When I got home last night I put Michael in
the car and we went to a wonderful local store called The School Box.
Michael has taught himself to juggle two
tennis balls and he was eager to show off that skill. Needless to say, he can
juggle for about 15 seconds before the balls fall. He started walking into the
store juggling and I had to holler at him to put those balls back in the car.
I found him what looks like a great reading
comprehension workbook. He didn’t fuss about it. We also looked at some educational
games. We don’t
have any besides Apples to Apples - which is a terrific game. We got one
called Brain Quest - so far, so good.
We played Apples to Apples last night after
dinner. I won, not surprisingly. I always want to recuse myself from playing
but the kids insist I play. Each player gets 7 cards with things on them like “Wimbledon” or “strawberry shortcake” or “beer bellies” – and there is a word chosen. The word might be “exquisite.” I had a card called “weddings” so I put that down. The kids
put down cards that made no sense so I won the word card. Collect 7 word cards
and you win. We played it at the beach, too, and had a lot of fun. It’s a great way to teach
vocabulary, and educate my kids on some cultural things that are unfamiliar
with. For instance, one card I had last night was “Emily Dickinson” and another said “Ellis Island.”
The movie last night was Spanglish.
I hated the movie when it first came out. I love Adam Sandler, who plays an
unexpectedly dramatic role and does a fine job. Tea Leoni’s character was so obnoxious,
though, I wanted to throttle her throughout the movie. It’s a complex film, and very
thought-provoking. I enjoyed it more last night than the first time I saw it.
If you have older kids it’s a good one for discussion, particularly about
assimilating into a culture. The director is James L. Brooks, who did Terms of
Endearment.
When I came home tonight, Alesia got a call
from Elena and I took her over there to spend the night. Michael and Mother and
I went out to dinner at Bambinelli’s, a wonderful locally owned place.
We came home and
Michael couldn’t
decide on a movie to watch. So, I finally just popped in a History Channel DVD
on Russian history. He looked like he was going to vomit. Within 5 minutes he
realized Russian history is actually fascinating, and watched for nearly two
hours. Ha! I told him. It’s far more interesting than any silly Nintendo game.
I told him if he’d
watch the entire series of several programs on two DVDs I would buy him a new
Nintendo game. Bribery works, with Mike. He likes social studies, although he
wouldn’t
admit it.
