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Busy Week Ahead
Oct. 8th, 2007 10:22 amWell, I blame my continued lack of posting on LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS, which I've been reading. I picked it up at the Zoo of all places, and if you haven't heard of this book, it basically postulates that kids need unstructured time in the wild, even if its the wild of ones' own backyard. Consquentally, I'd read a page or two and then grab Mason and say, "Let's go play in the backyard." So, despite record warm temps and a lot of drizzle, I spent the weekend raking leaves into piles to jump in and built several fires in our chiminea.
Mason has also started doing chores around the house. Shawn made a very cool chart of things he can do (ie, "help set the table," "pick up toys," etc.) and each time he does one he gets a gold star. Enough gold stars and he gets to be boss for a half hour at the end of each week. Mason is VERY into this. His big plan for his boss half-hour today is, "At some point, I'll say to ima, 'Okay, let's move! We're going to Adventure Peak.'" The only rules for his boss half-hour is that he can't ask to do anything dangerous (to himeself or others) or spend more than a dollar (with the exception of some admissions.) We read about this "boss for a day" concept in one of those useless Parenting magazines, and it actually sounded kind of fun. As I said, Mason has been have a lot of trouble adjusting to the rule-laden life of school and has been weirdly rebellious at home -- it's weird beause he'll act out over things of no consequence, like whether or not to put on shoes before going to the store or whatever. Then, the whole kerfuffle will escallate into these horrible fights, and so we were really looking for something to make cooperation fun again. The chore chart seems to be working so far.
Today is also our special library day after school. We'll be returning our sea life books to the school's media center, and Mason is very keen to check out some books from the space section. We also have to go to the Public Library some time this week because we need to return our Calvin and Hobbes and pick up the Fantastic Four graphic novel we interlibrary loan ordered.
On Tuesday is my Loft class, which has been going swimmingly. I think the students are still fairly baffled by my stream of consciousness teaching style, but, on the flip side, I think it fosters pretty good class discussion. Thursday I'm going to be subbing for a hour for Kelly McCullough's Loft class so he can go to the Guthrie -- the students are reviewing my proposal for Tall, Dark & Dead so it works out nicely. (Plus, I may ask him to do a class for me at some point to.) Friday is Mason's class's field trip which I'm chaperoning to some farm in Stillwater, and ALSO the night of my alumni homecoming reading at Augsburg.
Insane.
Plus, somewhere in here I need to get some writing done for Tate as well as for myself.
I worked out on Saturday. I think that's a good time, actually. I was worried it would be busy, but if I get there right as it opens at 8 am, it's not so bad. And guess what? I'm loosing weight. An unintended consequence of becoming Cap, apparently. Not a lot -- just a couple of pounds so far, but hey, I'll take anything I can get at my age.
I'm also anxiously awaiting some news from my agent. I really, really want to post about it here, but I'm afraid to jinx anything. Will keep y'all posted.
Mason has also started doing chores around the house. Shawn made a very cool chart of things he can do (ie, "help set the table," "pick up toys," etc.) and each time he does one he gets a gold star. Enough gold stars and he gets to be boss for a half hour at the end of each week. Mason is VERY into this. His big plan for his boss half-hour today is, "At some point, I'll say to ima, 'Okay, let's move! We're going to Adventure Peak.'" The only rules for his boss half-hour is that he can't ask to do anything dangerous (to himeself or others) or spend more than a dollar (with the exception of some admissions.) We read about this "boss for a day" concept in one of those useless Parenting magazines, and it actually sounded kind of fun. As I said, Mason has been have a lot of trouble adjusting to the rule-laden life of school and has been weirdly rebellious at home -- it's weird beause he'll act out over things of no consequence, like whether or not to put on shoes before going to the store or whatever. Then, the whole kerfuffle will escallate into these horrible fights, and so we were really looking for something to make cooperation fun again. The chore chart seems to be working so far.
Today is also our special library day after school. We'll be returning our sea life books to the school's media center, and Mason is very keen to check out some books from the space section. We also have to go to the Public Library some time this week because we need to return our Calvin and Hobbes and pick up the Fantastic Four graphic novel we interlibrary loan ordered.
On Tuesday is my Loft class, which has been going swimmingly. I think the students are still fairly baffled by my stream of consciousness teaching style, but, on the flip side, I think it fosters pretty good class discussion. Thursday I'm going to be subbing for a hour for Kelly McCullough's Loft class so he can go to the Guthrie -- the students are reviewing my proposal for Tall, Dark & Dead so it works out nicely. (Plus, I may ask him to do a class for me at some point to.) Friday is Mason's class's field trip which I'm chaperoning to some farm in Stillwater, and ALSO the night of my alumni homecoming reading at Augsburg.
Insane.
Plus, somewhere in here I need to get some writing done for Tate as well as for myself.
I worked out on Saturday. I think that's a good time, actually. I was worried it would be busy, but if I get there right as it opens at 8 am, it's not so bad. And guess what? I'm loosing weight. An unintended consequence of becoming Cap, apparently. Not a lot -- just a couple of pounds so far, but hey, I'll take anything I can get at my age.
I'm also anxiously awaiting some news from my agent. I really, really want to post about it here, but I'm afraid to jinx anything. Will keep y'all posted.