Doesn't get much better

Today was one one those days you hope comes back again, many times.

Sizzler science experiments

Painting sponges

And mommy art ........... make for a very good day indeed!

Did you see that?

My sizzler is extremely observant. He notices things. Things I don't see until he points them out. I love this about him.

Today we were on the way home from town (we live in the sticks) and stopped at one of our favorite farm stands to get some oranges. Now I have stopped here 100 times (well maybe not that many) in the last 15 years to buy mandarins and other local yummy stuff and never noticed what the sizzler saw today. There it is in the picture above. Can you tell what it is? Right away he says "mom, look it's an old truck" by golly it is son!

Now it's time for the close inspection. What is it? Is it a Ford? Model T? He has to know.

Here comes the farmer. He's an old timer, been here forever. The sizzler asks him what it is and where did he get it. It turns out it is a nurse rig from Southern California used to supply the spray trucks in the farm fields.

You don't say.

"Why is it in the bushes?" He inquires further. The farmer tells him he parked it there and the bushes grew over it.

"Ok" and he returns to his investigation of this oldie truck.

My sweet son loves antique stuff. Old trucks are a favorite. We are always on the look out for them. If we see one we point it out to each other then say "old truck bump" and we do knuckles together.
There are a few oldie trucks on our regular routes. When we get to them I have to remember to drive slow so he can get a good gander at them. So today I decided to stop to see two of our " friends".


For many years the sizzler and I have driven past these two trucks (they are close to each other on the same stretch of road) and slowed way down. I've gotten so used to it that I even do it sometimes when he's not with me. I appreciate that he's given me that. The gift of slowing down and taking a close look at what's around me.
You just never know what you might see.
Enjoy the journey!

You don't have to want to

My wise friend Craig gave me this line to use with the sizzler. I've been using it everyday since he shared this amazing bit of parenting advice at our Valentine's dinner.
When it's time for his "must do's" I often hear "I don't want to!" And now I have the perfect response:
"You don't have to want to!" I say as I smile my most loving, patient smile. "You just need to do it" as I continue to gaze at my awesome sizzler.
He doesn't usually respond with the same loving, patient smile and a resounding "ok mom!"
I get one of the following responses:

• "Nooooooo!" As he flops on the floor
• "Can I play angry birds?" Uh, no
• "I have to go to the bathroom" as he grabs he Lego ideas book and heads to the toilet and spends forever in there
• "What's your favorite deep sea creature?" Trying to distract me
• Or my favorite, "huggie" as he runs at me and gives me a super duper bear bug (kinda hard to resist)

Sizzlers are experts at avoiding work, especially if they have to write. Oh how my sizzler hates to write. He has convinced himself that he can't, that it's too hard, that something really bad will happen. But, he is getting better.

I have to remind myself that he is not torturing me on purpose, although sometimes it certainly feels like that.

There is hope though. Here and there I am getting the "ok" response and he gets going on what I asked him to do. When he first starting doing it I was a bit in shock. I had to hide my dropped jaw and surprised look. Oh, so he can do it! I was told not to fall into the trap of thinking that just because he did it once he can do it again.

Sizzlers are regularly irregular. You can't bank on anything. Every day is new and exciting, heck, from moment to moment I hardly know what to expect. Things can be going so well and then bam! He's upset and convinced he can't do something. It is a bit of a roller coaster ride. Weeeeee.......

On the flip side, my sizzler is the most loving and sensitive boy. As we were reading our Zoology book about pinnipeds this morning he got really upset. He was reading about the fur trade and how many seals were killed for their pelts. He could not finish the paragraph. He was angry. He was feeling very deeply about this so I finished the paragraph for him and told him how I see so much empathy in him for animals. That someday he will do great work and I wouldn't be surprised it if involved helping animals. His response:

"I'm going to be an ocean policeman!"

Awesome. Can't wait.

Where o where has she gone?

Holy smokes! I haven't blogged for several days. Where have I been?

Good question!

I've been exploring my creativity. Yep. I have. And it' been quite fun. I must say. And messy, very messy.

I blame it all on Mati Rose McDonough and Kelly Rae Roberts.

After my last attempt to have "art class" with the sizzler I realized that I had so much fun creating that I wanted more. So I looked around on the web and came across Mati and Kelly. I bought their books. Meanwhile, I set up a space to do art. That was super fun. I liked the idea of having a "studio" space. I collected all my artsy supplies and went to work. Then I lost my inspiration, and got busy, so the studio got dusty.

But on Tuesday, the day it snowed and the sizzler spent the afternoon wallowing in the joyous white fluff, my new art books arrived, oh boy!

I decided to cuddle up with a cup of tea and my new books.

I soon realized that I would need a bigger studio. This was amazing stuff and I was going to need to a lot of room to do this. So I moved the "studio" into the bedroom, in front of my big window, under my happy lights.

Mati's book is called Daring Adventures in Paint. Oh dear. I need to be daring. You see when I do art I usually have an idea of what I want the outcome to look like. She wanted me to forget that. Just start painting. Layer on the colors. Be bold. I did. I liked it. (Big grin)

I did start with a small canvas. Seemed safe.

Daring, ok, here I go..........orange, blue, pink, pistachio. Smear, smudge, scrape. Add a little here, a cute image there. Not too shabby. Kinda fun, sorta childish and playful. I like it!

The sizzler comes in and takes a look at my creation and says "why did you label the sail?"

Good feeling gone.

I work so hard to be positive with him, why can't he say something nice?

The thing is he just says the first thing that comes to mind. I must remember this. Do not take sizzler comments to heart.

So I carry on. I do not need his approval!

I will continue to be daring and bold and silly and have a darn good time doing it!

 

And it will get messy!

Oh, and if you are looking to get inspired to create watch Kelly's manifesto

One more thing.......

The really cool thing about this new endeavor is that I'm using my father in law's paints, brushes and canvases. He passed away in October of 2011. He spent the last 7 years of his life here on our property as our neighbor across the driveway. The sizzler spent the first 7 years of his life with his British grandparents right next door. Super special. Anyway, as I use grandad's supplies I feel a new connection to him. He painted in a wonderful impressionist style. Never too much green. More inspiration. Cheers Dad!

 

 

The amazing number boy

My older son, the one I affectionately call Big Bubba, loves numbers. Well, maybe he would disagree with that statement, but he is drawn to them and what he can do with them.
His favorite kind of numbers are statistics. Specifically, basketball stats.
When he was 9 he got interested in NBA. Not so much watching the games, although he did like that too, but he loved the numbers produced by the games. He would sit for hours and compute average points, assists and rebounds per game. He would create fantasy teams and have them "play" each other. Of course all this information was hand written in neat organized sections on lined paper. He had stacks and stacks of these papers. For Christmas we got him a book that had all the stats for every NBA player for an entire season. He used that book so much it fell apart. I had to 3 hole punch it and put it in a binder.

Today, at 17, 6'3" (and growing), he is a walking basketball encyclopedia. He could be one of those sports commentators and fit right in. Each morning I see him checking the stats online. It's like his morning coffee. Gotta have it first thing or the day just doesn't get off to a good start!
Recently, we had the privilege of attending an NBA game. I wanted to sit next to my bubba because he knows what's going on and can give me the background on all the players. Plus, I got to watch him in a state of pure joy. He was watching a live game and seeing the action that produces those numbers he loves so dearly. I think I watched him as much as I watched the game. He is quite entertaining.

The Big Bubba is in his element when he is immersed in basketball stats. It's his passion, his joy and possibly his future.
When he was younger and would spend hours working on stats, time was nothing. He had no idea so much time had passed. He was lost in his work. Adult friends would marvel at his interest and the free time he committed to it. To us it was "normal". That's what he loves to do, so he does it, a lot.
In his book The Element, Ken Robinson talks about being in this state of flow, or being "in the zone", He says:
"You begin to do something you love and the world slips away. Hours pass, and it feels like minutes. During this time you have been "in the zone." Those who have embraced the Element find themselves in this place regularly. This is not to suggest that they find every experience of doing the thing they love blissful, but they regularly have optimal experiences while doing these things, and they know they will again."
Oh, how I want that for my son!

His "team" is the Nicks - note the team colors on his braces :)

 

School holiday? No way Jose!

Today is a school holiday. The beep of my phone reminded me at 8:15. Everyone is home. But don't tell the sizzler. He doesn't know and I don't want him to know because he can't have the day off of school.
Unfair! Mean!
You might be thinking those things but I know that if the sizzler gets too many days off (like more than two on the weekend) it so exponentially more difficult on the first day back in school. I know. I have lived it and lived to tell you that it is not worth the extra day off.
Mondays are hard enough. Getting back on track after a free wheelin weekend is hard for everyone, but extra hard for sizzlers. They get all comfy in their freedom. They don't want regimen and routine. But they need it. Their lives (and mine) depend on it.
So today I only had 3 things on his list of must do's. Reading, math and a wee bit of writing. That's it! Simple!
Well, not quite. Reading went fine. He is enjoying a good cuddle up with all of Oliver Jeffers picture books. Love. And sometimes he reads like this


But that's ok, he's reading!
Math also went swimmingly. Life of Fred (his math program) is a gift from God. It uses story to engage the sizzler. He loves story. There's a guy named Fred and he is the main character. In his daily adventures Fred encounters math, lots of math. New concepts are just part of Fred's life. Time, money, adding things, even geometry (because your elbow can make a right angle) are learned without the sizzler even knowing it. If I were to give him a page of math problems he would have a seizure. Really. I've seen it. So I have to fool him into doing math. It's not math, it's Life of Fred! Works every time.
Now writing is a different story. The sizzler thinks he can't write. He can, you see, but he doesn't like to. He loathes it. He fights and squirms. He does everything he can think of to avoid writing.
Today we learned about the use of "an" before a word that starts with a vowel. No problem. Now write these 3 sentences. It took an hour (ooh, there's an exception to that grammar rule I just taught him!). That's ONE hour. It was painful for him and for me. Now, he spent most of that time not writing. The actual writing process was maybe 5-10 minutes. The rest of the time was the battle. Wears. Me. Out.
Now if I had let him take the day off it would be a much bigger battle tomorrow. Good thing I know better! Well, I guess we'll have to see about that tomorrow.

Picture book maker

Oliver Jeffers is amazing! He is recent creative influence in the sizzler's life. I could just hug him for inspiring my boy.

What was the inspiration you ask? Watch this

 

 

We watched this video a couple of times. We laughed. We marveled. We thought could we be picture book makers. That is pure creative inspiration flowing. You don't pass that up. You jump in your boat and ride that river!

Hmmm, how should we do it? Do you want to draw the pictures and I will type the words? I ask the sizzler.

Then I wondered if there was a cool app for making books. He loves working with the iPad, let's look.

Well what do you know! I found an app called Book Creator. Perfect!

Now for a story idea. One of his latest obsessions is the Lego ghost train, so I suggested we make a story about the adventures of the ghost train. He loved the idea. We make a good team!

So then I guided him through the process of creating a story board, getting him to think through the plot. Then the fun part started. We went outside and set up the scenes and he took pictures with the iPad. We even set a fire on the tracks!

When he had all the photos we went inside and learned how to put the photos into his book. I told him I would type the words for his story as he hasn't learned to keyboard, yet. But Book Creator has this fabulous feature where you can put a sound button on the page. Once we discovered this he could do the whole thing on his own. He would decide what to say and then record himself reading the story. He even included fun theme music. It's quite hilarious!

He was so involved in this project. He couldn't get enough. He decided to make a second story. His new author pride was oozing. He was a picture book maker. Yay!

When his friend D "read" the ghost train story he loved it and he couldn't wait to get started on his own book. The inspiration continues.

So, thank you Oliver Jeffers for inspiring my son to be a book maker too!