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.