Here's to you, Maize and Blue

It looks like it's going to be a long season, but the tailgating is still good!

Learning

I have been asked on numerous occassions by a variety of different people what things I am doing at home in order to prepare Calvin for preschool.  "Aren't you worried that, not being in daycare, he will be behind all the other children when he finally gets there?" they ask.   Well, until now it hadn't occurred to me to be concerned, but tonight I did a bit of research to find out what other moms in my position are doing and came away very reassured (I think my new favorite researcher/writer is bound to be David Elkind, author of The Power of Play, and Miseduction: Preschoolers at Risk).  So we're not spending 20 minutes a day on this lesson, or 10 minutes on that one, but today we walked to the the store and on the way we spent 20 minutes playing on a tree stump; he climbed on it and jumped off; we noticed the rings and counted them to calculate the age; we looked at living trees that were about the same size nearby;  we talked about what things might have been made out of the tree after it was felled (the woodchips at the park, the deck on the nearby house, the furniture in his bedroom), and then we looked for trees that might have been born about the time that one sadly died.  At nap time we read a book about trees, and over dinner he recalled for his dad much of what we talked about.  We spent no structured time in lessons today, instead we learned in play.  Just now I was reminded of all this by a poem I found on an educator's site:

I took his hand and followed

(by Mrs. Roy L. Pfeifer)

My dishes went unwashed today,

I didn't make the bed,

I took his hand and followed

Where his eager footsteps led.

Oh yes, we went adventuring,

My little son and I...

Exploring all the great outdoors

Beneath the summer sky

We waded in a crystal stream,

We wandered through a wood...

My kitchen wasn't swept today

But life was gay and good.

We found a cool, sun-dappled glade

And now my small son knows

How Mother Bunny hides her nest,

Where jack-in-the-pulpit grows.

We watched a robin feed her young,

We climbed a sunlit hill...

Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky,

We plucked a daffodil.

That my house was neglected,

That I didn't brush the stairs,

In twenty years, no one on earth

Will know, or even care.

But that I've helped my little boy

To noble manhood grow,

In twenty years, the whole wide world

May look and see and know.

One week and all is well

Parenting has a persistent way of reminding us that all plans and good intentions are subject to change without notice.  One week ago today I heard Calvin wake up from his nap and start his usual afternoon monologue, about a half hour of every word, phrase, and memory he can come up with.  It's always such a joy to listen to him that sometimes I spend that extra half hour of "free time" sitting outside his door eavesdropping.   Usually we let him wake up on his own terms and wait for him to call us before we go get him, but last Monday, when 45 minutes later he still hadn't called for me and his usual chatter had become disconcertingly quiet, I took matters into my own hands and barged into his room.  Imagine my surprise at finding him more than half way out of the crib already, hanging by his forearms and lowering himself over the side, toes reaching for the floor.  The first thought through my head, of course, was "well, darn, there goes the confined sleeping stage we'd planned to hold on to until he was at least three."  As soon as Jon got home Calvin helped him take the side rail off his crib, making it effectively a toddler size day bed, they installed a guard rail over half the bed side (so he won't fall out), and we had a small celebration at dinner to mark this wonderful next big boy step.   Calvin took the change in typical Calvin fashion; he was excited about sleeping in the "new" bed, and he seemed to listen intently when we told him that once he climbed in bed for the night or nap he was to stay in bed until mommy or daddy came to get him.  After the 3 Bs –bath, (tooth) brushing, and books–we tucked him in and again reminded him of this important rule before dusting off and plugging in the reliable old baby monitor and preparing ourselves for what could have been a difficult night of lots of discipline and little sleep.  As it turned out, the only thing the baby monitor was really good for was listening to his night time banter, a redux of the post nap monologue (and this, by the way, is a really good use for the thing and I'm not sure why we didn't think of it earlier).  It's been a full week now and Calvin has consistently remained in bed and slept his full nap and night schedules (hear the sound of me knocking on wood as I type this).  And we've discovered a great secondary benefit in not having to lift our nearly 30lb toddler over the high crib side.  Sometimes a change of plans is a good thing.

Thursdays in Chelsea

Though unfortunately it signifies the coming of the end (of summer, that is), the Chelsea Community Fair has been one of our favorite August destinations since our introduction to the festivities four years ago.  Of course four years ago the purpose of our visit was to take in the Figure Eight (Demolition) Derby, while this year it was to visit the cows.  And the pigs, and the sheep, and the chickens, and the goats, and all the other 4-H animals Calvin's heart could desire.  The sheep are always some of our favorites - they are usually the  noisiest of the barn animals and that makes them more interesting - but this year we also got the chance to pet a day old chick, and to watch an egg actually in the process of hatching (I say in the process because, unlike in the books we read, a real live egg hatching can take quite some time and this one made no real progress in the 10 minutes we watched it).  Calvin also eyed such rides as the Merry-Go-Round and the Ferris Wheel with a reserved interest, but we left before he could get any real ideas and  headed for downtown Chelsea where dinner would be less expensie and less dusty.  That's when we really lucked out, since apparently summer Thursday nights are music nights in downtown Chelsea and there were performers of every kind on nearly every corner.  We enjoyed some fiddling, some rocking, some barbershop, and some zydeko all within a block or so.  Calvin also enjoyed crossing and recrossing the train tracks, and we stopped for some dinner at the new Mexican restaruant, Las Fuentes (which we can't really recommend unless it's for the impeccable service, but the food and  margaritas left much to be desired and nobody goes to a Mexican restaurant for the service.  The next time we want Mexican we'll head back to Ypsi Township to La Fuente, which we highly recommend.  Apparently one fountain is better than many any day).  As with Independence Lake, our only sadness is that we did not discover Thursday Nights in Chelsea earlier in the season.

More pictures in the August 2008 album. 

Working it all in

There is only so much summer left, so even though we just got back from a lakefront vacation, we packed a picnic this morning and headed for Independence Lake to take advantage of their splash park and sandy beaches.  We're kicking ourselves a bit for not realizing earlier that we were only fifteen minutes away from such a fun summer activity, but rather than cry over it now we'll just make a few extra trips in August!  Calvin loved it even more this time than he did the last, and because it was a Sunday morning the park wasn't even that busy yet. It's a county park, and we've been really pleased with its setup and overall cleanliness.  We are looking forward to hiking the 3 miles of wooded park trails when the cooler fall weather (and fall colors) kick in. Three cheers for the county parks and recreation!