the sunny day

GUEST BLOGGER: FYI - today's title is courtesy of Annabelle who conceived it and typed it. Annabelle is a fairly regular reader of this blog, and often suggests content. :)

NAME THAT TUNE: Some glockenspiel action was in order today. Though they have exercises to follow - and we do get to those - I think it's important that a kid actually enjoys messing around with the instrument. Heaven forbid it becomes all scales and drudgery.

I suggested the kids take turns playing a song of their choosing, while the audience member listens and guesses what's being played. We used the sand timer to determine the length the musician gets to play. CJ played first. Amazingly, Annabelle recognized the tune as a theme song from a favorite video game of his. He was happy she got it, but lamented, "The Megaman X Intro song sounds kind of cool and strong - but not on this." I had to agree with him. Their tiny glockenspiels sing and ring, but they're not powerful percussion instruments.

THINKING LINCOLN: Though President's Day has come and gone, I figure any day is a good day to learn about Abraham Lincoln.

We watched a short video on BrainPOP Jr. about the 16th president of the United States. It told a little bit about his childhood, his education, his presidency and his assassination. The assassination part didn't set well with CJ. Regarding John Wilkes Booth, CJ said, "I'll go back in time and make him shoot himself. I'll have him close his eyes and then I'll turn the gun toward him and then, kablooey - big surprise!"

After the video they took a couple of online quizzes about what they'd learned, played a related game, and then completed an activity - constructing mini stovepipe hats.

When they were done with the hats, I remembered that we own a gorgeous book about Lincoln - specifically a first edition (1947) of "Lincoln's Gettysburg Address" with designs by James Daugherty. It's printed on heavy stock and the powerful illustrations (reproductions of oil paintings) each span two pages. (An aside - I found this book at the bottom of a bin in the Goodwill outlet. I knew it was a gem - it's just so striking. I think we paid a quarter for it. I just looked it up on Amazon. The one copy available is listed for $97!)

The book's illustrations feature excerpts from Lincoln's famous speech. At the end is a reproduction of the speech, in Lincoln's original handwriting.

CJ scanned it and said, "We've got to fix this writing!" I told him there wasn't anything wrong with the lettering, it is cursive, and that's the way many people - especially adults - write. CJ was insistent it needed to be fixed, because (to my surprise) he wanted to pretend he was Lincoln and give the Gettysburg Address!

Fortunately, the front of the book had a version of the speech in block lettering, so CJ donned his mini Lincoln hat, and read the entire speech to Bee, Kirby and Me.

Not to be outdone by her brother, Annabelle insisted on a turn as the orator. Pretty cool!

COUNTING CARDS: CJ and Annabelle were thrilled to get Valentine's Day cards from grandparents. The cards have been on display for a few days now, and today we finally had a conversation about their contents. They each received two thoughtful cards, and each had a dollar inside. G&G sent $1 bills, and N&B sent coins totaling $1 (and CJ and Annabelle each had a different combination of coins). So we talked about all the different ways you can get to one dollar.

PARKING LOTS: This afternoon meant another trip to the park to play with a former classmate. This time it was CJ's favorite friend (and future wife, according to him) from his kindergarten year at John Hay. They exchanged Valentines and had a ball tearing around the park for two full hours on a beautiful, sunny afternoon.

And late this afternoon, we went for a run and the kids got more park time - this time at Lawton, on the north end of Magnolia.

"DID YOU KNOW 'beep' is an onomatopoeia?" Annabelle just informed.