Sambal

This is Kaija’s impression of the Grade 1 open house, a few months ago, as recorded by Danielle:

I got to get a story.  It was so fun.  I losed a game on the computer.  I got to stay in the calssroom for a little bit.  I got a little bit of a silly story read to me.  I had a very very fun time.  And I got to see the principal.  The kids were mean to each other.  They were fighting because they were just playing a game - that a girl was Rapunzel.  While I was drawing the picture, I thought Mama had left.  I awas going to finish the picture and then find Mama.

Nt so many children - I like it.  When they asked me for my ideas, I told them I don’t have any ideas!  (embarrassed)  I want home work - school at home.

Most of the kids were nice.  Some of the kids were a little bit mean.  They talked to me when I didn’t want them to.

I interpret this in several ways.  First: she wasn’t feeling ready for the experience of grade one.  (Not at that time, anyway.)  Second: she wants to please, so she says things like “It was so fan” and “I want … school at home” semi-randomly to see if she gets hits.  Finally: she’s not socially well adapted to school.

Let me unpack that last one a bit.  She’s very social and has great social skills.  It’s just that we’ve tended to focus on the ones with the most payoff in our family: negotiation, getting along with siblings, maintaining existing relationships.  She’s not very experienced at status games or making new friends, both skills which are very useful in a school setting.  We’ll try to practice those more next year.

Again, messing around with the new camera.  I think Charlotte is showing me something about her mouth.  That it’s empty?

From 2009-06-01b

Here’s a picture of Kaija being upside down in my arms, messing around with the new camera.

From 2009-06-01b

DSCN0015

Originally uploaded by sam mikes

Playing with the new camera.

David Henderson writes about e-cigarettes and the growing desire to regulate them.  He’s concerned that the regulation of smoking, justified to the public as a measure to control secondhand exposure to nicotine and combustion products, was just a smokescreen.  He’s concerned that opponents of tobacco cigarettes are just anti-nicotine.

I’m not.  I think E-Cigarettes are awesome.  I think a new way of delivering inhaled drugs which avoids third-party exposure to both drugs and combustion products is great.  I hope they rapidly generalize the technology to things like albuterol and cannabis.

Go technology!

Just over six years ago (May 25, 2003) we installed a Bosch tankless water heater. I blogged about it back then and since then I’ve had occasional email with people considering doing the same thing.

We’re still satisfied with the water heater and it still works fine. It’s still annoying to have to wait 60 seconds until the hot water comes on, but the shower pressure is OK and there’s always hot water available.

No particular cost savings that we are aware of, though.

Charlotte and Finn’s third birthdays are now over — we celebrated on the day of (Thursday), with friends (Saturday) and family (Sunday).

We had a really good time at the zoo Thursday, and Sunday we spent the afternoon at the open-air museum in the city.  Highlights: riding the steam train, talking to the reenactors at the native camp, chickens/sheep/cows/ponies, and the 1920s carnival area, where the kids got to ride on hand-cranked carousel.

No pictures, of course, because our newly-ordered camera spent the weekend sitting in a postal depot in romantic Mississauga, Ontario.  Allegedly it’s “Out for delivery” in Edmonton since 5:38 this morning, but I doubt it.

I’ve been reading the Narnia books to Kaija; we are less than halfway through The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe so far.  She expressed a desire to do math homework (”like [cousin] is doing”), so we will be looking for some source of math worksheets.  Perhaps homemade… how difficult could it be to write a program to generate PDF math worksheets using some simple limits?  (Don’t answer that.)

Charlotte and Finn have been reliably using “last night” as a generic past marker.  A typical example would be

(while Charlotte helps me make coffee) “Last night you didn’t let me put that stuff in!”

referring to the coffee grounds, which she will not accept as having the name “coffee”, because coffee of course is the drink.  Or possibly the drink+mug combination.  On Friday she produced “yesterday”, with the same meaning as “last night”.

Finn has been really enjoying the animals books from the library.  We got one called “Meat-Eating Marsupials” which has large pictures and goes into some depth: for example, the Southern Dibbler is an example of an Antechinus.  I wonder how much of this he’ll ever use or retain, frankly, but as long as we’re both enjoying it, it’s good for something.

I don’t like it when children are frightened of spiders for no good reason.  So I habitually read “Little Miss Muffet” like this:

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on her tuffet

Eating her curds and whey

 

Along came a spider

And sat down beside her

And said, “Hello Miss Muffet, how are you today?” 

The other day Kaija was exercising/showing off her reading skills by reading nursery rhymes to Charlotte and Finn.  (Using the enormous Richard Scarry nursery rhymes book.)  She skipped liberally over ones she didn’t recognize, but once she committed to reading one, she used a combination of decoding, memory, and contextual images to read the story.  (Check!)

When she got to Little Miss Muffet, she read the first few lines and then stopped.  Balked, even.  She looked at me and I laughed because I knew what had happened.  She had been about to say “And said, ‘Hello Miss Muffet, how are you today?’” but was reading “And frightened Miss Muffet away.”; and although she is willing to say the words she remembers even when the printed words don’t quite seem to match, this was too much.

I confessed to making up my own last line and told her why.  She firmly read, “And frightened Miss Muffet away.” and then they were off again.