Summer reading, and more

Today Calvin signed himself up for the summer reading program at our library. The idea is to get (keep?) kids reading over the summer, so they get prizes each time they meet their own weekly goals and are entered in an end of the summer drawing as well. Even though there is a "read to me" component we've never participated before. I don't go in for goal or reward oriented reading (says the girl with the goal of reading a book a week over the course of the year); reading is a natural part of our day, and Calvin reads plenty without enticement, outside of the pure enjoyment he gains from doing so. But this year Calvin is reading to himself and after reading the brochure he asked me about the program. I explained to him why we'd never participated before and gave him the choice of doing so now, as long as, if he chose to join in, he met his own goals all summer.

He signed up for the big kids program, the "read to myself" program. He filled the form out by himself and chose to set a goal of four completely new books each week, which, as he explained to me almost word for word, "is not very many, but will leave me time to read my old favorites and maybe a "long long chapter book, like the next Oz." I will make him a book log to keep at home, and each week he will fill out the log the library has for him under his name. And maybe I'm mistaken, or maybe it's just the right time, because I can see this being a decent thing. Having to keep the list might get him thinking more about the books and their authors, and about comparing them, too. And since he is a natural reader now, I doubt the introduction of rewards will ruin our natural flow.

And so we were at the library today, and before that this morning was the start of Calvin's two week long summer swim class, which means lessons at nine in the morning, every morning, all week, for two weeks. We're always up well before then, but we're not usually out of the house by the then, or presentable (because I often get up and go running, which is out of the house, but I'm not exactly presentable afterwards). The bright side? Just think of all the things we can accomplish this way. And today was a math day, and a checking on the bacteria we're growing petri dishes day, and a bird watching, reading, and piano day. Pretty much a run-of-the-mill day you could say.

Swan family in our neighborhood! I would have liked better pictures of these guys but it was just before bedtime that they came wandering through so it was dark, and we respectfully kept our distance. I'm hoping we'll see them again, though.

A card and a camel

This is about as close to a first day of school portrait as we're likely to get. Funny that it's the first week after school let out around here, then. Since this is the first week of summer vacation for the school bound this was also the summer reading program kick-off at our library. I've said it before and I'll say it again (and likely again and again): we love our library. This year they have so many activities planned that the calendar is too abbreviated to read easily. We started our own kick-off earlier in the week, though, when Calvin got his own card. I'd told him weeks ago that as soon as he could fill out the form by himself he could have his own card. That was like dangling a carrot, I guess, and on Monday he filled out his form and got his card. I'm sure it helps that we are there several times a week and are very active volunteers, but the librarians made a wonderfully big deal out of the occasion, and that was fun. The president of the library even came out and shook Calvin's hand and asked him what he would check out first. Unfortunately, the book he wanted was already out, but he used his card to put it on hold, and today we were notified that it was available for pick-up, so we got it when we went to see the camel. The card has now been broken in.

It's these little milestones that are so much fun. Obviously we did not take part in any preschool graduation like other kids his age did this year, and there were no school photos or class parties. Instead we celebrated a first library card, which to me was more authentic anyhow. It's opening a door of knowlege! It's almost as good as a drivers license! Well, maybe. And I'd promised Calvin that when he got his card I would make him a special library bag, with material of his choosing, in which to keep it. He held me to my promise, he picked his fabric, and he is almost as excited about the bag as about the card. Almost. In fact, his adoration of the library card reminds me of Jon wanting to wear his brand new shoes to bed as a little boy.

But back up a bit. Did I say "when we went to see the camel?" Why yes, yes I did. It was summer program kick-off day today, complete with magic tricks and a camel. I actually had to stay behind at the garage sale but Jon was able to come home long enough to take Calvin to enjoy the party, magic tricks, camel, cake, and all. I think I already mentioned how much I love our library.

Home

It is good to be home. Even piles of laundry and depressing weather cannot attenuate that feeling. And the limited backyard view, after a week of truly limitless lake views, feels strangely contenting, although I could easily be persuaded to accept the latter in exchange where a soft, sandy beach is also present. I think the homecoming has been softened by the return of rotten weather (since who wants to be on the beach when it's raining and not even fifty degrees), and by a day of undemanding schedule. Sometimes it's good to have a day that isn't calling you outside with sunshine. Those days are good for things like laundry, reading, and games. We played Carcassonne again today, and Camp and Mammoth Hunt.

We spent a lot of time with books today, returning to the Aeneid, which had been much neglected on our trip, and with some favored picture books from our shelves. And I made some headway with Shogun (because when they say epic, they mean it). Upon taking a walk through our yard in the morning we discovered signs that the oriole had returned to enjoy the oranges we left out for him, so when we were out we bought an oriole feeder. We equipped it with both orange and nectar when we got home and then ate our lunch picnic style on the floor of the playroom in hopes of catching sight of him. We didn't see him at all, but we did see the hummingbird visit his nectar feeder, along with our usual finches, red-winged blackbirds, cowbirds, sparrows, and doves at their seed feeders. We refilled the suet for our starlings and woodpeckers, but saw only the first of those two today. The bluebirds, who have been strangely absent for a few weeks, were back on our deck in the mid afternoon. Bird feeding and watching has become an important part of our daily activities. It's something I've always enjoyed, and a love that I have now passed on to Calvin. We have four several feeders in our seed front garden, where birds can perch happily without leaving gifts in our preferred play spaces, and nectar feeders on our front porch and in our nectar garden in back. Almost every morning, while I am enjoying coffee and a crossword and Jon is still getting ready for work, Calvin will tiptoe from the front window to give me a "feeder attendance call" for the day. I expect those now as much as I expect bad news in my New York Times updates.

I have no pictures of birds from today. Sometimes it's fun to just sit and watch them. But around noon, as we came out of our library, we were treated to the only blue sky moment of our otherwise gloomy day. A helpful five minutes, since I had been charged with capturing a good photo for the new library brochure. This is one of the fifty I grabbed while there today.

Cutting with scissors

Sometimes you just have to read a book and you don't even have time to actually get all the way into the house before you do so. Good thing I cleaned the floors recently.

Calvin is still on his Nate the Great kick. It's all you can do right now to get him to put down a book and participate in something lively in body as well as in mind. I'm not really bothered by this. In fact, I'm a little in love with his love for reading. That being said, with days of rain in the upcoming forecast I thought it prudent to take in some of the sunshine that was peeking through today's cloudcover, so I promised him dirt followed by a bath, and that did the trick. So we spent all afternoon cleaning up the the garden along the side of the garage. Which is the smallest garden space we have. There is plenty left to do.

We counted over fifty worms as we worked, gently depositing each one back under a pile of dirt. "Hidden from bird view" as Calvin put it. We swept out the old and the dead and broke up the dirt, which is actually clay, for the benefit of the living. I think it's funny that just yesterday I was laughing with Jon about how Calvin understands many bizarre things, like medieval feudal systems or number concepts up through the thousands, but has never practiced things, like cutting in a straight line, which is on a number of preschool "achievement tests" (which are things I pay little to no attention to), and then today he used my gardening sheers to gently and precisely trim back plant parts. With supervision, of course, but actually without help. I've always heard/read/been told/adopted as belief that he would learn (or just know) things as they came up. There was no need to push for skill procurement just for skill procurement. I guess here is my proof.

And to show off our work, some before and after shots:

It started with a childhood collection

I don't have a lot to say today. In part that's because we didn't do much today and generally my blog fodder comes from our daily activities. Today we got up and headed straight to the library to shelve books in the sale room before story time. Last weekend Jon introduced Calvin to his childhood collection of Nate the Great books and yesterday Calvin fell in love with them. We'd read a couple of books from the series with him before but the difference now is that he can read them to himself. That's empowering. So at the library this morning, regardless of the stack of them at home, Calvin asked to check out more of the series. We checked out five, and he read those, and some of his dad's copies, from 10am, while I shelved books, until 4pm, when I requested his help with dinner, laundry, and piano practice (with breaks only for story time and, of course, the bathroom). He's like a man with a mission—an obsession.

So we read books all day, not even together, and that doesn't make for a lot of blog fodder. A couple of times I asked Calvin to play a game with me but he politely declined, without even looking up from his book. I had lots of ideas for us today—ideas that included crayons, markers, Legos, you name it—but I'm learning to go with the flow. There will be other days for crayons, for games, for outdoor fun (and today, at fifty and rainy, definitely didn't qualify for that anyhow), and today there isn't much to talk about because we spent it inside, immersed in books and in our own thoughts. Still, that's a good day.