piece of paper, she pulled out a pencil from her backpack).
Ax: I need to write this down. 16*2=32; 32+10=42. That means each team had 16+5 kids.
M: How many would that be?
Ax: 21, (then while writing she said) 16+5=21.
M: So, what happened then?
Ax: Oh, somebody was pulling their stick, and let go, and it hit me in the face.
Notice how she turned the conversation into a math problem. I guess instead of going off a tangent, she went off an arithmetic problem.... since we were there, I asked more.
M: So, how many girls in your class?
Ax:8
M: and boys?
Ax: 8.
M: and girls and boys in the other class?
Ax: 8 and 8.
M: So how much is 8*4?
Ax: 32! Let me get that down in paper again.
I haven't seen her notes, I want to see how she wrote everything.
It seems that lately she is in a math growth spurt. She frequently says things like: 17+5=22, 14+5=19. 3*6=18, etc.
One last one. I was filling out a Scholastic book order and asked her if she'd read all of the Deltora books. "Well, there are the ones with the jewels, the first one is called ___ and then there are the ones blablabla, but I read the one that blabla.. and also the other one that comes after and is titled blablabla....and on and on and on ". Pablo quietly said to me: she could have said: no.
This is what she wrote:
I hope you get better soon. Whow did you get hurt?
A Run and fall
b run to a wall and fall
C Go down a slid in or land on rock
if none of these send a note saying whow.
From Arantxa (and with the obligatory girly little heart).
When I glanced at what she had written I almost laughed out loud. One would think that she has taken multiple choice tests.
Today, when I picked her up from school., I realized that she had a little red mark on her cheek. This is a summary of the conversation we had.
M: What happened to you? How did you get hurt?
Ax: Oh, it is that we were playing hockey during 1st recess, but there were a lot of kids playing. It was both K classrooms, so that is 32 kids, plus, I think there I counted 10 other kids. That means there were 42 kids. Mom, quick, I need paper and pencil.
(passed her a piece of paper, she pulled out a pencil from her backpack).
Ax: I need to write this down. 16*2=32; 32+10=42. That means each team had 16+5 kids.
M: How many would that be?
Ax: 21, (then while writing she said) 16+5=21.
M: So, what happened then?
Ax: Oh, somebody was pulling their stick, and let go, and it hit me in the face.
Notice how she turned the conversation into a math problem. I guess instead of going off a tangent, she went off an arithmetic problem.... since we were there, I asked more.
M: So, how many girls in your class?
Ax:8
M: and boys?
Ax: 8.
M: and girls and boys in the other class?
Ax: 8 and 8.
M: So how much is 8*4?
Ax: 32! Let me get that down in paper again.
I haven't seen her notes, I want to see how she wrote everything.
It seems that lately she is in a math growth spurt. She frequently says things like: 17+5=22, 14+5=19. 3*6=18, etc.
One last one. I was filling out a Scholastic book order and asked her if she'd read all of the Deltora books. "Well, there are the ones with the jewels, the first one is called ___ and then there are the ones blablabla, but I read the one that blabla.. and also the other one that comes after and is titled blablabla....and on and on and on ". Pablo quietly said to me: she could have said: no.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Lorena was the mom today
Arantxa and I were practicing some catching and throwing (we had completely forgotten about her glove and ball..ooops!). Lorena got in her Little Tikes car announced she was the mom, and that she'd pick us up after our baseball class.
She stayed in character all day, Arantxa quit after a while. She got tired that when she said "mom, look", Lorena reminded her that she was the mom.
Here are some of the quotes from the day:
- You guys are going to go to extended day today. Extended day is where kids can go to after regular school hours. Arantxa doesn't go there. Well, her Drama class was through X-day.
She finally picked us up. We got "in" the car, and she asked, "Did you have a good lunch? How much did you eat? Who did you seat with?". Oops! I hadn't realized how predictable I am.
Later, we are going to go to the gym. You are going to go the school there (childcare while you work out) because I need to exercise. I am going to do the climber. It is only for moms, you can't do it because I am afraid you'd get hurt.
I am not going to give you a snack in the car because we are going to have dinner soon.
Maybe I will remember some later on. It was funny!
Oh, and here is Arantxa in her incomplete Baseball uniform. She is so excited! Practices start this week.
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