Learning Together

My daughter had just finished her fourth audiobook the last time I posted. It is now July 7, and her tally just keeps growing.

The two longest books she’s listened to are the first two volumes in the Harry Potter series: Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets. Both are nearly ten hours in the Jim Dale-narrated editions.

She absolutely loved both of them. Sorcerer’s Stone kept her rapt on the way to and from Myrtle Beach. Chamber of Secrets held her attention through the movie debacles last week.

I was so impressed with her audiobook consumption that I purchased her an mp3 player. Now I can load audiobooks more efficiently, and we don’t have to wait for a Playaway version of every book she wants to listen to. A bonus? I can put songs on it as well, and she’s been rocking out to “Can’t Stop the Feeling” (Trolls) and “I Just Want to Celebrate” (Madagascar 2).

Thus far, her favorite new audiobook is Captain Underpants. She loves Dev Kilbey’s Dog Man comic, and when she heard the dramatically rendered audio for Captain Underpants, she flipped. She’s listened to it at least five times. Today at the library, we got the book so she could read along as she listened.

If she starts running around in just her underwear, I’ll know we’ve gone too far.

I tried to take my daughter to the movies this summer. Twice I failed. Yesterday, I succeeded.

It’s getting hot here in South Carolina, so daytime romps at the local parks don’t make much sense. We’ve been wearing the local libraries out. A $2 showing of Space Jam on Tuesday was just what the summer doctor ordered.

We showed up, and I immediately knew there was trouble. I didn’t have my credit card with me. A rookie mistake. I had just started using my Apple Pay wallet and figured we would be okay with the state of the movie theater industry. I was wrong. The show times indicated they would also be screening Space Jam the next day. I apologized to my daughter, and we went home.

We showed up early the next day, and there was pandemonium. There were only fifteen minutes until show time, and the power was off in the entire movie theater. It came on two minutes later, but the credit card readers hadn’t fully booted up when the power crashed. The lady in front of me (in a room full of waiting customers) indicated the power had crashed four times in the last thirty minutes. So I made an executive decision. If we left at that moment, we could get to the next closest Regal Theater by 11:35am, just five minutes late. I rushed my daughter to the car and flew up the highway.

The theater was eerily silent when we arrived. It took me just ten seconds to see why. Space Jam had started at 11am at this new theater, rather than at 11:30am. They wouldn’t sell us tickets. We were nearly forty minutes late. No movies again.

So this Tuesday, I tried to head off trouble at the pass. I picked a movie screening at the larger Greenville theater. It was further away but a less likely candidate for power failure. I ordered our tickets through an app. Score. We got to the theater with fifteen minutes to spare and ordered our concessions through the app. The movie, Sing, was heavy on music, and my daughter probably dug it more than she would have dug Space Jam.

“We did it!” my daughter said as she rammed another handful of popcorn into her mouth.

My daughter completed her fourth audiobook today, Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. I took the opportunity to ask her to summarize and review each of the four audiobooks she’s completed. Here they are.

Saving Winslow

Summary: A boy saves a donkey.

Review: It was a good book. I liked the donkey, Winslow, especially his little hee-haw.

Little House on the Prairie

Summary: A family traveled to the prairie and built a log house.

Review: It was a good book. Laura and Mary were my favorite parts of the book because they were really playful.

Stuart Little

Summary: A mouse went out and found his missing friend, a bird.

Review: It was a good book. My favorite part was when Stuart wrote a note to Harriett Ames.

A Wrinkle in Time

Summary: Three kids traveled in time in order to rescue their father.

Review: It was a good book. My favorite part was when Meg rescued Charles Wallace with love.

Mornings are pretty rushed in our house. My daughter gets up around 7 am and is out the door by 7:15 am. We’re even more rushed when I take my daughter and her cousin to school. My university is fifty minutes away, and I need to get on the road.

With my semester at an end, I can afford to give my daughter a little more time, and that’s been a good thing. She loves to play with her cousin, and our tight time margin every morning (and her cousin’s frequent late arrivals) left little time for that this academic year. Now that I don’t have to be anywhere, I feel better giving her and her cousin some quality time.

This morning, that meant ten minutes.

Yesterday evening, my daughter was upset about cleaning up her elaborate horse set-up, the thing she’d most like to play with her cousin. I struck her a deal. I said she would have time to set up the horses before the cousin came if she got up early. If she would get up early, I promised to give them ten minutes of playtime, regardless of when the cousin showed up.

She agreed.

I woke up her ten minutes early, and by 7 am, she had eaten a muffin, gotten dressed, and arranged the horses just so.

The minutes ticked by. No cousin.

I assured her, “I promised I would give you ten minutes, and I will.” The cousin showed up about 10 minutes later, and they enjoyed their short horse excursion.

Don’t tell my daughter that I set the clock for twelve minutes. I know I spoil her!

A month ago, I got my daughter to try audiobooks. On Saturday, she completed her second one: Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie.

I was very proud of her for three reasons.

1. She completed the book over the course of three weeks. She didn’t listen to the book every day, but she was excited about it when she did. Her sustained attention and bit-by-bit commitment to the book thrilled me.
2. She comprehended what she read. After she finished the book, I gave her a quiz (of course) using these questions but omitting the multiple-choice answers. She got 14/14, and I knew she understood the book because she didn’t need me to list the potential answers.
3. She was so proud of herself. “I finished the book!” I’m sure her older cousins haven’t read Little House yet (though they’ve seen way more of the TV show than my daughter!). For a kindergartener, it’s pretty impressive.

The only thingsleft for me to do? Give her a Star Card then have her write a short review!

I’m in charge of our church’s VBS this summer, and I’ve been putting together flyers and videos this week.

This afternoon, I enlisted my daughter for our video’s picture and song. She played percussion on the song and wore a sweet smile in the photo that accompanied our VBS anthem: “Plant your roots! Grow good fruits!”

When she gets a chance to perform, she shines.

After school today, my daughter announced that she wanted us to start reading the newspaper.

The only person we know who gets the newspaper is her grandparents down the road. She got onto her bike, put on her helmet, and pedaled down the road with me walking alongside her.

We brought the paper home, and she read one national article (Biden re: jobs), one local article (our city is getting a new park), and one full-page ad (“They’re having a deal!”).

We’ll see if this lasts longer than one day.

My daughter finished a week where she was library obsessed by obtaining her first library card.

One perk? It came with this sweet swag bag!

Yesterday at church, she sang along with the hymns and responded with the congregational creed. As we head into the summer, she’s reading like a champ. This library card will help her keep it up. It’s great to see.