What the littles have been up to
Number of days we have lost with our daughter due to the negligence of the state of Illinois: 16
It's been a long time since a posted any pictures of G. and L. They're doing well. They're busy, happy (except when they're not... and then they're really not), funny little girls. I love seeing what they are going to come up with next. Usually.
Blocks and entire imaginary stories... long, long involved stories... have been the name of the game for K. and the little girls for the past few days. Some of the blocks have been carted downstairs (the third floor where they [the blocks] live is not heated and right now it's a little chilly up there) and there has been much building and playing in the kitchen. There have been castles and houses and roads and superheroes and at one point Jericho was even built and then the Israelites knocked it down. I admit to stopping the catapult which used a very long block to launch other blocks, powered by K. dropping a stack of library books on one end of it.
I like to eavesdrop and listen in when they don't realize anyone is paying attention. It is so interesting to see where their imaginations take them and what they come up. I am also still grinding my teeth over that study that came out a while ago purporting to prove that younger children from large families were stunted intellectually. OK, the study only said in vocabulary, but you can't tell me that the underlying presupposition was that they were stunted intellectually as well. I even thought about keeping a running list of the unusual-for-a-kindergartner-to-use vocabulary that I heard in their play. You'll be relieved that I decided not to. I realized no one but me really wants to read it.
I'll leave you with two stories before I show you the pictures from what is going on behind me. The first relates to vocabulary (no, evidently, I can't let it go). We were watching our Marco Polo movie on Friday and one of the travelers mentioned they were stocking up on provisions. G. pipes up and asks, "What are provisions?" L., without prompting, turns to her and says, "They are supplies, just like in The Brave Cowboy." Well done, L. (The Brave Cowboy is L.'s favorite book.)
The other is about H. God knew what He was doing when He gave H. little siblings with big imaginations. They have been the best teachers she could have hoped for. Imagination was not something that could be considered an emerging skill when H. came home. It just wasn't there. She has spent a lot of time watching K., G., and L. and sometimes even playing with them (this happens more and more these days) and she is learning to imagine. The best thing I saw this weekend was from Sunday. For some reason or another K. announced that it was his stuffed dog's birthday (that dog has more birthdays than anything I know... he must be at least 100 by now). If it is your birthday, you must have presents, right? So at some point in the afternoon I discover four busy little bees wrapping items out of the recycling bin in newspaper. They then proceeded to have a party where the gifts were unwrapped. You would have thought they were real toys by the amount of joy each was greeted with... and H. was right there with them, extolling the wonders of each "gift". Beautiful.
It's been a long time since a posted any pictures of G. and L. They're doing well. They're busy, happy (except when they're not... and then they're really not), funny little girls. I love seeing what they are going to come up with next. Usually.
Blocks and entire imaginary stories... long, long involved stories... have been the name of the game for K. and the little girls for the past few days. Some of the blocks have been carted downstairs (the third floor where they [the blocks] live is not heated and right now it's a little chilly up there) and there has been much building and playing in the kitchen. There have been castles and houses and roads and superheroes and at one point Jericho was even built and then the Israelites knocked it down. I admit to stopping the catapult which used a very long block to launch other blocks, powered by K. dropping a stack of library books on one end of it.
I like to eavesdrop and listen in when they don't realize anyone is paying attention. It is so interesting to see where their imaginations take them and what they come up. I am also still grinding my teeth over that study that came out a while ago purporting to prove that younger children from large families were stunted intellectually. OK, the study only said in vocabulary, but you can't tell me that the underlying presupposition was that they were stunted intellectually as well. I even thought about keeping a running list of the unusual-for-a-kindergartner-to-use vocabulary that I heard in their play. You'll be relieved that I decided not to. I realized no one but me really wants to read it.
I'll leave you with two stories before I show you the pictures from what is going on behind me. The first relates to vocabulary (no, evidently, I can't let it go). We were watching our Marco Polo movie on Friday and one of the travelers mentioned they were stocking up on provisions. G. pipes up and asks, "What are provisions?" L., without prompting, turns to her and says, "They are supplies, just like in The Brave Cowboy." Well done, L. (The Brave Cowboy is L.'s favorite book.)
The other is about H. God knew what He was doing when He gave H. little siblings with big imaginations. They have been the best teachers she could have hoped for. Imagination was not something that could be considered an emerging skill when H. came home. It just wasn't there. She has spent a lot of time watching K., G., and L. and sometimes even playing with them (this happens more and more these days) and she is learning to imagine. The best thing I saw this weekend was from Sunday. For some reason or another K. announced that it was his stuffed dog's birthday (that dog has more birthdays than anything I know... he must be at least 100 by now). If it is your birthday, you must have presents, right? So at some point in the afternoon I discover four busy little bees wrapping items out of the recycling bin in newspaper. They then proceeded to have a party where the gifts were unwrapped. You would have thought they were real toys by the amount of joy each was greeted with... and H. was right there with them, extolling the wonders of each "gift". Beautiful.
G. (guess who picked out her own clothes)
K., H., and L. (who also picked out her own clothes... I think that's a Superman shirt under the sweater.)
L.
H. who is engaging in tandem play more and more. It's a step in the right direction.
G.
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