This pumpkin is a tribute to patience: my daughter’s and my wife’s. It took two days to complete. My daughter painted it yesterday and, with my wife’s help, decorated it today. My daughter was frequently impatient about her pumpkin, but she knew it was worth the wait when she completed it this evening. Her motherContinue reading “Pumpkin Patience”
Author Archives: Jonathan Sircy
Inside the Clubhouse
My daughter loves the idea of a secret room where only she (and maybe her cousins?) can go. Today, she built that special space in the middle of the living room. It consists of: two kitchen chairs a living room lounger a blanket that functions as a curtain thanks to some packing tape collection ofContinue reading “Inside the Clubhouse”
Rules
Here’s how I know I need to up my parent game: I have a vague idea of where my daughter’s hare-brained schemes come from, but I don’t know for sure. Today, she wanted to invent a game. I think was because she got to watch this TV show called BLUEY where such inventive games areContinue reading “Rules”
Crafts
It’s starting to feel like there’s a division of labor in the child education market. It takes a village, I’ve been told. Well, our daughter spent Saturday evening with her great aunt and uncle. She was there for about five hours. When we picked her up, she had completed some crafts. A. I love theContinue reading “Crafts”
“Hurray for Ice Cream!”
When my daughter eats enough of her dinner, she can have dessert. Tonight, she showed me her nearly empty plate which she finished long after we’d finished dinner. “Can I have dessert?” she asked. I assented. She chose an ice cream drumstick. I asked her to eat it at the dinner table. Watching her, IContinue reading ““Hurray for Ice Cream!””
Parent Conference
This afternoon, my wife and I met with our daughter’s kindergarten teacher. The meeting last thirty minutes and contained the following takeaways. Our daughter is reading and writing at the level of a first-grader. She’s a rule-follower who looks to her teachers for help and does whatever she’s asked. She gets along well with herContinue reading “Parent Conference”
Book Lab
Every Wednesday, my daughter has a lab session at school where she learns how to use her Chromebook. When she comes home on Wednesday, she tries to extend what she’s learned. Today, that consisted of taking photographs and then adding audio commentary. She was trying to replicate the read-along book videos her teacher had recorded,Continue reading “Book Lab”
What’s Cooking?
My daughter spends her Tuesday and Thursday afternoons with my wife. Today, she spent a lot of that time picking the last of the season’s vegetables from our garden, preparing them for dinner, and then cooking them together. My daughter snapped green beans, cut tomatoes, chopped up mushrooms, and helped prepare onions. When it wasContinue reading “What’s Cooking?”
New Song
Back in January, my daughter and I wrote and recorded a song. It was about her. Today, she wanted to listen to the song and was interested in writing a new one. I let her pick the topic (our cats), write down some ideas for lyrics, and then jam with me as I played someContinue reading “New Song”
Two Pictures
My daughter’s artistic impulses produced two big drawings today. One was a tribute to the book Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! My daughter chose a animated version of the book on DVD as her library selection this morning, and she watched it approximately 752 times. This evening, she came to the dinner tableContinue reading “Two Pictures”
Learning Together 