bits

Christmas is approaching, and we are getting a few things in order for that.  Esme's list to Santa Claus included a 'jackhammer' to do road construction with (pretend, of course), a trapeze/ring bar to strengthen her arms, a My Little Pony (which keeps changing so we just picked what was available today) and a teaset.. which has already been delivered by the tooth fairy but she argues it had to have been Santa because it was on the list.  I saw the note from the tooth fairy ;)  I've got a few surprises and some necessities saved out, too. 

Her reading is getting a lot better, and her guesses are getting better, too.  Her art is much more detailed, the bridge she drew today had blue waves underneath it, two cars and one of them was a 'mouse' car that was tiny with tiny headlights.  She gets in counting moods, still, and she has to count all the pieces of pizza or all the dots on a toy speaker and trying to figure out how to group the pattern etc etc.. to count faster - I wonder if I've encouraged that with her showing her math things on top of her already obsessive nature, or if she just comes by it naturally and it expresses that way.  Her attitude is great at times and awful at others... and our communication is still 'off' at times, we argue or she doesn't tell us about something until it is much too late. 

Today she reminded me at night, while in the bathtub, that she had not had her shirt she needed for her school project today.  She was sure she could bring it tomorrow - but that did not look like what the note said when I read it... so I told her we will decorate it together at home and she can wear it at the party later in the month.  Early this morning she was all up in a tizzy about some drawing of a bridge she needed to bring to school to the 'bridge hall' and lay on the table with the other bridges.  We had no note at all for this - so I think she was trying to break into another class project from 2nd or 3rd grade and add her contribution.  I made her put her name on it and she said I was ruining the plan.  *ha*... she took it in her backpack and it has not come home tonight, so....  some days we just know she's ours, other days, its radiantly obvious.  And at other even rarer times, like tonight, she crawls into bed at 7 pm while I am making up the covers and she usually fights until way after 8.. and settles down to go to bed like it is nothing... and we look at each other and say 'in bed by 7:15... how?'

bit by bit and science

I've sent Esme off to school today with her dinosaur book, and two extra Biscuit books we got in the mail.  I think she is really glad she can read them - and that is the reason I got them.  It will give her confidence that yes, she really can read well enough for some books.  In the meantime, she wants me to teach her science - because they don't teach it in school.  I didn't get far into that one yet - told her I would but would have to think about the best way to do it. She has been doubling numbers, so I started a tiny bit of multiplication this morning.  I haven't done subtraction with her, yet... and I think that needs to be another book for her to start on. 

She surprised me wonderfully on Saturday with several things at the store I work at - she told me what a shutoff valve was for after examining it and opening and closing it.  She knew what to do with a male and female part after looking at them, and remembered the word 'male' from somewhere deep in the past when we had looked at them.  She knew the plug that threaded in was for stopping the water on that side etc... we walked to the electrical switches and I told her the basic idea of the power goes into it on the side.  She said it was like the water and the lightning and the switch made it stop and go.  She has some brain in there... I've always known that, and it is showing so much now. 

I started laying out the science book - following the suit of the 1950s one we had gotten for her back when I was considering fullblown homeschooling.  It will take a while to lay that one out for her...

I am still fighting a cold - again - the day at the park on Saturday was not the best for me.

The other thing she cried about was not having a cheerleading dress like the other girls on the same team.. but I don't think that is going to come to pass.  We don't need Kindergarten cheerleaders in our house... science majors, maybe... but not cheerleaders.  I might make her a dress with the blue and gold fabric the next time I get a chance - but if it looks 'like' the cheerleading dress but isn't... I'm not sure how she will take that.  We had made a decision a while back not to buy the school merchandise when it comes to clothing -- too high of a cliff to fall of there. In her own way she told me I was dooming her to be unpopular... teen angst in a five year old body.  I am glad she is getting better at expressing herself - and telling me what is important to her.