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Fishy Field Trip

10 May

Sharks. And the alligators. And the whales.

Those are Nate’s answers to the question, “What was your favorite part from your field trip to the Georgia Aquarium?”

Seemed to me he liked it all as he sprinted from tank to tank. I had a great time chasing too.

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Racing to the Aquarium

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So Excited!

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Fish Eye View

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Fish Eye View with Friends

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Loved the Beluga Whales

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Cool Penguin Crawl Tube

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Moving Fast

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Happy Boy

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Affection at the Aquarium

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Watching the Divers in the Shark Tank

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Nate felt bad for this shark because he thought it was hurt.

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Shark Tooth!

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Exhausted from all the Fun

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She Held My Hand

14 Apr

I went on a field trip with Nia and learned more than the tour guides taught us. While the guides at the William Harris Homestead Home were interactively telling us about the Civil War, land ownership, cotton and life in the 19th Century, I was learning more about my little girl.

For example:

How she interacts with friends:

  • They would hold hands, whisper and giggle about things I didn’t quite understand.
  • They took care of her. One even made sure Nia could see and told another friend to “let our little one see.”

How her mind thinks:

  • She bravely raised her hand at almost every session to ask the guide a question or to try to answer their questions. She got a lot of praise for getting the question right about what would make the homemade candles a different color. “Maybe they were burned or something.” The guide seemed surprised and told her that not many people answer that one correctly. Nia beamed.
  • She searched for me in the crowd to connect eyes with me when they mentioned Savannah in one of their talks.

What makes her laugh:

  • She giggled at the silly speak that only her friends understood and at the jokes the tour guides told.
  • Hayrides. For sure.
  • She laughed at me when I tried to be funny in front of her friends. (I think I had a 78% success rate on my jokes but I should get extra points because I didn’t have to resort to potty humor for laughs.)

What makes her upset/concerned:

  • She was very concerned about one of her friends lying to me. (The little girl told me she had something in her lunch and Nia waited to see if she was telling the truth. Nia reports that she in fact – did not – have it in her lunch.)
  • She does not like line cutters. Not one bit.

I also learned that she was happy I was there. She genuinely wanted me around – reaching out for my hand several times and including me in her silliness with friends. Thank you for making me feel so welcome, Bean. I love hanging out with you and your buddies.

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Blog Post of a Wimpy Kid Fan

23 Mar

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Nia is all about reading some kid’s diary and it’s so great. Actually, she would likely correct me and tell me that he really wants it to be called a journal. She has entered into the reader’s world of befriending book characters. This Wimpy Kid and his adventures have captured her heart and imagination and it’s wonderful to share in her excitement.

She finished the first book in two days. (She counted down to us as she turned the pages – asking us to subtract 152 from the total.) When she turned that final page, we knew we needed to continue her Wimpy Kid connection so we drove the 30 minutes to the nearest open bookstore and bought each book in the series, plus a special one about the movie.

She’s now nearing the end of the second book but she’s not happy with the interruptions of the school week. Like, the bus rides in the morning. She told us it was too dark for her to read and asked us if she could bring a small flashlight. She now has a book light to help expand her reading time. She’ll soon be finished with all the them and waiting for the author to write more. Good thing there are movies to tide her over…

 

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Happy to Have Them All!

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Nate is inspired too!

Book Light for the Bus

 

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Tiny Geniuses in Nia’s Brain

20 Mar

Nia’s brain continues to amaze us. So much so that Andrew and I will often tell her she has a genius brain. I even told her once (after seeing her great work on math and comprehension tests) that it’s like she has a bunch of tiny geniuses who specialize in different subjects living in her head. I even thought about turning that idea into a children’s book: A little girl with all of these stereotypical character geniuses living in her skull. But then one day, one of them gets sick and can’t help deliver her the correct answer when the question is racing through her head. The others have to pick up the slack and adventure and education ensues.

We can almost see that process happening in her mind when we ask her a question. I have three examples of this that just happened this morning:

  • I asked Nia through a closed door if she had finished her Sunday School homework that was assigned last week. There was silence for a few seconds and then her little voice replied, “Yep. Remember? I did it right when I got home from Sunday School last week.”
  • I asked Nia what she had asked me earlier in the morning because I couldn’t hear her and couldn’t respond right away. She sat for a few seconds and then delivered, “I asked why you drank that.”
  • I said the phrase “pick and choose” to her and, after a second of thought, she inquired, “Doesn’t that mean the same thing?” I sat open-mouthed.

Andrew joked that you could almost hear the computer beeping in her brain as it pinged around for the memory/information and produced it for her. (He said, “Like Watson from Jeopardy.) I laughed and tried to join in with his cleverness, “Yeah! You can see her syntax firing!” He gave me a hesitant smile and sweetly corrected, “Synapse, sweetie. Um, you aren’t allowed to teach our kids biology or anatomy either now. Didn’t you have anatomy in high school?!”

Great. Add that to the list of science and geography as things I’m banned from teaching. I’m pretty sure Nia and her little geniuses will be teaching me anyway. I’m kind of counting on that.

(By the way, I had to google the word synapse to make sure I was spelling it correctly. I found this handy-dandy webpage called Neuroscience for Kids. Can’t say I understood it though.)

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Bully Kryptonite

11 Mar

Does it even exist? A way for kids to render bullies powerless? To deal with/stay safe from their hurtful words/actions? Some options that come to my mind include:

  1. Ignore them
  2. Don’t let them get to you/see you upset
  3. Tell them to leave you alone/stop it
  4. Tell on them
  5. Kill ’em with kindness
  6. Fight fire with fire
  7. All of the above
  8. None of the above

Nia has tried really all but number 6. Fortunately for her, she is not being bullied as severely as many kids (my heart breaks for them) but the bullies she does encounter still make her upset and cause her stress.

Nia tells us that one girl continually scratches her and won’t leave her alone, constantly saying mean things. Another girl, Nia says, told her, “I wish you were a bug so that I could step on you a million times.”

What?! It’s just so hard to tell her how to handle it because she’s still so young and still trying to figure social interactions out. Plus, she’s often shy and very small for her age so others have always pushed her around more and targeted her. The kids seem unphased by all her peaceful kryptonite attempts so I’m left thinking number 6 from the list above may need to be used. But I don’t even want to tell her that option. It’s just so difficult when you try to raise your children to do what’s right and treat others kindly and then other kids get away with tormenting and mistreating. I often try to understand what’s going on in a child’s life to make them act in such a hurtful way. I suppose I live too much in the movies. Where there just has to be a happy ending where eventually the bully and the bullied become friends and walk off the playground arm-in-arm. Fist bump?

Yeah. Back to reality. I looked online for advice on how to at least help ease some of the fret Nia has and I found a few articles like this one and this one. She said it was a much better day when she didn’t speak to one of the girls. I know they can’t all be drama-free days but if she’s happy when I pick her up from afterschool, maybe a small piece of the kryptonite is working?

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Bookworm Bean

27 Feb

Nia has always loved books. She was entertainingly reading to us by memorization at age 3 and often carries books with her wherever she goes. But it wasn’t until the other day that she began talking about what she’d read in a book with such excitement and detail.

She didn’t just say it was really good or funny. She started to give us a “response to literature” – something she’s learning in school. She was so into it and full of animation when describing it to us. It was adorably awesome and gave us the idea to have her review them on video. (Partly as a learning experience but also because I wanted to capture this part of her life.)

She was so pumped about the idea of Bean Book Review and couldn’t wait to start. Who knows? Maybe it could even help someone who’s thinking about buying a book for a child. I mean, she relates things to iCarly so it’s a pretty expert opinion, if you ask me.

She had so much fun doing this and sitting next to me as I tried to edit it. She was such a little producer too. Telling me that I need to add music and that her eyes were closed on one starting clip. She and I had a great time! I find some parts of it so endearing. Like, the popcorn she tries to free from a tooth while talking and her reenactment of a snippet of one book. I hope some others enjoy it as much as we do. (It’s five minutes long so we’ll see!)

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Homework, Honesty and Hush!

9 Feb

The case of Nia’s misplaced homework has been solved. Turns out, her BFF thought it was hers. When she realized she had Nia’s, the sweetie asked her teacher if she could bring it to Nia in the other classroom. I so love that! Also, Nia’s teacher told us having Nia create the homework herself was “good improvising.” Love that too!

As her school day went on, Nia was tested on a few other responsibility areas and I actually like their outcomes and her reaction. One involved her running in the hall to catch up to the class line. Her teacher heard someone running but didn’t know who it was. When she asked Nia if she was the one running, Nia told her it was. She was punished for breaking the running rule but her teacher wrote to us that she appreciated Nia’s honesty. I know she shouldn’t have been running but I’m proud of her for telling the truth.

The second issue involved lunch and a “mean” (according to Nia) teacher (Nia says, “She’s only nice to the adults.”) who made Nia have what’s called “silent lunch” for talking too loudly.  I don’t have a problem about the punishment, nor do I believe this teacher is only nice to adults. I just found her interpretation and commentary of what happened kind of precious. I mean, “She’s only nice to the adults.”

Oh, Bean. You make me proud, laugh and shake my head all at the same time. Now, stop breaking those rules!

A Worrier’s Daughter

7 Feb

I saw Nia have a minor stress freak out tonight and I felt it. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve lived it before. I know exactly what she was going through and I hate it. She’s too young to know that kind of worry yet. Too sweet. Too child.

While I’m glad that she cares, I’m concerned about the amount of worry she showed for such a thing. Misplacing her finished homework sent her on a stress spiral. She actually held the sides of her head in worry that she was going to get in trouble.

Did I do this to my child with all the worry I carry? She’s told me before that I worry too much. She even wrote me reminders that I shouldn’t worry. She knows it’s not a good thing yet it came so naturally and quickly for her. It makes me wonder about people who don’t worry as much. Were they raised by easy-going people? Did they train themselves to say, “Oh well. What can I do?”

I wish I had more of that in me. For me, I have to come up with positive thoughts or a solution to ease my stress. Luckily, it helped Nia. We decided that she would re-do the work, since she remembered it and it would give her something to give to her teacher. I was amazed by how much detail she put into it. She was so relieved to recreate the lost work that when Andrew told her she could go watch Nate play Wii she said, “I’m doing homework first.” Her stress was gone. I hope it stays away. After I finish worrying about her worry, I vow to ease mine to help heal hers.

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Speed Test Stress

29 Jan

It was time. I told myself I knew this stuff. I got it. I stuffed the inside of my Second Grade desk with the books and paper from our last subject. All that remained was my pencil, a sheet of paper with my fat-fonted name across the top and my fidgety hands as I waited for the teacher to slide the cassette into the top of the hand-held tape player and press down the button. I can do this.

The voice began. Math problems were slowly and robotically spoken to us. We had seconds to write the answer. There was no pause, stop or rewind. My palms sweated. My leg shook. I bounced in my seat like I had to go to the restroom. I blanked.

Speed math tests were painful for me. Pain. Full. It wasn’t that I didn’t know math. Me and math were cool. It’s just, when you add the element of time, well, I lost it. I used to study/train just for these tests. My friend, Eleni, would help me practice. Her mom had some speed math tapes and we would play school. I think I was actually being tutored but it was playing school, in my head.

I got through it all ok and actually forgot about the panic I’d feel until Nia started bringing home half sheets of paper with math problems and the words “speed test” on them. I worried for her. Would she stress out like I did?

I’m relieved to say, this picture sums it up:

No Speed Test Troubles

Phew. I can’t help but flashback each time I encounter one in her folder though. I think I’m already stressing for Nate’s.

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The Eraser of Erasers

15 Nov

What in the world is my child doing to her pencils? We send her to school with freshly sharpened, eraser-filled No. 2’s and this is what she brings home:

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She says she’s not eating them. (Thank goodness!) She told me she only bites them to squeeze more eraser out and then even wanted to demonstrate for me. (I told her no thanks.)

Good thing she asked for school supplies (among her other wishes) for Christmas. Her stocking will be stuffed with erasers and pencils galore. That should get her through the first few weeks of school in 2011.

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