Friday, May 29, 2015

Started my day by explaining how, exactly, to alphabetize.

Fairy dress up game.

I gave her some new wooden food that you can cut up with a book about food fractions (which she is ignoring in favor of just cutting the food).

Watched Pokemon.

Norman asked her a little kid question meme while I was gone getting my hair dyed, and she gave lots of fun answers, but the last one is the best:

How old was your dad when you were born? 

[She went over to her 100 wall chart] "Let's see here. I was born six years ago, and you are the age 31 now, so if my answer would be correct, [counts six spaces back from 31] you were... 26 years old when I was born."

So like... whoa. And once we told her that you'd count like it's a board game, she got the right answer (for Norman's age when she was born -- 25).

Dressed up like a "warrior" (science goggles, play wooden cutting board, giant tongs).

Watched Norman play the Brave Wii game.

Went on a random Blue's Clues watching spree. And possibly learned the names of all the planets as a result.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

When I woke up this morning, she was sitting in my room reading two different books at the same time (Disney Fairies comic and a new Lego ideas book from the library).

Watched Phineas and Ferb

Dumped out all the Duplos and spent quite a while playing with them.

At the end of one of the Disney Fairy comic books, there's about 3 pages of some other comic about teen girls or something, and Lucy showed it to me by saying, "Look, there's an ad for another book in here. I think they only give you a few pages so that you'll buy it because you want to know the rest of what happens!" ::sniff:: I'm so proud of her media savviness!

She built this, which she called a "lizard temple with summoning crystal":

She requested a dress-up app for her tablet, and I spent what seemed like forever looking for a suitable one. Finally found these and downloaded this one. The others will probably follow.

She saw this on my Facebook feed, so we talked about why it's funny:

Watched Pokemon.

Played outside.

Made some more surprise eggs? 

Also she's just been "packing" on and off all week for this road trip we're taking in a while. Like, every time I look at the pile of stuff she wants to take, it's bigger.

She built The Price is Right out of Duplos. 

She was telling me what everything was, and she said, "And the host is showing off a beautiful rose! He can even balance it on his head without getting hurt -- no thorns on him! ...Actually what happened is they picked it very carefully and then cut off all the thorns."  So like, once again, I'm so proud. She can talk something up like she's on QVC and then explain how the whole thing is a sham in the same breath.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Phineas and Ferb.

Mickey's House of Villains.

Bible study -- she played Fruit Ninja, hair salon, and Tetris (although she said it was too hard for her) on her tablet and worked on her KiwiCrate activity book.

She kinda worked on that all day -- learning bug facts and coloring and doing mazes and stuff.

Then she and Norman talked about kiwis and New Zealand and looked at maps.

Then she and I made the dragonfly shooters from the KiwiCrate.

[KiwiCrate is fantabulous. There's kind of a lot of value in one box and it's like its own little fun science curriculum. Use my link and get $10 off (because I get $10 too and I want more).]

She played outside in the sprinkler.

I showed her how to play pyramid solitaire, and then normal(?) solitaire (which she wasn't as interested in), and then War, which was too boring for her.

Watched a Christmas Winnie the Pooh movie. 

Played a game where she came around to each of the adults in the house and had us pick out parts for Lego minifigs and then we had to come up with a name and their "facts". I think she was planning to make a play with them like her theater teacher did with all the kids' made-up characters. But she said maybe it wouldn't work with only 4 characters, so Norman and I mentioned that there are plays with only two people (out of which came the name and basic plot of Waiting for Godot) and even one-person plays. She seemed skeptical.

Asked for a bath. Consented to a toyless bath. That's how much she needed a bath after playing in the sprinkler today. 

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Phineas and Ferb

She found a giant dead bug this morning, and Norman took it outside and made some comment about how the circle of life continues. Lucy wanted to know what this means, so we talked about nutrients and fertilizer and post-mortem decay and stuff. Not real in depth, but yeah.

During church she drew pictures of lizards doing the things we were doing. There was a lizard taking lizard communion getting ready to dip a bug in wine, a lizard sitting on a pew drawing pictures... It was very meta.

After church we played at the park, then had a picnic where she did a bunch of excited kite-flying.

Also someone was passing around little paper dove cutouts with the fruits of the Spirit and Bible verses on them. Lucy found a pile of them and wanted to look through and see what all of them were. She noticed that many of them are also part of the Girl Scout Law. I told her there's a patch she can earn for making a presentation about how the Girl Scout Law is similar to the things we believe God wants us to do, which of course she already knew about because she's read her entire Girl Scout handbook front to back. I'm gonna see about having her do that in the fall. The subject comes up with her pretty often, actually.

Norman and Lucy went to the children's museum. Golf ball runs, giant water table, pretend supermarket (which is super cool and everything really works), made a crown out of construction paper and pipe cleaners...

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Phineas and Ferb. Just a lot of Phineas and Ferb.

First (as far as I know) grammatical magnetic poetry sentence: "Leave the other children to the sky." Okay then.

Went with Norman to eat ice cream and wander through Target looking at whatever she wanted. Apparently it was a very meandering trip.

We went to dinner for Dotty's birthday. She noticed a sign that said milkshakes were "Five Zero Zero", so I wrote this for her:

And we also drew crazy aliens on the kids' menu to pass the time.

And she was reading her Pokemon book and her Lego book again. Those are pretty much givens these days.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Watched Phineas and Ferb.

Went to the post office and grocery store with me. We had to have a talk about not just knowing that you're going to veer away from running into someone at the last minute, but letting the person know you're not going to run into them by moving before it's the last minute. Oy.

She watched Dotty play her Pokemon game.

She's been reading her Lego ideas book kind of a lot. I think she just pores over it in the playroom whenever I'm not looking.

We made some SWAPS! Well, ya know, I ended up making the majority of them, but still. She helped make two different kinds and also made herself a bracelet. And she helped sort the beads.

And she also had her Colorform-type stickers out again.

She and I wrapped presents for Dotty's birthday, and Lucy wrote her a card (with a pun!).

Played Pokemon Crystal.

Started building a Pokemon day care?

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Watched a Disney Fairies movie.

Played with her magnetic pompom set.

Played with her Colorform-type things, which led to a brief discussion about interracial families.

She somehow turned her Monopoly Crazy Cash game into a Pokemon game. She gave me a starter Dollar and it had a name and there were all these rules for my journey through the Money world.

Major Duplo situation involving dumping every single one of them on the floor. And, ya know, a whole bunch of building and storytelling after that.

At lunchtime, I asked if she wanted "berries" with her lunch, and she told me that strawberries aren't actually berries, because berries have their seeds on the inside. Apparently she learned this at the children's museum. Then she told me that, surprisingly, oranges are berries, and that she learned that from Fruit Ninja.

Watched some Phineas and Ferb.

We're working on telling time because I put up minute numbers:

Worked on making a lizard house out of a shoeboxes on the model of the fairy house in The Great Fairy Rescue. Then she gave up on the shoebox and made it with Duplos instead. She packed it all up and took it outside and set it up. She put one little green candy on a tiny plate and noted that maybe the ants would get it, but that the lizard would probably be happy to eat the ants, and then she shouted, "Hey!! I just made a food cycle! The ants eat the candy, and the lizards eat the ants!" [She meant "food chain", obviously.]

Played outside in the sprinkler.

Last Girl Scout meeting of the year. We were introduced to the concept of SWAPS, and she made some, though not as many as she would have liked, so we're planning to make a bunch to give away at the family reunion we're going to this summer. Pinterest has a ton of great ideas, of course! (Also she was quite taken with the word "whatchamacallit", which is apparently the funniest thing she's ever heard.)

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Woke up and immediately started reading her Disney Fairies comic book.

Came with me to Bible study -- watched Frozen (kinda) and used her tablet to play a hair salon game and mess around with the calculator.

Watched Pokemon.

She and I played a new board game I found online last night. Kind of simple, but you get to build your minifig before you start. :-)

Then consequently (long story) we talked about dimensions (one-dimension, two-dimension, three-dimension -- lines, squares, cubes).

She built a Pokemon battle ground (whatever they're called) for the grass types:

Watched a bit of Tangled.

Played outside in the sprinkler. Got brave enough to try to stop the flow of water with her hands, her butt, and a shovel. Decided that she and the sprinkler were going to be BFFs and gave it half of a leaf as a friendship charm.

Built some more cool Lego stuff.

Watched a Disney Fairies movie.

Took some plastic Easter eggs and a bunch of her various small toys and made "toy surprises" like the lady opens on DisneyCollector. Then she used her kids camera to film herself opening them in the style of DisneyCollector (and with amazingly similar syntax and vocal cadence...). 

And then she played outside some more.

And then she took her Pokemon book to bed with her. 

Monday, May 18, 2015

DisneyCollector videos.

Grocery shopping with me.

Phineas and Ferb.

She and I baked the Shrinky Dink charms she got for her birthday and had already colored in.

We played Set. It's a bit beyond her, but she was starting to pick it up a little.

Watching that Disney vacation planning DVD again.

Played outside in the sprinkler.

Decided to read one of the Disney Fairies comic books we got from the library in bed.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

This morning, with her newly-sorted Legos, she made up a story where an animal rescuer rescued a goblin and gave him a new arm and fed him junk food and media. It was amazing.

While I was at skating, she played Pokemon Crystal while Norman played Brave on the Wii.

While Norman and I were out, she watched Dotty play a different Pokemon game, and they played outside for a little while.

After we got home, Lucy made up another Pokemon (Tentslee? or something?) for me to have for my starter Pokemon in the Cartoon Region, and she gave me my pokeball (plastic easter egg) and pokedex (broken CD case).

Played some games on her tablet.

Hopped on YouTube kids to watch more DisneyCollector videos, but she wanted the ones where the lady dresses the dolls that Lucy has up in new playdoh dresses, so that Lucy could dress hers up in playdoh while she watched.

She made Ariel a seashell button!

She read a book in her playroom, but when I asked she didn't want to tell me which one. She's very weird about admitting to reading. I don't know. But I think the book was a Mickey Mouse comic book we got from the library.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Last theater class -- they weren't preparing for a show, so they just played the movement, self-control, and direction-following games they've been playing. Lucy got a certificate which she is very proud of, and struggled not to cry because she will miss it. They kept saying there will be another class "next fall", and all this time she thought they meant the fall of 2016, so she was very glad to learn about calendar years vs. school years in the car on the way home. :-)

Oh and she played basketball before theater class because that's what they do because it's held in a gym.

She's been working on a Lego hotel, so at the moment she's working on the water slide for the pool.

Amazon shipment day! We got a new container for her Legos, a set of 64 (SIXTY-FOUR) different colors of markers (which I want to keep for myself but I'm resisting), and a bluetooth keyboard for her tablet. I need to find a good typing game for her... Oh, and the box it all came in is huge and if I get my way it will be turned into a TARDIS, but at the moment she's just using it as an awesome fort.

The keyboard set her off on playing several of her tablet apps, and she eventually wound up on the PBS kids website, playing Peg + Cat and Dinosaur Train games.

Watched Kiki's Delivery Service.

Then decided that we need to start our own delivery service.

I installed a (pirate themed!) learn-to-count-money app on her tablet, and she immediately took it and started playing it.

Drew a picture of an "alicorn" because we looked it up because one of the girls in one of the plays last night was playing one.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Phineas and Ferb

Pokemon

Pokemon Crystal game on Norman's computer

Legos. Always Legos. Today she made a car for all the Lego animals to ride in. She said, "You didn't know animals could drive, did you?" I said, "No -- it must be a crazy car!" And she said, "No, it's a car in cartoonland!"

Checking our "travel registration"(?) to make sure we were eligible for tickets to her play.

And rather the biggie for today -- she was in a play!  She's spent the last 3 months attending a theater class one day a week. They did lots of games to increase control over their own bodies (like Red Light Green Light and Statues), learned stage directions, and created their own characters and made up a plot for their (5-10 minute) play.

Lucy did amazing! The character she came up with was entirely original, she spoke up clearly and wasn't at all shy, and was just all around delightful. She also watched the other two classes' plays, including the teenagers' Shakespeare mashup, which she seemed to enjoy despite it being, in her words, a little too long.  She's already said she's excited to take the class again in the fall.

Here she is, introducing her character. (She also came up with most of the costume.)

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

She keeps making up her own Pokemon, complete with powers and what they evolve into. "Helperd", "Antidoi" (can heal other Pokemon), and "Laurabee" (which is like a bee, can't fly when wet, and the females evolve into Lauraqueen and the males evolve into Lauraking). I can't keep track of which ones are real and which ones she made up!

She put together a kit to help warriors when they're hurt or their swords break. It has a flashlight, scissors, several rolls of tape, her magicband...

She watched a bunch of Pokemon.

She played with her Monopoly Crazy Cash game. (She got this as a birthday present from a friend and has messed around with the pieces pretty much every day since then. Possibly because all the other board games are put away out of her reach so she can't lose the pieces...)

She and I had a very illuminating conversation at the library

me: [trying to think of books she might like to check out] You know there's some Fancy Nancy books where she's a grown up kid and she's a detective?

Lucy: Yeah, I know! I have one!

me: [remembering that I bought one at last year's library book sale] Oh, yeah, right.  

Lucy: I'm not sure detecting stuff is for kids.

me: ??? Well, they write the books about kids detecting for kids to read...

Lucy: Yeah, I read it. It was about a lost marble.

me: Really?? Did she find it?

Lucy: Yeah, she found the marble.

me: Oh! I'm just surprised -- I didn't know you read it because I didn't ever see you reading it.

Lucy: Yeah, I read it really fast. I read really fast, so it was kinda...

me: Well, they have more -- do you want another one?

Lucy: Yeah, sure. Get me the longest one.

me: [goes over and gets all three that they have on the shelf]

Lucy: Yeah, I already read this one -- this is the one about the marble. [The first one: "Nancy Clancy: Super Sleuth"]

me: Oh, okay. Do you want the other two?

Lucy: Sure.

Okay, I typed this whole thing out because I really, really had NO idea that she had read the book. Or that she had ever sat down by herself and read a chapter book. I had been working on the assumption that although her reading ability is up to the challenge of almost any book, her attention span and perhaps her physical mechanisms involved (eyes, etc) where not up to it. But no -- apparently it turns out that all the books she has are just too short?? She goes through them too fast so they're boring?? I also talked her into getting the second Boxcar Children book (since she loves the first one, and the rest are mysteries). We'll see if she reads them, I guess. At the same time, she's always turning down my offers to read Narnia or Harry Potter or Mysterious Benedict Society, etc, etc, to her at bedtime. Sometimes I think she just needs to make her own way so badly that she'll turn down anything as long as I suggested it.

Oh, and she also used the library DVD alphabetizing to find the movies she was looking for. (She pretty much has first letters down pat. The rest of the spelling, not so much.)

Also I don't think I've mentioned here yet that she now has her own library card, and she knows how to check to see if things are due and how to put things on hold with her library account on her tablet.

She built this hotel room furniture. I love it! The bed is so fancy, and all the luggage is on top of the A/C window seat combo.

Also we gave her a flashlight and she's been reading her Pokemon handbook in her bed every night before she goes to sleep. 

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Bible study (watched Frozen, read her Pokemon guidebook, drew a Lu World poster, played Fruit Ninja)

Watched Pokemon

She and I watched Disneynature Bears together.

Also she's started making her own toast some mornings.

We played a few rounds of Jenga.

She played Pokemon Crystal on Norman's computer (a new thing she's been doing).