Diffused Illumination

This morning's breakfast was quite an interesting event.

Kieran: Ooh! Can I do my homework early for today?

(They have weekly assignment sheets, he saw that tonight's was about math including identifying the higher number in different sets.)

Me: Um, sure, as long as you finish your breakfast first.

Kieran: Ok!

Some time passes, and I notice Kieran's *really* studying his United States placemat as he eats.

Me: What are you looking at, sweetheart?

Kieran: Look at these tornadoes! (old crayon scribbles)

Me: That's some creative thinking!

Kieran: No, these are REAL tornadoes.

Me: Ok, we can say that they're real on your map.

Kieran: They start in Western Canada, then go to Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. There are some in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island & Connecticut too. There's one in Pennsylvania, but not in New Jersey. Oh wait, there's one in New Jersey. I think there's one.. yeah in Maryland, and 1 in Virginia too. Oh yeah, North Carolina too. There aren't ANY tornadoes in South Carolina, Georgia or Florida though.

Us: *uh*

Kieran's school is having a book sale, where the kids come in by class & during recess/after school to browse the various offerings then either write down the titles they're interested in and place orders or buy on the spot if they have the cash.

Any guesses what Kieran's only request was for?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Definitely not yet!

However, I've been mulling over having this Christmas be Kieran's first of a family tradition of hardcover series collections as presents. My aunt started me on one when I was around his age of black & tan hardcovers from various authors that I still have and read with Kieran. I still remember the anticipation of knowing another 'real' book was on the way for my birthday and Christmas, and still think of hardcovers in this way. Paperbacks are the fast food of literati.

The same aunt just agreed to buy the entire A Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snicket) collection (13) at once to stagger for Kieran's presents over the next few years.

I am so excited I can hardly stand it! This will be immense fun to read both out loud as a family and for him solo. Kieran will read anything with pages in it, but we'll slow down and discuss these to build up his vocabulary and comprehension as well as talk about the darker side of the subject matter. We already have interesting conversations about death (over breakfast, even) and why people do bad things so this will tie in nicely.

( Labor Day with no rain?! )
It's very strange to have Labor Day again be associated with the wistful sadness of the end of summer and the beginning of a new school year. With the timing of college classes either starting before or way after the holiday, this taps into my own K-12 memories and I used to get extremely nervous. I remember little about kindergarten except reenacting Star Wars on the playground, hermit crabs, someone barfing during the Pledge of Allegiance, the day I tied my shoes by myself, and wondering why they had huge pictures in addition to words on a test. I wonder what will stand out for Kieran.


* circa 1999 WTO riots, the one near the bus tunnel was spray painted with this & Meat is Murder. We've converted others across the country to our terminology.