For the past
two weeks, Ant and I have been working on a plan. This plan consists of things that Ant wants
to learn about, but they don’t teach in school (at least, not yet). After a crummy
school year, I want to foster the idea in Ant that learning can be fun. Ant
chose three things to learn about this summer: the fifty states of the US, the
plant and animal kingdoms (think six classifications of life), and Greek
mythology. His idea is to convert our den into a cool classroom (complete with “Good
Job!” stickers and maps and a bulletin board.
So we’ve
bought a US map and I’ve nabbed some cool free worksheets for the third/fourth
grade crowd. I’ve even started a board on Pinterest. Most importantly, however,
we found the Greek Mythology book. It’s chock full of the entire Greek Pantheon
(Gaia and Uranus, the Titans, the Olympians, the heroes, and even the monsters)
with full page color illustrations of the gods and goddesses in seemingly Greek
artistic form. Ant was so excited that
we had to start reading it now—even though there’s still a week of school left—and
we spend about 30 minutes reading it each night.
Last night,
Ant stopped me as I was taking my turn in reading about Zeus defeating his
father Cronus (it’s not a fourth grade reading level, after all) and exclaimed,
“Whoa! Whoa. This whole book is not just telling you who the gods are. This
book is a story of the whole history of ancient Greece, isn’t it?”
“Yes! That’s
right!” I was excited he was catching on. I wanted to teach him about mythology
and why human beings love to tell stories. It fits into the whole
reading/writing thing we’ve been working on.
“Well,” he
paused for a moment. “Well, this is one crazy story! Lots of weird things
happen.”
“I know. And
we’ve just begun. Lots more weird things will happen. Let me ask you this,
though: is the story really much weirder than the stories of Adam and Eve? Or Buddha?
Or even what my Nanny taught me when I was a child—about the Iktomi and Maka
and Inyan?”
“Hmmm,” You
could see the wheels spinning in his mind. “No. You’re right. Every one of
these stories is weird and exciting.”
Weird and
exciting! Success! Until this morning…
Ant was
waiting for me when I woke up this morning. The first words out of his mouth
were, “I’m having strange dreams. Are you having strange dreams?”
“Why, yes. I
had a dream that a mountain of laundry developed into a sentient being and was
chasing me throughout the house trying to eat me,” I responded. I left out the
part where J pushed me in to the laundry monster in an effort to save himself.
“Mine was
stranger,” he said. “I was dressed in a butter stick costume, and there was a
scarecrow made of hay chasing me through a corn field. He wanted to spread me
on the corn so that it could be buttered popcorn. I ran to a river, and jumped
into a boat that looked like a hand. I pulled up the anchor and made my way
down the river, but I couldn’t escape, because a mountain of popcorn loomed in
front of me.”
I think this
may be the byproduct of reading how Cronus ate his children. And then Zeus ate
his first wife, Metis. I think that perhaps we should stop reading the Greek
mythology before bed…
And this
gives you an idea of what didn’t make the blog this week…
Let’s talk
about what else happened this week!
What I wrote
when I wasn’t here:
I made fun
of baby
names. Also, I told you the story of prom chaperones gone rogue.
And because I didn’t get the chance to pose a weekend wrap up last week, I’m
throwing another one in here—where I tell you how to update your zombie
apocalypse survival kit to include cocktail sauce. You’ll need it when the giant
cannibalistic shrimp learn how to breathe air and attack us.
What did I
find elsewhere?
Well, reposting
the infographic
in this post lost me two friends on Facebook.
And I found
out someone does the exact same thing I’ve done to trim
my children’s nails…
Finally, I
RSVPed to attend this on Tuesday, and I hope you do, too.
So, what was
nattering on about at this time last year?
J and I went
on strike, and forced
the children to cook for us.
I hope you
have a wonderful week this week. I am counting down the days until the kiddos
are out of school and the three day
weekend strikes us!
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