How I have loved being in Self-Design with Wondertree this year! my Learning Consultant, Jen, has given me so much encouragement and support and space to work it out for myself. She and I have both recognized how far I've come in this process this year, gaining more confidence in myself as a self-designing parent. I will miss reporting to her over the summer, and I am already looking forward to next year in Self-Design as we continue this journey.
So I give to you my final report of the year, in its entirety:
Week 38
Our last O4L of the session
Sniff
Yesterday the sun came out. How long had it been? TOO long, and Kiernen and I both get affected by being cooped up for too long without sunlight and fresh air. Needs!
We decided to go out to the trampoline, where we of course bounced, but also we:
~ birdwatched: a sparrow? We’re still not sure, but when we came inside later after watching and listening to this small copper-headed bird, we checked our bird bood. It has photos and also their calls. It had maybe been too long, for although we saw some we agreed were similar, we weren’t quite sure if any were the exact match. I’d love for the next time if we managed to bring our binoculars, the bird book, and the camera, though. Who doesn’t bring those items on a trip to the trampoline?
~ found ‘spittlebug spittle’. Discussed it for awhile and decided to look it up online when we came inside. We found many many photos when we did, as there are many many species – so we’re still not exactly sure what these guys might look like. We DID learn, however, that the ‘spit’ in fact, comes out the other end, and is there to both contain and protect the larvae of the froghopper. Froghopper! The ‘spit’ is harmless to the plants, too – the larvae drink the plant sap, which doesn’t really damage the plant at all, unless there is some sort of infestation. If they’re bothersome, though, they can be washed away by a hose, so there’s that.
~ talked about Pirates of the Caribbean and all of the scary parts I could remember from the movies (I’ve just seen the first two and really don’t even remember the second one much). You see, it has come to Kiernen’s attention via LEGO and the LEGO Video Games that there is this thing called “Pirates of the Caribbean”. And there is LEGO and there is a LEGO video game, and it’s pirates and swordfighting, and He MUST KNOW MORE and He MUST HAVE THIS VIDEO GAME!!! And because there is a tendency in Kiernen to fixate upon that which he is interested (see: LEGO and Xbox), he wants to talk about this a LOT.
Then there is my own tendency to fully support whatever it is Kiernen is into, taking on learning about it myself, talking about it, thinking of other ways to create exposure…I’ve been wondering if he might be able to handle seeing the movies – or at least the first one, because that is the only one I can truly remember. So I was discussing this with him, and he, of course, wanted to know in detail every bit of why I might think it was scary and WHAT EXACTLY was scary – in great detail.
Remembering that this is how we approached the entire Star Wars saga (his father telling him all of the stories in great detail – which prepared him for then actually seeing that interpreted on screen), I searched my memory for the icky bits (which I of course try to block out) so I could recreate them for him. This led to some interesting discussion of glass eyes and the fact that people really do have glass eyes and what an eyeball really does look like (an eyeBALL) and how this particular character is constantly popping his out and in and how squeamish it made me. And then The Skeleton Army, which Kiernen kept trying to recreate in face and gesture:
Kiernen: “Like this?” (Makes his face “zombie-esque”, with eyes rolled up, tongue out, then walks with arms outstretched in zombie fashion).
Me: “Well, except not with the arms out, but yes. But really scary. Zombie pirates, walking underwater. Some with faces melting off. Pretty freaky.”
Kiernen: “Like this?” (Makes his face “zombie-esque”, with eyes rolled up, tongue out, then walks with arms outstretched in zombie fashion).
Me: “Pretty much. But even scarier.”
Kiernen: “Like this?” (Makes his face “zombie-esque”, with eyes rolled up, tongue out, then walks with arms outstretched in zombie fashion).
Me: “Yes, like that.”
Kiernen: “I just like doing that.”
~ discussed Harry Potter, because at one point it dawned on me that if I am even considering letting him watch a POTC movie, what about the first two Harry Potter movies, before they got so darn dark? And if the Harry Potter movies, then why not the books? Because those are so much beter, and so much easier to leave to the imagination and even more, pave the way for the movies (just the first two). Because in this discussion it also dawned on me that WE HAVE THE BOOKS!!! And also? I LOVE HP. And? I haven’t read the books (the first few) since my first son was born, when we were reading them him in the NICU. I did the math, and that was 11 years ago. 2000.
Anyway. I asked Kiernen if he’d like me to read him the books, and he said yes, so again, when we went in, after we’d looked up the bird and the spittlebug, we began to read book one: The Sorcerer’s Stone (we have the American edition). Each chapter I read, I’d ask him if he wanted me to keep reading, and each chapter, he said yes. We read for almost two hours, until I had to leave for an appointment. (We got to Chapter 3). Then at night at bedtime, we read more, and got to Chapter 7 – at midnight. He finally asked if he could bookmark it, because I’m pretty sure he couldn’t even keep his eyes open anymore (though he wanted to). We got to chapter 7.
And all in between, he kept telling me how much he loved me and he kept wanting to be close to me. I am beyond excited to be sharing this with him, because one, I LOVE it myself. Two, more bonding time! He is often so into his world and I mine that we barely connect in a day – at least compared to how we used to be joined as though we were…conjoined twins. And I’ve been feeling that, like I want to find something that we can really connect over again. There ha been this sort of space between us since he has been getting older, and his Dad has been more the fun guy while I’m the provider of food, comfort, love, clean clothes, practicality.
But now we have Harry Potter. And? There is HP LEGO!!!!!!!!!!! Can you say BEST OF ALL WORLDS COMBINED?!?!?
Life is Good.
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