“The one with the long hair, who’s kind of funny looking. Is that our sister ancestor?” (We’ve been talking a lot about our ancestors lately. Scotland loves to sit on my lap and look at pictures, and I love telling him of his inspiring heritage. I’ve never heard him say “funny looking” before. And now I’m a bit nervous where he picked it up. (From me of course. Let’s hope I was pointing to a cartoon in a book when I first voiced it.)
“I’m grateful for my taste buds and my lungs.” (Scotland has an impressive memory for words and LOVES to use them. He wants to understand and will often ask me to define words. Just this afternoon he asked “What does generous mean?”)
“Actually, my name is Samuel. But you can call me Crash Man!” About 60% of the time Scotland takes on the persona of the imaginary Samuel. Samuel is older, faster, and stronger. Fortunately for me Samuel is also very well behaved. He’ll often start a conversation with this. “My name is Samuel. . .” and then go on to tell an imaginative account of his life. When he’s Samuel he calls me Kjirsti. His ability to categorize the real and pretend is quite impressive. He knows that when he’s Samuel he has much more license with his life, so he resorts to it more often. Samuel flies to Italy, Samuel often doesn’t have parents, Samuel can know things that Scotland’s Mom can’t. It’s typically quite hilarious. Many times I’ll say, Scotland, It’s time for dinner. To which he’ll respond. “No, I’m Samuel.” As I write this I’m thinking its time for me to reread my Calvin and Hobbes so I can view all this in the right light. Either my child has a neurosis or a terrific imagination.
Always the silly boy.
A month back I whispered in Scotland’s ear “Do you know what? I love you to the Moon and back.” To which he turned around and said “I love you to the Sun and back!” That game is a bit old now, but we used to often play the game “How much do you love Anders/Daddy/me.” Scotland continues to enjoy comparative language and is always keen to be faster, taller, stronger, etc. It is when I point out that, no, actually I am taller. That he says: “Oh, My name is Samuel. . .”
“Actually. . .” He learned it from me and says it all the time.
“Would you like to see my coins?” For a couple of weeks he was asking me this a dozen or so times a day. He must have sensed my weariness, because now he says something more like “Would you like to play a coin game with me?” Scotland is a fixating type. He always has something that he is obsessed with. Right now it is coins. He has a collection that includes three half dollars, a scattering of nickels, dimes, and pennies, as well as coins from Egypt, the Dutch Antilles, Mexico and Canada (we bulked up his Canada collection when we were there two weekends ago- to his absolute thrill!) Every few days or so he changes up how he keeps his coins: plastic bag, money purse, cardboard box, backpack, plastic bag again, music box, jar, you get the idea… Despite the transient nature of his coins he keep meticulous care of them and has lost very few.
“I don’t want any where they are mean or grumpy or scary.” “How come?” “Because it makes me feel sad.” As I mentioned in a previous post Scotland has come to really love listening to and watching audiobooks on youtube. There are few from the SAG that are a bit scary. He always requests that I skip those ones. He may have inherited my sensitivity.
“Are these real?” Because of night time fears Scotland and I talk often about what things are real and what things either don’t live on the earth any more (dinosaurs), or are pretend (dragons). He will often ask when we’re reading books- “Are these real?” (pointing to whales, crocodiles etc. He has an impressive understanding of pretend vs real as a result, and will often clarify as we play together.
Slime, part of our Halloween celebration at Joy school. The boys (and especially Anders) loved it. Our one girl, Ava, said and I quote “It’s going to ruin my nails.”
“I love Joy school!” Scotland really enjoys his preschool group. (Even though he can be quite a rascal during it sometimes.) He loves having his friends over, and I love when he’ll say “I learned that at school.” Its been really good for him. His social skills have improved and I love that he has twice weekly opportunities to work on “talking it out,” problem solving, and sharing. As much as teaching preschool is time consuming and energy draining, I have really loved being able to weave the things we are learning in Joy school throughout our day. Every unit of Joy School comes with a list of book recommendations. Most of them are really old, but I’ve been surprised at how influential it has been to read a bunch of books on the same theme. Our current unit is “Friendships and relationships” and reading books like “The Rainbow Fish.” “Enemy Pie” “Let’s be Enemies” and “The Quarreling Book” have given us lots of opportunities to talk about how to work through difficulties with friends, and how important it is to be friendly and inclusive.
It’s faded out a bit now, but last month Scotland was totally immersed in writing. He’s learned his pencil grip and can write all the letters in his name. he loves to draw smiley faces. He was continually asking “Do you want to draw with me?!” I love how children go through “sensitive periods.” It makes me so glad that I can be home with my boys so that when they are super excited about one thing I can really gear our play and enrichment around that. We can thank the book “Dog Loves Drawing” for Scotland’s interest.
Got to love the difference in faces. Poor second child.
Scotland has been working so hard at interacting with Anders appropriately. Applying the tenant “A misbehaving child is a misunderstood child.” I realized that often Scotland was doing things because he didn’t know better ways of dealing with the situation. Like lying on top of Anders to stop him from grabbing his toys instead of asking for my help, putting the toys up, or giving Anders a different toy to play with. Once again I’m realizing that you have to teach children everything.
The random paraphernalia that rotates through Scotland’s “Treasures.”
Scotland has caught on to the Frozen craze. He loves to throw his white crocheted blanket over his shoulders and pretend to be Elsa as it trails behind him. When Tom took him to the Dollar store and told him he could choose one thing he picked a back of rings. He recently finished chapter 29 in his reading book and so was able to pick something from our prize box. He chose the Fairy wings. (Tom and I try to keep our chuckles to ourselves, but can’t help but wonder if we ought to say something. . nah! Think “Lord of the RIngs” and “Epic.”)