An interview with William

This interview is making the rounds on several homeschooling blogs. I thought it would be fun to do with William. I was right, even if I'm not sure what he means by all the answers. :)

1. What is something your mom always says to you?

"I love you infinity infinities. I win."

2. What makes mom happy?

"Being respectful, polite and obedient."

3. What makes mom sad?

"Being unpleasant, being unpolite and being unobedient."

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

"Jokes...you tell some pretty good jokes."

5. What was your mom like as a child?

"I still am a child, mommy."

(I clarified the question.)

"Moving around...you were moving around, right? And you went and visited Christ's tomb."

6. How old is your mom?

"31 years old"

7. How tall is your mom?

"5' 6"...is that right?"

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

"Be on the computer all day...hehe...right? You are on the computer all day, so it must be your favorite thing, right?"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

"Usually cleaning."

10. What is your mom really good at?

"The piano and guitar."

11. What is your mom not very good at?

"Being bossy."

12. What does your mom do for her job?

"Uh...she's an administrator."

13. What is your mom's favorite food?

"Cheese."

14. What makes you proud of your mom?

"Um...she's the best mommy in the world and a good snuggler."

15. What do you and your mom do together?

"Watch movies."

16. How are you and your mom different?

"Um...(long pause)...she plays Astropop and I play Civilization III on the computer."

17. How do you know your mom loves you?

"She does really nice things for me."

Rave review

I tried out a new pancake recipe this morning that I got out of the Amish cookbook I bought during our stay in Ohio. William typically praises things by saying, "That wasn't too bad." or "I sort of liked it." He's all about playing his cards close to his vest, that one. But these pancakes got the following rave reviews:

"These taste like unleavened!"--Uncle Larry's unleavened pancakes that we ate while staying with them for the DUB a couple years ago have been William's standard for pancake excellence ever since.

"If the Days of Unleavened Bread were called the Days of Leavened Bread, I would have the best time of my life eating these pancakes every day!"

"If this was all the food we had in the house, I would still eat these!"--hmm...I'm sure this made sense to him?

"What if the Days of Unleavened Bread were called the Days of Pancakes! Then we could just eat pancakes every day--Amish pancakes!"

So...I guess he liked them. Amish pancakes may replace unleavened ones as the pinnacle of pancake success.

My current earworm.

I have no idea why guava jelly would be rubbed on a belly, but ukeleles make me happy.

Week in review

Sunday
-William and Jarek's first soccer game of the season. They lost. That extends their losing streak to nine since they lost every game in their basketball season. They've now had plenty of practice keeping a good attitude while losing. I hope they get to practice good attitudes when winning sometime.

Monday
-Made an appointment for William to take a free trial gymnastics class at the only local-ish gym I could find that offered boys' classes. The last time he took gymnastics, he got caught in a traffic jam on the balance beam, and in his boredom decided it would be good to pinch the bottom of the little, leotard-clad girl in front of him. He was only three at the time, but still...I'm taking no chances. A boys' class it is. Assuming I like the place. And can afford it.

Tuesday
-I can't remember Tuesday, so it must not have been important.

Wednesday
-Ran at a track with JB, Crystal, Jarek and William. The adults did most of the running, while the boys chased each other through the bleachers. I ran my fastest mile since college, and Jonathan almost made himself puke. Good times.

Thursday
-First real soccer practice for the boys' team--which is the two of them plus four little girls. Their coach is really good. There was no pinching.

Friday
-William enthusiasticlly informed me: "Mom! I know why I don't think of space ships or Star Wars when I sing the Star Wars music! It's because I CAN'T THINK when I'm singing!!" I love his Eureka! moments.
-William complained at dinner that I hadn't cut his hamburger into "steak fingers." Jarek then offered to do it for him, to which William replied, "You're the best friend ever."

Saturday
-We actually left home early for a change, but William informed me in the middle of the downtown Austin traffic jam that he thought he was going to throw up. So we ended up turning around and coming straight back home.
-He started crying on the way home, and I thought it was because he was going to be sick, but he informed me he was crying "because we have to miss church." After I told him that we didn't want to get our friends sick, he said, "Yeah. I don't want to give Indiana a puking disease. He always gets these." Preserving the integrity of Indy's digestive tract seemed to comfort him somewhat about missing church.
-He fell asleep about 2 minutes after that conversation and slept all the way home.
-He's still sleeping.
-I hope he feels better soon.

The Story About the Butterflies

by William

We ordered some caterpillars. There were six of them, and they were half an inch to an inch long. They came in a tiny container with yucky stuff on the bottom, paper on the top and pictures of butterflies on the lid. We had a butterfly house as well. They grew bigger in the container because they ate a lot of the yucky looking stuff. It was a week before they started spinning cocoons. When they became cocoons, we had to drive somewhere in a car for about five hours. One of the cocoons was vibrating while we were driving up there, but it didn't hatch while we were driving up there. We stayed at the place where we were going for three days. The cocoons hatched on the second day and we released them all on the fourth day.

5/2

It seems that I have more than two, but not quite three, audiences. And at least 3/5 of the 5/2 of my readers are not privy to the conversations I have with Crystal.

Perhaps math is my other not strongest asset?

So, William set a new PR for the mile today--8:37. Now I owe him new shoes. He's been asking for new ones for a couple of weeks now, but stingy mommy that I am, I haven't given in. First of all, I just bought these shoes at the Feast. Second, they still fit. Third, the only thing wrong with them is the shoelaces are shredded, and shoelaces are way less expensive than shoes. But I haven't gotten him shoelaces either, just because I'm lazy, and they don't sell them at HEB so I'd have to go to Wal-mart, and that place is dangerous. I went in for an adapter last week and came out with a bunch of clothes. Not sure how that happened, really.

So, William had gotten in the habit of cruising through his mile at 10:15 or so. One of the main lessons I want to teach him with running is to push himself. He has a tendency to cruise through life in general. So last weekend I told him he could have new shoes if he broke 9 minutes. That was not sufficient motivation for him to do it yesterday, but today Jarek was at the park too. I told William he could have an extra 15 minutes of play time with Jarek if he broke 9 minutes and 8:37 was the result. Now I'm wishing I could take back the shoe promise, or exchange it for a sleepover or something, anything, cheaper than a pair of shoes that he will outgrow before they wear out. I'll know better next time.

Speaking of wearing out. It's past my bedtime.

Goodnight Crystal, Genna (that just doesn't sound right...can I just call you VA?), Stacy, Annette and Ryan. :)

Woah...dude....

I'm not a very good blogger anymore. I have ideas for posts, but then I just tell them to Crystal, and since she's at least 1/2 of my audience, it doesn't seem worth the typing to post them as well.

But I have to correct the last post. William's new PR for the mile is 9:11. That happened weeks ago. Somewhere in there I got used to his running the mile well, and forgot to be excited about it. He's hit a plateau now though. Which is just as well, because if he continued to shave time off at the same pace he'd be finishing before he starts by summer.

Actually, I'm not sure I was ever a very good blogger. I'm also a bad email-er and letter writer-er. And not very good at phone calls. Apparently communication is not my strongest asset.

Hmm.

10:08

That's how fast my boy ran a mile today. I was impressed. So was he. I said, "You're gonna break 10 minutes." He very solemnly replied, "Yes. Soon." Imagine how fast he could be if he ran in a straight line and with conventional running form instead of wobbling his head and waving his arms. : )

The Trojan Horse

Retold by William

This story is about the Trojans and the Greeks fighting each other because one of the Trojans stole the queen of Sparta--Helen. The Greek commanders had already said that they would protect Helen, and that's what started the war. They couldn't defeat the Trojans and they couldn't get into Troy, so Odysseus decided to sneak into the city of Troy and talk to Helen so she could tell him everything about the city. Then he went back to the Greek camp and told the Greek commanders his plan, and the Greek commanders agreed. So Odysseus took a shipbuilder and another guy with an axe, and they went into the forest and cut down fifty pine trees. With some of the pine trees they built a big wall because they didn't want the Trojans to see them building a wooden horse. That night all of the Greeks took down the wall, packed up and went to a nearby island, but Odysseus and 30 men went inside the horse. At morning the Trojans saw the horse, came to it and pulled it into the city because one of the Greeks dressed up as a beggar said that no one could conquer the city if they got it in. Just then one of the Trojans said, "No! It's a trick!" but no one listened. That night, Odysseus and the other Greeks that were with him got out of the horse and captured the city.

Egypt

by William

Egyptians buried their kings in pyramids and secret chambers so people couldn't steal anything they put in there. They buried treasure with their kings because they thought they had second lives and their spirits could use that treasure in their second lives. They wrapped them up in bandages. The Egyptian's god was the sun--they thought his chariot was the sun. They fished and hunted ducks in the Nile River. They also made canals to water their plants. The Nile River has crocodiles in it. The Egyptians had the Israelites for slaves for a while. The Egyptians wrote in pictures.

(From Sonlight LA 1. Have your child describe the land of Egypt in eight to ten well-formed sentences.)

The Hoary Head

William and I were walking this morning. I put my shoes on without socks and got a blister as a result, then we had this conversation:

Me: I should have listened to my dad.
William: Why?
Me: He always told us to always wear socks or you'll get blisters. That's one thing I've learned about Papa--he's pretty much always right.
William: Yeah. 'Cause he's old. When you live a long time you learn a lot.

Using my words

Sometimes having your kids quote you can be embarrassing. Tonight, William cracked me up. He's a little monkey, and everything's a jungle gym. Just ask the people who've seen him calmly playing on top of the bookshelves. But I've been really working with him to not climb/stand/bounce/insert verb here on the furniture. So tonight when he was hanging upside down over one arm of the couch, all I had to say was:

Me: William...
William: Stop abusing the furniture? Ok.

Followed by a little somersault off the couch.

How to Play "Guess Who"

by William

This is how you play Guess Who. There are cards of different people with their names under them. You pick one, and you have a big board with all the people on it. There's two boards, one for each person. They ask you a question like "Does your guy have white hair?" and if you say "No," they flip down all the guys on their board that have white hair. And then you ask a question like "Does your guy have a moustache?" and if they say "Yes." you flip down everyone else besides the guys that have moustaches. If the other team guy decides that he thinks he's found your one and he says, "Is your guy Chris?" and if you say "No." they flip down Chris. And if you say, "Is your guy Bill?" and if they say, "Yes." you win.

(Homeschool writing assignment. Have your child explain how to play his favorite game in no more than eight sentences.)

The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon

by William

"The Tower Treasure" is about detectives. The detectives names are Frank and Joe Hardy. And they're trying to arrest someone who stole the jewels from the tower and who also stole Chet's car. They tried to explore places to try to find the car. The person who stole the car stole the car before the jewels from the tower. The person who stole the treasure and the car was Red Jackley. He always wore red wigs. They found the car and the jewels.

(William's first book summary. The assignment was to condense a book into eight sentences, which was harder than it sounded!)

Eureka!

On our walk today:

William: Mom, you can't walk backwards and forwards at the same time.
Me: Nope. Sure can't.
William: I just discovered that. I'm trying to walk backwards and forwards at the same time, but it takes two legs to go one direction.

Run, Forrest, run!

William ran a mile today. He's run/walked a mile before with me, but this is the first time I've turned him loose at a track to pace himself and get himself through a mile. He didn't exactly make it--started too fast and got discouraged after finishing the first 1 1/2 laps. Of course he started out at an 8 min/mile pace, which is a bit ambitious for his first time. :) So he walked a bit and got a pep talk from me, and ended up finishing in 12:23.

He's actually beginning to take an interest in sports lately. He did a basketball clinic on Sunday with a former Spurs' player, and, while he didn't exactly stun anyone with his skills, he stuck with it all the way through. And he tried ice skating for the first time on Saturday night. Firsts are a big deal for him. He doesn't like trying new stuff, so I'm very "well pleased" that he's giving all these new things a shot. Now if I can just get him to try some vegetables.

Another recollection

by William

Last night I had a boys' night at Chuck E. Cheese's. I did what I was supposed to do--not get upset at my uncle who was taking me. When I was done playing all the games that I played, I had thirty tickets. I made a reciept out of them, and bought three lizards. And then my aunt gave me a receipt that had thirty tickets in it, and I was able to buy three more lizards. I didn't know that there was any lizards there until someone said, "I want three toy lizards." I couldn't find Jarek, so I had to climb up the big playground in there. But then I came down and saw that he was playing a game where he was supposed to be exploding airplanes.

Three couplets

by William


There was a person who had a pet dog,
And there was a lizard in a bog.

There was a pig
And someone said, "He's big."

Dr. Doolittle likes to talk
And take a walk.

(This is William's first foray into poetry. Once he found a formula that worked, I had a hard time trying to get him to mix it up a bit. He wanted to keep starting them all with "There was a person who had a pet..." I guess I've been reading him too many limericks. :) )

The Caldwell Zoo

by William

We went to the Caldwell Zoo. First we checked out birds. There were a few parrots and flamingos and ducks. Then we saw a baby rhino. We saw wildebeests, warthogs, elephants, antelope and zebra too. We saw turtles when we were coming into the reptile house. We saw a cool kind of skink that I like--broadhead skink. And also there were horned lizards, newts and a gila monster. The Caldwell Zoo is cool.

The End

An Unusual Pet by William

If I had a weird pet, it would be a monitor lizard. I would feed it what it likes to eat, and I would walk it every day. I'd keep it in my backyard so it could climb up trees, if it liked that, and swim, if it liked that. I would name it what it acted like. I kind of think a good name would be Sabotage because they like ambushing, and a sabotage is an ambush. If I ever bought a cat, I'd let the monitor chase the cat. To bring the monitor inside, I would fill its bowl up with the fresh food that it liked. I'd bring it to my zoo when I went to work. I would make sure that it didn't get out of its cage and into the building because that would scare someone. If it got out of its cage inside the building, I'd put the monitor inside the place where I keep the other monitors.

The End

(This was a school assignment dictated to me. The prompt was: "Suppose you owned an unusual pet. What would it be? What would you do with it?")