to have on hand for when a stomach virus sweeps through the house because
apparently, when I loudly say, no one step over there, I am going to get towels,
no one hears me. And in that brief sentence, I have just told you about my weekend.
But to the point of this post, I believe that my oldest child may have some commitment issues.
His first grade teacher is having the class do a book share, where each child chooses and reads
a non-fiction book, a book in which he or she will learn something and share it
with the class. According to the instructions, the book can be chosen from "...
biographies, cookbooks, gardening, science-related or a how-to book." So many
choices, so little time.
First he wanted to bake something - he looked through the three kiddie cookbooks
that we have in the house, choosing every cupcake recipe that featured frosting
and sprinkles. Great, we had a plan.
And because he has a big heart (and big eyes) he wanted to bake enough cupcakes
so he could not only share the book but share the treats with his whole class.
Thing is, homemade food is not allowed to be shared inside the school. His rule:
No sharing cupcakes, no making cupcakes.
Next little boy idea: building something out of lego. Problem is, the instruction
booklet that comes with a box of lego is not a book. We searched Amazon
and googled and could not really find a book in the strict sense of the word. No book, no share.
We did, however, find a cool looking science related book on Amazon,
something about building machines using the enclosed batteries and coils
and wires and other metal things. Excellent, we had a book share path.
Once the book arrived, we quickly realized that this book was way above
first grade level; I wasn't understanding much of it. And as much as he wanted
to use the book, we kind of felt like if the book share was something that
Josh and I were going to do ourselves on a Saturday night after the kids
were in bed, then it wouldn't really be his book share. Lame? Yeah, because I
am sure most parents are doing their kid's book share, but I'd like to think that
the kids are helping at least a little. This battery book was definitely a no kid
required book, so that was out. Now I have (another) box on my porch waiting
to be shipping back to Amazon.
Then last Monday, we took a trip to Barnes and Noble and in the corner of the
kiddie section, there it was.
If the store hadn't be so crowded, I think I would have heard some angelic music
playing as the sun shown on the discount book shelf because sitting right there
was a book about making paper airplanes. And not only was it about making paper
airplanes, but it was packaged in a box with a stack of paper airplane paper.
Apparently these papers are specifically made for making paper airplanes. Who knew?
To make this very long story slightly less long, here's what happened, quickly.
We attempted to make every single airplane in the book and not one was easy
enough for a child to make.
But read the book we did. So it counts. And Josh, who really had had enough of all of
this way back when we were first discussing the possibility of a lego book,
decided that he was going to teach his child to make paper planes the way he did
when he was in first grade. So he did. And the little one learned. And there you
go.
We took step by step pictures of the first grader making the planes, glued them
onto a poster and done. The first grader sat down and wrote the requisite
five sentences about the book, drew his bookshare cover, and then went to play,
so happy that Mommy wasn't making him practice reading his bookshare out loud.
All I can say is that it's a good thing his teacher gives us a way more than a
month to put these book shares together - not because it takes that long to read and write.
That we do in an afternoon. It's the picking and planning that takes weeks. I'm scared to see
what's going to happen when the Purim-costume-changing-of-the-minds starts.
Should be happening in about five minutes.