2014-12-23: Bath Time Activities

Today's bath time activities: Dad making up a story about characters from the Monkeyball games, and watching and racing water droplets down the inside of the tub.

2014: Razzleberry from the Tropics

A song, by Nigel, inspired by the jar of Tropical Razzleberry Preserves in the refrigerator:
Razzleberry from the tropics
Razzleberry preserves
Razzleberry from the tropics
Razzleberry preserves

[...]

(Editor's note: See Nigel or Dad to hear it properly. Simplistic notation follows.
Notes:
FFFFGGFD
BbBbBbBbGBb

Beat:
....--..
....-.

)

2014-12-16: Don't Squeeze the Pigs

Nigel cares a great deal about animals and really wants them to be treated well. He generally avoids eating meat partly out of concern for animals, though it is also partly a taste preference, as he eats ham and deli meats occasionally. He wants to have a farm with cows and chickens and pigs, but does not want the pigs to be squeezed to death for their bacon, an idea which must have come from a combination of the video game Hay Day, in which pigs get squeezed in some sort of steam sauna to harvest bacon (but are uninjured in the process), and having been told that in real life, pigs are killed by what he calls the "baconating" process.

2014-12-15: Letter Intersection Points

In place of Midnight Math the past few days, Dad and Nigel have been discussing the formation of letters. Handwriting has been among the most difficult aspects of school for Nigel, and Dad wanted to help by talking through the formation of the letters. Getting the proportions right and beginning from the traditional places have been the most challenging for him. In the past, some of Mom and Dad's approaches to teaching handwriting have met with resistance and frustration from Nigel. This one seems to be going over quite well, though.

Dad has been drawing three lines across a white board: solid for the top and bottom, and dashed down the middle. He and Nigel decided to call the lines "top", "bottom" and "road". Next, Dad slowly draws a letter, saying the name of each line anytime the letter touches it. For an uppercase 'A', that sounds like, "Top, road, bottom; top, road, bottom; road," for the left vertical line, right vertical line and the horizontal connector, respectively. This has given each portion of the formation of the letter very specific targets to reach and has immediately produced correct vertical proportions for all letters yet covered (A-F). Lacking horizontal targets, Nigel's 'C's were initially very skinny, as were the horizontal components of his 'E's and 'F's. A few times through with each has helped, though having more specific targets for those lines would help even more.

After writing each, to help commit each to memory, Dad asks Nigel to close his eyes and tell how to make each letter by saying those same words out loud.

2014-12-15: Nigel Objects to Child Labor Laws

On the way to school, Nigel asked Dad about kids working at jobs. Dad told him a bit about child labor laws and happened to mention that some countries don't have laws preventing children from working. Nigel was disappointed to hear that he couldn't get a job, and said he would like to work at a hotel in a country where they allow kids to have jobs, and work at a time when Mom and Dad are coming to stay. He also said that he would really like to work at the Grand America hotel and have Mom and Dad come to live there while he was working.

Also from this morning's conversation, Nigel would like to live in a mansion.

2014-12-14: Christmas Tree Cookies

Dad has brought to the family a tradition of putting gingerbread cookies on the Christmas tree as ornaments. Mom has embraced this idea as an addition to the other decorations she likes to use. Nigel particularly enjoys this tradition as he sneaks bites from the cookies throughout the season, paying no attention to the age of the cookies. By this point, the only cookies remaining are those hung too high for him to reach, and on the occasion a chair or ladder happens to be near the tree, even those are not safe.

2014-12-13: Lucia 2014

The family celebrated Lucia again this year, making Luciakatten (saffron bread shaped like curled cat's tails, with raisins) under Mom's direction. This year, Nigel added a special creation: a Lucia snail. When the cats were finished baking, they ate them with dinner, by candlelight. Mom made fried rice and Dad provided some sparkling black currant juice to drink. Afterward, Nigel said, "Outstanding dinner! Outstanding juice, Dad!"

2014-12-08: Snowman Hair

Nigel has been doing a lot of art projects this year under the direction of his new teacher, Miss Milly (whom we all adore). Today's was a snowman, made from something like thickened shaving cream. He gave it hair "like Dad's". (Dad has been letting his hair grow out longer lately, and allowing its curls to run wild. The snowman's hair really was similar.)

2014-12-07: Go Fish War

Nigel invented a new game for Midnight Math tonight: Go Fish War. He really likes playing War, and he and Dad have now come up with a few variations of it to keep things interesting. Sometimes they play two-card war in which the cards are added together for comparison, with the largest value winning, and other times they do two-card subtraction, in which the smallest value wins. (In subtraction-style, if Nigel is feeling disadvantaged, he will sometimes subtract the larger number from the smallest and use the negative result to ensure a victory.)

In Go Fish War, the cards are divided between the players, who then take turns asking if their opponent has any of a given number. With only two players, and all cards having been dealt, that is easy to anticipate. Upon taking the cards from the other player and making a complete set of that number, the player then lays that set down and adds up the total from the four cards. The opponent then lays down one of their card sets and adds up their total, with the larger amount taking both sets. Nigel and Dad played with sets of 2s through 9s.

Tonight, this ended up being a complete rout of Dad, taking Nigel only two rounds through Dad's hand to empty it. Then, the real math work began. Nigel wanted to add up all the points he had collected. Dad had been wanting to do some work with an abacus and figured this was his excuse to do so.

He asked Nigel if he wanted to use the abacus to count up the points. Nigel said yes, and as he seemed to have an idea in his head about how to do that, Dad just let him proceed on his own. After a minute or so of flipping beads around and starting to seem frustrated, Dad asked if Nigel wanted a suggestion. Given that approval, Dad rotated the abacus around so that counting a bead involved sliding it from the bottom to the top, rather than from side to side. Next, Dad reminded Nigel to use each bead column as a 10s place value, and they reiterated what values each place would be. Then he demonstrated abacus addition starting with the 9s (adding a 10s bead and taking away a 1s bead). After demonstrating that technique, Nigel added the four 9s, and they counted up how many points he had so far. They repeated this with 8s and 7s, and encountered the situation in which there are not enough 1s beads to continue taking away. At this point, Dad demonstrated that there would be enough 1s beads to add the number of 1s beads back in, then let Nigel continue.

At 6s, Dad let Nigel figure out how to add 6 by himself, and Nigel performed the remaining tasks by himself, with the exception of Dad clarifying what to do when Nigel reached ten 10s. 176 was his final answer.

2014-12-04: 1st New Tooth

Nigel has his first secondary tooth coming in! On the bottom row, it is the first tooth left of center. It is coming in behind his primary tooth, and he was wondering what it was in the car on the way to school. He asked Dad if it could be a new tooth, and when they arrived, sure enough, there it was, peeking right out through his gum. He was excited to see it in the mirror that night.

Due to the way it is growing in, Mom is saying Nigel is a shark, as he will have a second row of teeth. Dad and Nigel have their regular dentist appointments scheduled for the end of January and will have the dentist look at the tooth then.

2014-12-03: McRib Cafe

On the way home from dinner tonight, feeling a bit lippy, Nigel said he wanted to start a cafe with Dad. He proposed letting people choose their own main courses, but him choosing their side dishes for them. For Mom, who said she would choose either prime rib or linguini with shrimp for her main course, he said he would serve a McRib as her side dish. (See: http://www.mansfieldpark.org/2014/11/2014-11-27-thanksgiving-also-mcrib.html for background on the McRib as a family joke. Nigel has spent considerable time trying to get Mom to eat one.)

When Mom complained about a McRib not sounding like a side dish, Nigel said, "I think anything can be a side dish. Maybe a piece of wood would serve you right, or possibly a street light." He also insisted people would need to eat all of their side dish before they would get their main course.

2014-12-02: Color Wheel and Abacus

Dad got a color wheel recently, and he and Nigel have been learning about colors the past two nights. They have discussed primary, secondary and tertiary colors, and how to mix colors to create the secondary and tertiary colors.

Tonight, for Midnight Math, Nigel picked to do a Bedtime Math problem, and when he was stymied by adding larger quantities together, he had the idea to get out the abacus to help. Nigel spent a few minutes fiddling around with the abacus, having had little or no instruction on how to use it, mainly trying to use all the rows of beads as having a place value of one and just continuing to count them. A good idea, but he got tripped up performing all the manipulations and started over a couple of times. Seeming to be a bit frustrated, he then decided he would just do the addition in his head instead, one column at a time, and came to the correct answer that way.

Afterward, Dad asked if he wanted to see how to sue an abacus to solve a problem like this. Nigel did, and they turned the abacus sideways and Dad demonstrated how each column of beads could be used to represent a base-10 place value. They counted out what place value each column would represent, discovering that this abacus had a billions column! Then Dad walked through two addition problems using the abacus, one with and the other without carrying. Nigel caught on quickly.

2014-11-30: When Dad Goes to the Movies

Nigel's friend from next door, Tyson, is a huge fan of Godzilla. It really seems to be his primary interest right now. He typically brings a Godzilla toy over when he comes to play, and recently went to see a new Godzilla movie in a theater. He and Nigel were talking, and Nigel mentioned that when his dad goes to the movies, he doesn't see Godzilla. He said Dad mostly sees Star Wars or the opera.
(Editor's note: Given how rarely Mom and Dad watch movies these days, that isn't an inaccurate representation. Mom and Dad recently went to Utah Opera's performance of Madame Butterfly, and Star Wars: A New Hope was possibly the only movie they watched in all of November.)

2014-11-30: Dad's Angry Glasses

Nigel told Dad this morning that when he was younger, he thought Dad looked kind of scary when wearing his glasses. He said he no longer thinks that.

2014-11-27: Thanksgiving (Also, McRib)

Mom worked Thanksgiving afternoon/evening this year, so she was not able to go to Grammy's with Dad and Nigel. Aunt Blaire and Uncle Brandon came, as did Cyruss and Trinidee. Nigel took some of his birthday presents up, along with some cars and a helicopter.

Nigel built a good chunk of the 3D globe puzzle he got as a present, in between trips to watch the game of Egyptian Rat Screw most of the others were playing; he had a big pillow fight with Cyruss and demonstrated real resolve and toughness in the face of a serious pelting from his much older cousin that had him briefly crying tears of frustration; and he played a few games of Spoons with the group, sometimes on a team with Dad but other times on his own.

On the way home, Nigel interrupted the Jack Prelutsky CD to which they were listening to ask how much money Dad thought it cost McDonald's to have workers put up all those McRib signs (advertisements). Dad thought thousands per sign. Nigel said he thought it cost 8 million, 4 thousand, 12 hundred and 39 dollars for all of them. Nigel then said he wants to go to McDonald's with Dad, order a kid's meal for himself and whatever Dad wanted for himself, along with a McRib for take-home to give to Mom.

Mom despises the McRib sandwich McDonald's sells at the end of each year and always makes a huge deal out of her displeasure with its re-emergence. This year's melodrama has been particularly entertaining; Nigel and Dad (this year almost entirely Nigel) teasing Mom, and Mom playing her loathing to new heights. Nigel has a plan to get a McRib and give it to Mom, and he and Dad have wondered several times what would happen if they were actually to go through with it. The whole thing is quite entertaining to everyone in the family.

2014-11-26 to 28: Dog-Sitting Gus-Gus

Aunt MaryAnne called Dad earlier this week to see if the family would dog-sit Gus-Gus over the holiday. Dad didn't mention it to Nigel until driving home to see Gus to keep it a surprise. Nigel was very excited about every aspect of the experience. He wanted to use Shadie's food and water dishes for Gus' food and water, and filled both of them. He also couldn't wait to take Gus out for a daily walk around the neighborhood.

The loop around the neighborhood was just about the right length for both Nigel and Gus. Nigel was jumping around and cheering when first taking Gus out, and didn't want to wait for Dad to finish getting ready to go. They met several other dogs while out and about, including a group of four dogs that came across the street from one house.

A notable quote from Nigel, approaching and going over a large crack in the sidewalk:
"Here comes Gus, walking at 500 miles per hour. Can he make it over the jump? He makes it! Now he is running at 50 miles per hour!"

2014-11-11: Perchance

Nigel's latest unusual word: perchance, as in "Perchance, could they...," asking about the toys in the imaginative game he and next door neighbor Tyson were playing.

2014-11-09: Bottle Caps Taste Like Cuts

Nigel was sucking on a bottle cap this afternoon following lunch out at one of his favorite restaurants, Noodles & Co. After a while, he remarked that it tasked like when he sucks on a cut (wound). In particular, he said only a large cut tastes that way, not a small cut. Dad though that was because both the bottle cap and the blood in a large cut contain iron as a primary ingredient, and that iron has a distinct taste. They then talked about the role red blood cells play, with Nigel lecturing Dad on how white blood cells and the rest of the body need the red blood cells to be able to move.

2014-11-09: Pop-up Barn

Dad arranged a craft project today: cutting out and pasting farm animals in a barn, printed on paper. Nigel had the idea to make his a pop-up barn, with the animals sliding out. It was really very clever, and though Dad wasn't sure how that would work, Nigel certainly pulled it off. The page with the barn printed on it was glued to a second piece of paper, which served as backing. Before gluing, though, the barn doors were cut to open up, and glue was only applied around the edges of the barn, so the doors' operation was unaffected. Then, Nigel cut out his animal pictures, and instead of gluing them in-place, he just slid them between the two sheets of paper, so he could slide them back out to provide the pop-up effect. It ended up wonderful!

2014-11-03: When I Grow Up...

When he grows up, Nigel wants to be:
A scientist (his idea of this is essentially an alchemist, as he just wants to make potions)
A sumo wrestler (Nigel is fascinated with sumos lately)
A cop (which he got to be when playing the board game Life with Dad the next Sunday)
A spy
A ninja
A samurai (but with armor made out of titanium, not just wood)

2014-10-31: Halloween

Nigel's costume this year: a famous flying hot dog! (Or a fearless flying hot dog, depending.) Mom sewed the hot dog, Nigel added pink wings to the back, and Dad contributed some aviator's goggles. It was awesome.

The idea came from a Jack Prelutsky poem and song, We're Fearless Flying Hot Dogs, which Nigel and Dad have laughed at for months now: "... the delicate essence of flight." :)

2014-10-30: I'm Doing It

A quote from Nigel this evening:
I'm going to finish my goal. I'm doing it, by golly, I'm doing it.

2014-10-30: Smoking Questions

After walking past someone who was smoking a cigarette, Nigel asked Mom how long it would take for someone to be poisoned by the smoke. While discussing the effects of smoking, Nigel observed one benefit he had thought of from smoking, that people who smoke would get to take more breaks to go outside.

2014-10-25: Learning to Tell Time

Nigel and Dad have spent three out of the last four nights learning about telling time for Midnight Math. Nigel is now able to read an analog clock as long as the minute hand is pointing at one of the 5-minute marks. Soon to reinforce the idea of narrowing in on the exact minute.

2014-10-14: More Quaint Sayings

Nigel has picked up a number of quaint sayings. Tonight, it was: "It is easier to get into said pickle than to get out of said pickle."

2014-10-12: Shark and Aging

Nigel has gotten the idea that 100 years of age is the limit for humans. During story time tonight, Nigel told Dad that Shark (the stuffed animal) will exceed his limit, which is 15 million years old, and will live to be 15 million and one! However, he also said that Shark will die the same time he (Nigel) will.

2014-10-12: Cuisinaire Rods Problems for Dad

This evening, while Dad was cooking dinner, Nigel saw the Cuisinaire rods and started giving math problems to Dad. Dad then asked one of Nigel: What is the smallest rod that three of will make more than 10?

Nigel's initial guess was the 5-unit rod, saying, "Two fives make ten, so three fives must be more than ten." Well reasoned, but then Dad reiterated the question and asked if any smaller rod would work. It didn't take Nigel long to try the 4-unit rod, which he then thought was the answer. Dad asked him to check the 3-unit rod, and Nigel quickly established that the answer was definitely the 4-unit rod.

2014-10-05: Heaven or a Haunted House

Nigel's friend Tyson was over to play this afternoon, and someone brought up the idea of what happened when someone dies. Tyson insisted they went to one of two places, which he described similarly to the common representation of "heaven" and "hell". Nigel said they either go to heaven or to the haunted house at Disneyland to be a ghost. Perhaps this idea came from his Aunt Blaire...

2014-09-28: Matching Socks

Dad proposed a problem for Midnight Math tonight that went something like this: I have two colors of socks in my drawers and I want to wear matching socks, but I don't want to take extra time trying to find matches. I want to reach into my drawer, without looking, and pull out enough socks to guarantee I have a matched pair, but no more. What is the fewest number of socks I need to pull out to be certain I will get a match?

They discussed this at length, with Nigel going from two socks to four socks as his guess right at the beginning. After some discussion he settled on three as being his answer. They continued to talk about why that was for a few more minutes.

The next night, Dad asked what would happen if he had three legs and wanted to get a matching triplet of socks. After determining it would take five socks to guarantee a match, Dad started diagramming out the answers they had discovered so far. Nigel saw that it would take seven socks to get a matching quadruple before Dad got to writing that part of the chart, and stumbled a bit on adding twos to the odd numbers (wanting to switch to counting even numbers by twos), but was able to see the trend quite easily.

2014-09-27: Flow Free

After a group violin lesson, Nigel came to sit with Mom and Dad, who were involved in a Suzuki parents discussion that started at the same time. Seeing Nigel quickly becoming bored, Dad gave him his phone to play with, provided he could be silent with it. Nigel found Flow Free, a puzzle game in which the player attempts to find a way to route a number of different-colored pipes (or flows) between designated endpoints, without crossing the paths of any of the other pipes. He played this for nearly half an hour by himself, then at the conclusion of the class wanted to keep playing while Mom and Dad watched.

He has become quite good at finding the appropriate paths to take, doing more and more complex puzzles, including those introducing the idea of a bridge square, where a pipe can go straight across in one direction and a second pipe can cross the same square but in the perpendicular direction.

2014-09-25: Computer Supervisor

In Nigel's class at school, the kids each take turns with various class assignments, such as being the designated line leader, table wiper, or the ever popular teacher's assistant. Nigel received an interesting assignment this week, as Ms. Janet relayed to Dad when he came to pick him up. He was assigned to be the computer supervisor, on hand to help fix any computer problems the other kids might have. Nigel has been proud of Dad's ability to fix computers, and has been picking up on some of those tips (like restarting the computer). In his supervisory capacity, he made sure the other kids were on the right page during computer time and kept a close watch on things for problems. Ms. Janet said it was very cute.

2014-09-15: Spider Monkey

In gymnastics class tonight, asked what his favorite jungle animal was, Nigel responded, "A spider monkey." That is certainly what he has seemed like lately, rolling around the house doing somersaults, upside down doing headstands, and just generally jumping about. Very fun times.

2014 Summer: Playing Tennis

This has been a summer of tennis for Nigel, having been introduced to the sport by a suggestion from Mom at the beginning of the summer. Dad constructed a tee-ball tee last year, and he and Nigel have played with that a few times, but it was a bit hard for Nigel to make good contact with the ball, and the tee kept getting knocked over and had to be stood back up frequently. Mom had him try hitting tennis balls with a tennis racket, and Nigel found that to be much easier, hitting them very consistently.

Everyone had so much fun taking turns hitting tennis balls in the yard that Dad decided to start taking Nigel to a court to play on Sundays. They did this most Sundays through the summer, often taking Aunt Blaire with them. She would play opposite Dad, with Nigel in front of her. They modified the rules so that kids score a point just by hitting the ball, and score double points if they can return the ball over the net (regardless of where it lands). When Nigel would miss the ball, Blaire would often hit it back to Dad and a rally would start. (Dad always started things off by serving toward Nigel, who was standing in the middle of the court.) Sometimes Nigel and Blaire would score multiple points in one rally!

Toward the end of the summer, Grandpa came to play with Dad and Nigel, and Dad switched to Nigel's side of the court to play with him, Grandpa serving to the pair of them.

Another way Dad and Nigel would play was turned sideways on the court, with Dad on the same side of the net as Nigel, bouncing balls to him. Nigel would try to hit them back at Dad, often sending them either up a hill or right at him with "super speed"! They also tried taking turns hitting a ball off a practice wall alongside one of the courts. Nigel really seems to have a very good aptitude for the game, and everyone has been having a lot of fun with it.

2014-08-26: A Picture of Mom (Poor Mom!)

After school, Nigel was telling Mom how in class they had drawn a picture of a living thing and a non-living thing. He mentioned having asked in class whether a lightning bolt is a non-living thing. He also said, "I drew a picture of a person, but it's kind of fat and it's wearing a yellow shirt and it kind of looks like you."

Apparently, Nigel thinks she is kind of fat because when he puts his arms around her bottom, they only just barely touch on the other side, whereas when he puts his arms around Dad, he can easily clasp his hands on the other side. Mom and Dad are quite convinced he means no offense with this comment, and of course everyone loves Mom very much and considers her to be beautiful.

2014-08-24: Odd and Even

Today, Nigel and Dad discussed odd and even numbers during lunch.

2014-08-23: Pool Party with Dad's Family

The family went out to spend the afternoon with the Blacks today for swimming and playing, along with Grandpa and Grandma M. The Blacks have a pool in their complex, and have gone swimming nearly every day through the summer. KariAnn learned to swim the length of the pool and back underwater. Haley also learned to swim its length underwater. Uncle Kerry even said he went back and forth twice one time.

This time, only Mom, Dad and all the kids swam, aside from Chloe. Dad brought snorkels, and everyone had fun trying those out. Grandpa tossed balls back and forth with his grandkids, and the adults mostly talked. All the kids have really enjoyed swimming this summer.

2014-08-18: Gymnastics and Rolls

Nigel has been taking gymnastics classes again this summer, in a much more playful environment than the last time he tried gymnastics. The summer has really turned out some good results, too, as tonight in class he initiated (and completed) backward rolls (somersaults) and multiple consecutive forward rolls that looked really fluid and easy. He was doing rolls over a bar, as well, and was really enjoying all of it.

2014-08-12: Stinky Mint

Nigel, holding onto Mom at bedtime tonight, is told he needs to let her go so she can go take a shower, because she is stinky from exercising. He smells her hair and says she smells good.

Mom: "Smell my armpits."
Nigel does so and tells her she smells like mint.
Mom: "That isn't bad."
Nigel: "It is to me."

Nigel does NOT like the smell or taste of mint, likely due to the foul, minty-tasting medicine he was given for acid reflux when he was a baby.

2014-08-04: Talent Show

Nigel decided he wanted to play Song of the Wind at his summer camp's talent show. This was such a wonderful event, with everyone getting fantastic support from the large crowd of parents that attended. Nigel was one of only a few solo performers, with most performances being group efforts. All the acts got huge applause and cheers, and the event was just as positive and as fun as it could be.

2014-08-03: Long Weekend

Mom worked a long weekend to make up for some time off, leaving Nigel and Dad to fend for themselves all weekend.

2014 Summer: Goo-gooey Baa-baas

Nigel's latest saying: "goo-gooey baa-baas". Used to describe someone in the family, as in "Kelly is so goo-gooey baa-baa", or "my goo-gooey baa-baas" (referring usually to Mom). Other times it might be "daddy baa-baa", which might get a "Nigely baa-baa" in return.

2014-07-27: Dividing by 10

Nigel and Dad talked about place values and dividing by 10 tonight during Midnight Math. Dad proposed the question: What is 50,000 divided by 10?, and they talked through what that meant.

2014-07-27: Baby Quail

Nigel says baby quail are as cute as the pigs in Minecraft, which is high praise coming from him, as his eyes usually tear up when talking about those pigs.

2014-07-26: Multiplying and Dividing by 10

Nigel and Dad talked about multiplying and dividing by 10 tonight.

2014-07-14: Dividing 10

Tonight, in Midnight Math, Dad started things off by asking how to use rods to find the center of another rod. He demonstrated this with a 2 rod and two 1 rods. He then asked Nigel to show him how to do the same thing with a 10 rod. Nigel got out a bunch of 1 rods and counted five on each end until they met in the center.

They then talked about averages with temperature and a thermometer, and said that an average is the middle. Dad asked what the middle is. Nigel replied, "The center." Dad asked what the center means, and provided the definition that the middle or center of something is the place where there is the same amount on each side of that place.

Dad next asked how many units to the middle of ten. "Five" was Nigel's answer.

Dad: If we divide 10 into two equal parts, how many will be in each part?

Nigel: Five.

Dad: That is the same as asking what is 10 divided by 2. What is 10 divided into five parts?

Nigel went for the red 2 rods to find out. A great guess.

2014-07-06: Heal Up, Dad!

Dad severely sprained his ankle back in April, and has been going through a very long, slow recovery since. He has, however, signed up to coach Nigel's soccer team again this fall. Nigel told Dad today his ankle needs to be healed in time to coach the first week of the season. Dad said he would do his best to comply.

Editor's notes: Dad wouldn't be able to run again until August, but was able to play soccer again at the very end of August, and was back in action in time to coach Nigel's team right from the start, much to everyone's satisfaction.

2014-06-28: F-16

The family went with Aunt Blaire to an air show at Hill Air Force Base today. Nigel, on seeing (and hearing!) an F-16 jet for the first time: "Count me in for flying one of those some day!"

2014-06-24: Reading Large Numbers

Continuing a recent theme, tonight's Midnight Math was about multiplying by 10 (adding a zero to the end), with some practice reading large numbers, as well.

2014-06-22: Math with Grandpa

Grandpa came over tonight for Midnight Math. Dad pushed to do too much, and it dragged out a bit too long, but Nigel had fun talking about it with Grandpa.

2014-06-19: Chemical X

Nigel has been watching a show called Powerpuff Girls, and mentioned on the way to summer camp this morning that the show said they are made of sugar, spice, everything nice, and something called Chemical X. He decided that Chemical X is what brings them to life, and that their powers come from the everything nice. Dad thought this was quite a sweet idea.

2014-06-16: Dividing by Zero

Nigel asked today, on the drive home from summer camp, about a million and a billion and a trillion and a quadrillion divided by a million, and that sparked a discussion that lasted for most of the drive. Dad told Nigel about the dividing by zero rule (that the answer is undefined), giving the example of trying to divide a group of apples into zero groups.

2014-06-15: Camping in Escalante

Dad wanted to do a camping trip that involved getting out on some water, and Escalante was ultimately chosen. Nigel requested to take the raft this time, rather than the canoe. He and Dad went out on the water for a while, but didn't have the little boats to play with. A group of people were jumping off the dock into the reservoir as Dad and Nigel looked on. Nigel asked if he could just jump out of the raft into the reservoir, and Dad said that since he had a life jacket on, absolutely. Nigel just slipped in over the side of the boat, and he and Dad were in and out of the water a few times over the next little while, playing. The water was a bit cold, but not untolerably so.

Mom and Dad found that Nigel is not fond of hiking these days when hiking the petrified forest trail with him. The way back went well, but the hike up was not very pleasant.

2014-06-08: Swimming with Cooper

The family went swimming with the Davis-Travises today (Leigh, Wes and Cooper). Nigel and Cooper swam for quite a long time, and Dad for a good while, too. There was a diving board at the pool, and Nigel was very interested in the idea of jumping off. After swimming for a bit and discussing the diving board, Nigel walked right up and out to the end of the board, then turned back after looking down. He encouraged Dad to jump off a few times, then was finally convinced to try it.

At first, he said he didn't jump off, just stepped off the end. As soon as he was in the water, though, he swam right back to the side to do it again. Later on, he said he was brave enough to actually jump off the diving board, and demonstrated the difference to everyone as they watched.

2014-05-31: Super War and Estimation

Dad and Nigel have played Super War a couple of times recently as a Midnight Math activity. This is the classic card game War, but with each player turning over a pair of cards each time and adding them together for comparison with the other player's total. Dad usually adds his cards (ex: "Two plus eight equals ten."), and asks Nigel to add his up, then they compare the results, but sometimes estimation is encouraged.

This night, while playing, Nigel said something to the effect of, "I just knew in my brain that if two of our numbers were the same, and the other of my numbers was one more than your other number, then if you had nine, mine would be ten." An excellent and spontaneous use of estimation.

2014-05: Nigel Sayings

Commonly-heard sayings from Nigel:
Woo-eee!
Okey-dokey (probably came from Dad)
Kids and kaboodles (definitely came from Dad)

2014-05-18: Moebius Strips

For Midnight Math, Dad and Nigel made Moebius strips and talked about how they have only one side. Nigel really enjoyed this, and said he wanted to record an "Observation Journal" entry about it. In his class at school, they keep observation journals about things they learn there. Today's math project was interesting enough that it had Nigel saying, "I want to do an observation journal for math every day of my life!"

2014-05-18: Greased Pig

Nigel likes being lotioned up and playing Greased Pig with Dad, which consists of Nigel running around the house with Dad in pursuit, yelling, but unable to hold onto Nigel as he is as slippery as the eponymous greased pig. Nigel is squirming to get out of Dad's hands almost as soon as he begins applying lotion, to get to the game.

2014-05-16: Future Family Plans

A number of the kids Nigel spends time with are fairly affectionate, with goodbye hugs being the norm with Crosby and Tyson, and probably others, as well. Nigel and Crosby have been playing a lot with Joshua and Braelynn (sp?) lately, and he and Crosby have decided that when they grow up, they will both marry Braelynn. Nigel related a complex story to Mom and Dad over dinner tonight about their plans for sperm and eggs and babies. It was all a bit too complex for them to keep straight, but was certainly interesting.

2014-05-14: Nine Divided by Three

For midnight math tonight, Dad asked Nigel what nine divided by three would be. They had been talking about division a bit, separating quantities out into groups. Dad presented the question as if separating nine apples out among three people, how many could each person have?

First, Nigel guessed the answer was two, but they counted up how many that would be all together and found it to be too few. Next, he guessed four, but that was found to be too many. Then, Nigel said that anything else would be too many, so it had to be three. Excellent deductive logic.

2014-03-25: Porsche Dual-Purpose Motorcycle

In a conversation with Dad on the way to school this morning, Nigel related that he wants to have a Porsche dual-purpose motorcycle. A Porsche, so it will go very fast; dual-purpose so it can go on- or off-road; and a motorcycle because who doesn't like the idea of a motorcycle?!

2014-05-13: Division to Unity

Dad and Nigel talked on the drive home from school today about division. Nigel had heard Crosby talking about division and brought up the topic with Dad. Dad began explaining the concept, then extended it to ask Nigel if he had a million apples and wanted to divide them among a million kids, how many apples each kid would get. Nigel responded, "If you have a million apples and want to divide them among a million kids, each kid will get one," then was able to explain his reasoning to Dad.

2014-05-08: Is This New?

A conversation between Nigel and Mom today:
Nigel: Mom, is this new?
Mom: No, Nigel, I just cleaned the bathroom.
Nigel: Oh, so you just wiped it off? It's all shiny.

2014-05-03: Mom's Birthday

To celebrate Mom's birthday, the Black family came over, as did a neighbor kid, Tyson. Mom had obtained a swing and Dad had rigged it to hang from a limb of the tree in the backyard. All the kids enjoyed the swinging, and a few were brave enough to try jumping onto it from the back porch (a feat which scared Mom and Dad the first time they saw Nigel doing it).

Aunt Blaire put together a treasure hunt for the kids. One of the clues asked what made a "vroom-vroom" sound. The boys ran out to the garage, but KariAnn asked where the vacuum was. Blaire thought that was particularly funny and made sure to tell all the adults.

2014-05-02: Licking Mom

Nigel really enjoys licking Mom these days, and they have a game going where he licks her and she gets upset about it. Mom doesn't seem quite as thrilled with this game as Nigel does.

2014-04-17: Colors Within Light

Dad helped Nigel with a science project on the topic of colors within light. They shone light through a glass of water to see the colors split out, and made a poster out of the results. Nigel presented this to his classmates and the other elementary students at Dancing Moose, and got to go around and see the experiments the others did, as well.

2014-04-14: Awesome More Than Fancy

Dad was telling Nigel how Mom wanted to go to high teat for her birthday, and how Mom really likes things that are fancy. Nigel said he likes awesome more than fancy. Well said.

2014-04-13: Tiny Creatures Zoo

Nigel would like to make a zoo of tiny creatures, for tiny creatures, sparked by the idea of the giraffe decorations (Mr. Giraffe and Mr. Giraffe) being to ants the size real giraffes are to humans. (Yes, the scale isn't quite right, but the idea was sound.)

2014-04-13: What is 10...

During midnight math tonight, Dad asked Nigel what 10 of various place values would be. "What is ten ones?" "What is ten hundreds?", etc. He asked all the way up to 10 hundred billions. Nigel's initial response wasn't always right, with two or three mistakes, but given a moment to think, he was always able to correct himself and get the answer.

2014-04-12: Personal, Deep-down Work

Nigel, under the covers to rearrange Mom and Dad's feet: "This is personal, deep-down work." Also, "Can I make you any more tropical sculptures?"

2014-04-09 to 11: Performing Sleeping Beauty

Nigel's ballet studio has been preparing Sleeping Beauty all year, and now the performances have arrived. Nigel is playing the young prince, in three performances, the 9th, 10th and 11th of April.

There were long rehearsals in preparation, with Nigel spending quite a bit of time at Kingsbury Hall this week. Nigel was scared of the giant rats that pulled the carriage of the evil fairy, but was very well looked after by all his fellow performers. Performing meant staying up very late, even with them letting him leave after intermission two of the nights. On the third night, his group of kids got to go up into the balcony to watch the second act.

Many people came to see his performances, including Grammy, Grandpa and Grandma M., Aunt Blaire, and of course Mom and Dad. He looked very regal in his costume, and did a great job representing the young prince.

2014-04-11: Arranging Marriages

Nigel has told Mom he wants to marry her after Dad dies. He has also wanted to marry Crosby and Braylinn (sp?), his closest friends at school.

2014-04-05: Swimsuit Bath

Nigel decided to take a bath in his swimsuit today, "Because it just seemed right." Dad complimented him on it at one point, saying, "Your suit looks nice." Nigel replied, with a sense of mirth, "It suits me well."

Much laughing ensued on Dad's part.

2014-04-01: Multi-Digit Addition

Nigel and Dad have been discussing some "pre-requisite" ideas for multiple-digit addition here and there recently (place values, pre-carrying, etc.) and tonight was the night to bring it all together. Dad was actually going to do one more discussion first, but Nigel wanted to present a problem, so he decided to let Nigel go first.

Nigel had been a bit grumpy during the first half of "Midnight Math" time, probably due to not having had enough play time today, and was not pleased when Dad rewrote his addition problem (pictured below) vertically, and erased his horizontal version. Dad managed to get him redirected to a happier attitude with a bit of challenging silliness , and started working formulaically through the addition. Nigel initially didn't want the carried sums written atop "his" problem, as that intruded on his work.

Dad called out the first sum, asking him what the 3 represented in the number 13. He thought about it carefully, and Dad was pleased he did not mix it up with 30. Though he jumped straight to the 3 representing the ones component, he struggled with the question of what the 1 represented. Dad struggled to find another way to ask the question, but given some slight restating on Dad's part and some good hard thought from Nigel, he said it represented ten.

From there, the problem became easy. Dad said what he was doing as he carried the one and Nigel immediately caught on. Nigel was excited the moment he knew what was coming, and Dad let himself get beaten to most of the steps along the way from there on out, playing to Nigel's eagerness. Nigel ended up doing the lion's share of the problem, and could repeat the technique, Dad was certain.

P.S. The multiplication problem in the top-right is one Nigel gave to Dad last session, which Dad said we weren't quite ready for, but he would save.

2014-03: Reading to the Toddlers

Nigel's K-1 class members each took a book to one of the toddler classes to read to them. Nigel looked forward to the experience, discussing it multiple times with Mom and Dad in the evenings leading up to the event.

2014-03-29: Valuables

Mom, Dad and Nigel were playing a board game called Titanic, in which passengers try to gather up a few necessities and get to a life boat. One necessity the players must retrieve is their valuables: a card bearing a picture of various items their character considers valuable.

Nigel, looking at his character's valuables card: Dad should be on this card, because he is one of my valuables.
Mom: Our family is the most important thing.
Nigel: I want to make new valuables cards that have our family on them.
Mom and Dad share big smiles, their hearts having been thoroughly melted.

2014-03-29: Falling out of Bed

Mom flipped Nigel's bed over recently, so now he is about a foot off the floor, but with no side rails to keep him in. Nigel's wiggliness is legendary, even while he sleeps, and Mom and Dad were wondering if he would stay in bed without rails now.

It didn't take long to find out. This morning, he said he fell out of bed four times last night, and on the fourth time, felt too tired to climb back up, so he spent the remainder of the night on the floor.

Update 2014-06-28:
Even after months of practice, Nigel was still falling out of bed occasionally. Today, he requested to have his bed flipped back up the other way, and he is now back to his old configuration.

2014-03-27: Vanilla Ice Cream

Nigel on vanilla ice cream: "It can make vanilla juice. A vanilla castle with a vanilla moat."

It just so happens that is Dad's favorite way to eat vanilla ice cream.

2014-03-21: Today is the Best Day of My Life

A conversation with Nigel on this day:
Nigel: Today is the best day of my life!
Mom: Really?
Nigel: Every day is the best day of my life.

2014-03-21: Learning Afternoons with Mom

During Spring Break, Mom and Nigel have been having exploratory learning afternoons each day. Nigel chooses a topic he wants to learn more about, and he and Mom come up with a way to learn more about that topic. One day they went to the Museum of Natural History to learn more about dinosaurs. Another day involved a visit to the Leonardo museum. A third involved the downtown library. Each day had a different destination and topic, and everyone in the family loved either doing those things or hearing about them that night.

2014-03-17: Number Line and Negative Numbers

Nigel brought up negative numbers last week during a Midnight Math discussion about number lines, so Dad discussed with him how those work. Nigel was able to work out 6 - 9 after they talked.

2014-01-29: Celebrating Nigel's Performances

Nigel played Twinkle Variation A for his music school's recent Honors Audition, and the Twinkle Theme and Twinkle Variation A with a large group of performers at the school's recent Suzuki group recital. He had only three days to learn the Theme, and he and Dad worked very hard to get him ready to play that. He was able to do so, playing the whole theme with the group, and had no trouble keeping up with the group on Variation A.

Mom and Dad were very proud of Nigel's playing, his work in getting ready for those performances, and the family went out tonight to celebrate. Nigel chose to go to Maggie Moo's for ice cream. They read the positive comments from the teachers, and everyone enjoyed their treat. Nigel got a bowl of Cotton Candy-flavored ice cream, with his favorite candy mixed in: M&Ms.

Earlier in the evening, Mom asked Nigel if he were going to be hungry for dinner soon, or if he were still full from his recent snack. Nigel said that he was still full, and gave another great quote, saying, "Look at my stomach. It is as plump as a chipmunk!"

2014-01-26: Midnight Math: Twos

Dad and Nigel practiced counting by twos tonight, then did some multiplying by two. They went through 2 x 3 and 2 x 5, then Dad asked him what 7 x 2 was, purposely reversing the terms. Nigel spent some time thinking, and was counting on his fingers for a bit, and as he went past twenty, Dad thought perhaps he had forgotten to stop counting. When Nigel stated the answer as 21, though, Dad thought that might not just be coincidence.

He asked how Nigel had gotten to 21 and discovered he had taken 7, then added 7 to that two times (making three groups of 7, rather than only two). Dad was pretty impressed that Nigel had worked out a way to deal with having the terms reversed and had the persistence and accuracy to come to an answer like that.

2014-01-21: Violin Performances and Planetarium Visit with Mom

This was a busy day for Nigel, with two violin performances and an activity between them. First, he auditioned for the Honors Recital at his music school, playing Lightly Row. Then with a few hours to wait until the school's Suzuki group recital that evening, Mom and Nigel went to the planetarium, to avoid driving all the way home and back. Leaving the planetarium, Nigel said to Mom, "I don't know what that place was, but it sure was fun!"

That evening, the group recital kept Nigel out until after 8:00, which had him mentioning how tired he was, even before the start of the recital (7:00).

2014-01-08: I Love Salad

As if there were any doubt, Nigel was heard to say, "I love salad!" at dinner today, confirming that he is truly Mom's son. Another proud moment for Mom and Dad.

2014-01-05: Day of Playing

This morning, Nigel and Dad made a big list of things to do that day. Dad has been thinking Nigel has been feeling a bit lacking in control over his life since being out of school for three weeks now, and wanted to help him exert some control over this day.
Nigel's first order of business was to play MarioKart DoubleDash, which works really well for the two of them: Dad drives, and Nigel handles the items. They have been working their way through the game together, and completed the All-Cup Grand Prix on 100cc difficulty this morning.
After the gaming, Dad insisted on getting done a couple of his highest priorities for the day: shoveling the driveway of its inch of new snow, and dropping the Christmas tree off at Big Cottonwood Park to be disposed of. When Nigel heard the trees were going to be picked up and taken to the landfill, and that if that pickup point were already closed, he and Dad would have to go out to the landfill themselves to drop off the tree, he thought that sounded like a great idea and began lobbying for it. Nigel is very interested in learning about new things, and would very much like to go and see the landfill, as it is a new place to him.
Dad and Nigel fixed a very big rotini lunch, with Dad being surprised to be cooking again. Nigel received a kids cookbook for Christmas, and has been making several things from it. He made his "Roll-ups" later on, for dinner - a recipe he learned from Chef Pepe at school: ham and lettuce rolled up in a flour tortilla. Much to Mom and Dad's surprise, Nigel quite enjoys them, as he enjoys all the recipes from his cookbook that he has tried.
After lunch, the two of them role-played with Angry Birds Star Wars characters and stuffed animals. Nigel was playing as "The Eyes of Evil", a secret club, and kept kidnapping Dad's characters or otherwise hassling them. They also played with Nigel's Beyblade tops; all the more fun since Nigel his missing tops recently. They were able to have 3- and 4-way battles, which were notably more fun for Dad than the 2-way battles.
They went to Wandamere park in the afternoon, taking a bike and a scooter, but found too much snow for easy riding. They climbed on the dragon and slid and swung, but weren't there very long before Nigel's hands and feet got very cold, having worn his cloth mittens, bear jacket and regular shoes.
Nigel was very helpful after dinner, washing dishes and starting and sorting laundry.
During math time, which now follows story time on the evenings Dad is reading, Nigel made the connection between counting by 5s and adding 5, and extended the concept of counting by 5s to starting at 100 and going to 200. His math skills are developing nicely now that he is getting frequent practice, and Dad now has a much better idea of what to work on, encouraging him to keep up the practicing.