Moral update

Cal quietly explained this evening that he "paid Tim back" by making up a song: "Tim and Tom sitting in the tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g."

AND Tim hadn't told on him to the teacher!

Moral dilema

This morning Callum started writing a poem - "Timothy and Scarlett sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g", again and again. When quizzed about it it turned out the kids in his class had been teasing Cal in this way about playing witrh Scarlett - with Tim the lead-teaser. So Cal's plan was to write this out and give it to Tim.

The problem arose when I pointed out Scarlett might not be any happier than Cal with the teasing, and would feel bad if it looked like Cal was teasing her too. He the wrote a note on the poem "Please don't show Scarlett."

I pointed out that Timothy was unlikely not to show Scarlett in the circumstances. Cal sat and stared at the peom for a minute then got up, tore it in half and stuck it in the bin.

(We've now had a chat about another approach down the ignoring it lines.)

Spelling

Declan can now read most short words, if he concentrates and sounds them out first. He's gradually increasing his repetoire of sight words too (cat and dog came first, but it's getting bigger).

But he is becoming a demon speller. He loves to play hangman, and explained to me the other night that he had to correct one of his classmates. "She thought that you spelt milk m-i-k, but I told her that it's m-i-l-k." If you ask him to spell a reasonably phonetic shortish word, he will almost always get it right. It is still surprising to me that he finds reading so difficult, given how well he spells.

Inventions

Callum and Declan have recently gone crazy with thinking up inventions. This morning, when I came downstairs, Callum explained his latest idea in great detail.

"My next invention is going to be a better way to come downstairs. It's going to be a special button that you press, and my mattress will automatically go downstairs using pulleys and wires. It'll be a green button to go down and a red one to go up."

I asked him whether we would need a hole in the ceiling. He agreed, but thought that all the visitors to the house would be much happier, because they wouldn't have to go up and downstairs all the time.

Favoured phrases

Declan
"D'you know what?" (used constantly)
"Can I have Neutralgrain for breakfast."
"Easy peasy." (used when asnwering any question to give him time to think of the actual answer)

Callum
"Well, well, well." (used when seeing someone - eg "Well, well, well... Evan" when I meet him after school.)
"Hmmmm." (accompanied by tilted head, finger on cheek and impish smile when thinking of an idea which he knows will fall into the rascal category)

Sleepover

Declan is very taken with Isabel, in a hero-worshipping way, so tonight he asked her if she would like to sleep over at our house.

Declan and Isabel, spent a good hour after I had turned their lights off (already very late) making up silly stories about their toy animals that they had taken to bed with them. Callum occasionally contributeda bit of extra silliness.

Toontown

One of the children in Callum's class introduced him to Toontown at the beginning of this year, which is an online game for 4 year olds and up. It's lately had a resurgence, as Callum and his friend Scarlett have worked out how to find each other online. I came home on Friday night to find Callum and Declan very excitedly shouting away, with Scarlett yelling encouragement on the phone which was set to speakerphone.

Tonight, Isabel and Griffin came over for dinner and Callum and Declan helped them to create their own characters so that they could enjoy the fun.

Grooving

Today we went to the Powerhouse museum, and checked out the special effects exhibition again. It's got one exhibit where you can make your own rock video, to a choice of music, with fake microphones and guitars provided as props.

Declan took to the microphone like a born lead singer, crooning into it in time with the music. He was particularly effective in It's a Long Way to the Top, which probably doesn't bode well for our popularity with the neighbours in 10 years time.

Public transport king

Callum has decided that when he grows up he is going to either be the Mayor of Sydney, or the Premier of NSW. Reason? After his visit to the Museum of Sydney, he's decided that Sydney would be much better off if we brought back the trams. And he will be just the person to do it!

He also might expand the train network, but the trams are definitely first priority.

Where is the Green Sheep?

I took Declan to see a show of Where is the Green Sheep? at the Opera House today. He seemed to enjoy it, joining in with the actions, and periodic asking "where is that green sheep?" that the actors asked the audience to do.

At one point, ("this is the band sheep") the actors asked the audience to dance. Declan went all shy and started doing a very subtle rhythmic shuffle of his feet (in contrast to pretty much every other audience member, including Claire, who was grooving away very enthusiastically).

I found it quite interesting, as normally he is a very enthusiastic dancer (albeit perhaps in a Peter Garrett style).

But he did have a very good time, also persuading Claire and Zoe (and Callum who had been to the Museum of Sydney with Evan) to chase seagulls with him while we sat down and had a coffee afterwards.

Collage

Declan has suddenly become very into collages. This week he has made one at kindy, one with me, and one with his Granny. He insists that whoever he is doing it with makes a collage as well, but it's a bit scary as he is a very harsh artistic critic.

While on his own collage, he's quite happy to have fairly abstract shapes that mean something (three furry balls representing a soccer player, for example), his collage-mates must make pictures that are clearly recogniseable to the casual viewer. It's all quite stressful for this artistically-challenged parent.

Auteur

Callum has been very taken with the movies Spy Kids and Spy Kids 2, and has decided that we should make one of our own - Spy Kids 10. He is the hero, and the story will be that he rescues his little brother, (offscreen for all the action, as Declan doesn't want to be in the movie).

He's been wandering around for the last few days thinking up stunts and how we could put them in the movie (making himself invisible with his blankie, using the stairs as a green screen, instead of the usual blue screen, that kind of thing).

He's decided that if we charge $30 per copy, then we will become very rich when everyone in the world buys it. I tried to convince him that people might not be willing to pay that much, but he's pretty convinced that a movie that he directs will be in hot demand.

Cal makes breakfast

I came down this morning and found Callum had made breakfast for himself and Declan. He did an excellent job, only spilling something at the end when the big, three litre milk bottle became too much from him when pouring a drink for Dec.

Claire's 4th Birthday

We went to Claire's birthday party yesterday. There was a bit of gender divide, although that may have been driven by age with Declan following Callum and Aidan. The boys bounced and bounced and bounced on the bouncy castle. They took an occasional break and then bounced again.

Highlights: bouncing and the yummiest cake.

Making faces

As they were going to bed tonight, Callum and Declan decided to play a game - making faces. Callum laid down the rules - make the funniest faces you can, and the first person to laugh loses.

After a minute or so, Callum started laughing, and I told him that he had lost. "I wasn't laughing at Declan, I was laughing at my own face!" After some inconclusive discussion, the game ended without either side claiming victory.

From the spectators point of view, Callum's faces were the funniest, but that was mostly because he wasn't wearing any clothes at the time, and he contorted his limbs in an attempt at extreme humour.