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As a parent of two energetic boys, I’ve learned to anticipate the inevitable call about an incident at school or camp. I understand that it is impossible to see everything leading up to an altercation. But to teach my sons something useful, I need to be very concrete and specific – so I need facts.
It’s simply not okay for a camp or school to call and tell me Taylor (or Benjamin) misbehaved without context.
Added my three Geek Mom contributions:
What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails,
And puppy dog tails,
That's what little boys are made of.
Actually, little boys are made of pure energy. We could solve the energy crisis if we could figure out how to harness the energy of 2-8 year old boys. Who needs gasoline?
We are the proud owners of an Imaginarium Deluxe Marble Race. Tonight, my boys (and the girl, although not directly) asked me to help them build a big Marble Race,following the plans in the instructions.
We built it and as we were doing it, Benjamin pointed out things that he thought wouldn't work. But we kept building. When it was done, we tested it - and a few things didn't work right. They were the ones he mentioned during construction.
Benjamin is an athletic, competitive kid. He's played little-league this spring for the first time and enjoys being on the field or at bat - and his only complaint is that the league isn't competitive this year - no scoring, no outs. Because it's not competitive, he doesn't really get the point and sometimes doesn't want to play. Interesting how young they figure out that if you don't keep score, the game is probably not a whole lot of fun. Great for learning skills - but that's called practice. We're big fans of practice, but the reward is a game.
On this Saturday, Benjamin's team was down 3-4 players - left with only 7 kids. Benjamin asked his coach if his younger brother, Taylor, could join the team for the game.
My kindergartener, Benjamin, is a lego fanatic and he was given a model set for a three or four wheel vehicle/bike. He made the three wheeler and was very proud and then took it apart to build the four wheeler. As he approached completion (this set is for 8-14 year olds, so we were amazed at his focus and dexterity - it's amazing what personal interest can bring out), I heard an outburst from the playroom. Apparently, my preschooler, Taylor, had dumped some of the tupperware holding the tiny Lego parts (which probably seemed like a fun idea at the time) and we lost a key part for the four wheeler bike.
It was about half an inch, black, and necessary for building the decorative struts on his four wheeler.