Posted by fabricpile
Thu, 06 Dec 2007 01:36:00 GMT
Early this morning when I thought Henry was still asleep, I mentioned to Joe on the phone that we had 3 inches of fresh snow on the ground.
UP popped Henry, from snoozing to elation in 2 seconds flat. He raced around gathering clothes, hat, gloves, boots, coat and was out the door within five minutes.
He spent every bit of the day he could running around outside, having a blast.
Later, he came inside and said, “Mom, I think summer is my favorite season.” I told him that I thought he seemed to be enjoying winter quite a bit.
He responded that was because when he’s outside, he’s been singing at the top of his lungs all about how he likes summer better.
Posted in henry | no comments
Posted by fabricpile
Sun, 18 Mar 2007 13:41:00 GMT
The Trouble With Tribbles was trivial.
With the help of Emma and Henry, The Empire has formed a new alliance with Heather Winds, Rainbow Splash, Amber Locks and the whole My Little Pony Club.
Look out, Sebulba! Vader has a new pod racer.
Meanwhile, the Rebels reconnoiter at the Littlest Pet Shop to plan their next move.
Posted in henry, emma | 3 comments
Posted by fabricpile
Sat, 17 Feb 2007 19:37:00 GMT
Henry: Mom, do we have any pizza?
Mom: I just now started some dough to make pizza.
Henry: (Hugging me) I’m so lucky to have a mom like you who can read my mind!
Mom (to self): You just keep thinking like that, Henry.
Posted in henry | 5 comments
Posted by fabricpile
Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:36:00 GMT
Overheard during this morning’s math lesson:
Dad: What time is it six hours after nine p.m.?
Henry: (Struggling to figure it out)
Dad: Well, if three hours after nine p.m. is midnight, what is three hours after that?
Henry: Dad, I actually don’t know because that’s the middle of the night!
Posted in henry, school | no comments
Posted by fabricpile
Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:59:00 GMT
Walk through any grocery store this season and you’ll see Rachael Ray’s perky little face adorning everything Nabisco.
I spotted these Limited Edition graham crackers and thought it might be fun for Emma and Henry to make the little gingerbread-ish house pictured on the box.
Graham crackers actually don’t make very good gingerbread house construction materials unless you are gluing them to a cardboard box. They can’t be cut to the size and shape you want them and they crumble pretty easily.
Never daunted, Henry designed, constructed, and tested his very own gingerbread bomb shelter. The chips you see are actually the grenades which brought about the destruction of the shelter. Several little gingerbread men met their demise beneath the fallen walls.
The gingerbread graham crackers themselves are really tasty. They’re like a cross between regular honey grahams and Nabisco’s crunchy gingersnap cookies. Not so good for house construction, but great with a cold glass of milk!
Posted in henry, family | 2 comments
Posted by fabricpile
Tue, 10 Oct 2006 00:04:00 GMT
He will say, “Yes!”
He is NuNu the Chocolate deity!
Posted in chocolate, henry | 3 comments
Posted by fabricpile
Mon, 21 Aug 2006 12:54:00 GMT
It’s no secret that children learn and retain more if they are interested in the subject. Home schooling has worked well for us through the years as we recognize what the kids are interested in and allow them to pursue those subjects to their fullest.
This doesn’t mean that we “unschool.” We still expect a certain regimen which involves studying appropriate basic subjects each day. While we eschew the forced schedule of traditional schools, we don’t believe that whim-worship properly prepares a child for adulthood. Beyond the basics, though, the kids happily seek knowledge in a lot of different areas.
Part of Henry’s daily Saxon Math includes simple exercises to help him learn how to use a calendar. He has spent the last week going way beyond the assigned work. He pores over his Star Wars calendar, calculating all sorts of things from the all-important number of days until his birthday to the days between the summer and winter solstices. He has identified patterns and other things about the calendar all on his own.
He got up extra early with me this morning, and finished all of his school work before 9 am. Lately, his spare time has been spent by kicking all of our butts in Star Wars Monopoly. The little Jedi tycoon doesn’t even realize how much he has learned about addition and subtraction while raking in all that rent!
Learning is a fun and natural phenomenon. We work hard (and play hard) to keep it that way.
Posted in henry, school | 5 comments
Posted by joek
Fri, 19 May 2006 23:22:00 GMT
Is there anything comparable to the taste of rhubarb?
It is certainly past time to put our runaway rhubarb to yummy use.
Our thriving patch grows from donations from Uncle Jack and a single
plant named “George,” which Kira rescued from the remnants of an
over-shaded herb garden.
You can’t eat the toxic leaves, but they’ve made great umbrellas during the past week of rain, as Henry demonstrates here.
You’ll find everything rhubarbish in
The Rhubarb Compendium,
including 339 different recipes.
Thanks, Dan, for twelve years of service as the Internet’s
Champion of Rhubarb.
Posted in henry, links | 5 comments
Posted by fabricpile
Sun, 12 Feb 2006 01:55:00 GMT
Ever since Henry was a little chimp, he has insisted on being barefoot as much as possible.
Before he could walk, he hated shoes and would only wear socks out in the cold—yanking them off the second we went indoors. He used his feet to explore and grab things. He still does. He is very particular about his socks and gripes about wearing shoes more than anything else—even more than he does about Emma.
I think the reason he has always preferred boots is that they don’t cramp his feet and they can be quickly removed. Whenever we go somewhere in the car, I have to remember to make a little announcement about five minutes before we get to our destination or else be forced to wait for him to get his socks and shoes back on once we arrive.
Taekwondo has made him very comfortable with the idea of being barefoot in public for long periods of time. Recently, he has taken to removing his shoes and socks the minute we enter the library. Luckily he has grown up in the library and everyone knows him there. And he’s cute enough to get away with it.
I’m glad he’s not in school because I’m certain that the teachers would not recognize his right to bare feet.
Posted in henry | 5 comments
Posted by fabricpile
Tue, 24 Jan 2006 21:00:00 GMT
Sometimes all it takes is the right book to make a kid want to read. Henry’s reading is coming along quite nicely thanks to his complete Star Wars guide.
It sometimes catches me off guard to hear him sounding out words that don’t seem to mean anything—only to realize that he’s reading about a moon where Luke had a training camp, or some character who shows up in the ever-expanding universe of the novels, but never appeared in any of the movies.
Max read the first Harry Potter book when he was only five. It appears that Henry’s taste leans a little more to science fiction than to fantasy at this point.
Posted in school, henry | 5 comments
