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Mostly Mason News and Thoughts on Reading
Oct. 19th, 2007 09:46 amSorry that I haven't posted more regularly. Mason has vacation from school, and I've totally forgotten how to get things done with him underfoot. And to think, just "yesterday" I was complaining about how I couldn't figure out how to use my time when he was at school!
Mason and I did, however, manage paint the utility closet together. Since the closet really is almost completely hidden from view, I let Mason pick out the colors. We now have a utility closet with dark golden walls and pinkish-brownish trim (a color Ralph Lauren called "Kalahari Sunset.") Mason also did a lot of the rolling. As there's also a panel that is removable so you can get at the bathroom plumbing, he spent the rest of the time trying to coax our cat Inky out of the crawl space. Inky really loved rolling in the dirt and such back there, but he did eventually make his way back out.
Of course, as the cabniets that go there are a two grown-person job, the room is still not entirely together. But as both Shawn's brother, our nephew, AND my folks are coming up on Saturday, we'll be highly motivated to get everything back in its proper place.
Yesterday was Mason's day to be the boss for two hours and he decided that we should go to the Mall of America. I hate "The Sprawl," but Mason, somehow, has imprinted it on it. To be fair, there are a lot of fun things for kids to do there. Unfortnately as school was out for all of St. Paul's public schools, the place was jam-packed with kids and their harried-looking parents. After driving around the parking lot looking at license plates (still no West Virginia!), Mason spent the lion share of his time at Leggo Land. I didn't mind that so much, except that they have a race track there for kids to race Leggo cars and all the big kids are awfully pushy. Mason negotiated the whole thing pretty well though, especially considering he comes up to a lot of those kids' knees.
Afterward we went to Barnes & Noble where I picked up a couple of books in a new series Mason loves: Mike Thaler's "Black Lagoon Series." The B&N clerk who checked us out was quite taken with Mason's articulateness, as he carefully explained to her what it is he loves about Thaler's series. (The crooked finger!)
I also overheard the strangest converstaion between a parent and her children. We were in the Children's alcove, where all the books are child-to-teen appropriate, the mom said, "Remember what we talked about. NO getting books that aren't at your reading level." I find this distressing if only because I read LOTS of books that were well beyond my reading "ability" when I was young, which is how the heck I got better ability, you know? I have never, ever told Mason there was a book he couldn't TRY to read. As far as I'm concerned, unless there's graphic violence, sex, or swear words, it's all good.
We were once at Red Ballon when a sales person tried to take a chapter book away from us because she didn't think it was appropriate for my then three year old Mason. When I asked her why, she said, "Well, the stories are too long. He won't have the patience." At that age, I'd already read all of Charolette's Web and much of Bambi to Mason, so I just looked at her with a stunned expression. "How would you know?" I asked. Then I said to Mason, "Never let anyone tell you what you can and can't read." And anyway, I was reading to him. It's not like there would be words he couldn't ask me what they meant, you know?
Shawn and I have bonded over the fact that we both remember the day we got to go to the "adult" section in the public library on our own. Both Shawn's folks and mine, never hesitated to check out books from that section for us, if we were interested... but there was a thrilling sense of wonder the moment it was okay for us to have ANY book in the entire library for ourselves alone. I think that reading beyond your ability is what makes readers out of people, you know? If I hadn't tried The Hobbit in sixth grade, where would I be now? I didn't "get" a lot of it, but I was AWED.
Mason and I did, however, manage paint the utility closet together. Since the closet really is almost completely hidden from view, I let Mason pick out the colors. We now have a utility closet with dark golden walls and pinkish-brownish trim (a color Ralph Lauren called "Kalahari Sunset.") Mason also did a lot of the rolling. As there's also a panel that is removable so you can get at the bathroom plumbing, he spent the rest of the time trying to coax our cat Inky out of the crawl space. Inky really loved rolling in the dirt and such back there, but he did eventually make his way back out.
Of course, as the cabniets that go there are a two grown-person job, the room is still not entirely together. But as both Shawn's brother, our nephew, AND my folks are coming up on Saturday, we'll be highly motivated to get everything back in its proper place.
Yesterday was Mason's day to be the boss for two hours and he decided that we should go to the Mall of America. I hate "The Sprawl," but Mason, somehow, has imprinted it on it. To be fair, there are a lot of fun things for kids to do there. Unfortnately as school was out for all of St. Paul's public schools, the place was jam-packed with kids and their harried-looking parents. After driving around the parking lot looking at license plates (still no West Virginia!), Mason spent the lion share of his time at Leggo Land. I didn't mind that so much, except that they have a race track there for kids to race Leggo cars and all the big kids are awfully pushy. Mason negotiated the whole thing pretty well though, especially considering he comes up to a lot of those kids' knees.
Afterward we went to Barnes & Noble where I picked up a couple of books in a new series Mason loves: Mike Thaler's "Black Lagoon Series." The B&N clerk who checked us out was quite taken with Mason's articulateness, as he carefully explained to her what it is he loves about Thaler's series. (The crooked finger!)
I also overheard the strangest converstaion between a parent and her children. We were in the Children's alcove, where all the books are child-to-teen appropriate, the mom said, "Remember what we talked about. NO getting books that aren't at your reading level." I find this distressing if only because I read LOTS of books that were well beyond my reading "ability" when I was young, which is how the heck I got better ability, you know? I have never, ever told Mason there was a book he couldn't TRY to read. As far as I'm concerned, unless there's graphic violence, sex, or swear words, it's all good.
We were once at Red Ballon when a sales person tried to take a chapter book away from us because she didn't think it was appropriate for my then three year old Mason. When I asked her why, she said, "Well, the stories are too long. He won't have the patience." At that age, I'd already read all of Charolette's Web and much of Bambi to Mason, so I just looked at her with a stunned expression. "How would you know?" I asked. Then I said to Mason, "Never let anyone tell you what you can and can't read." And anyway, I was reading to him. It's not like there would be words he couldn't ask me what they meant, you know?
Shawn and I have bonded over the fact that we both remember the day we got to go to the "adult" section in the public library on our own. Both Shawn's folks and mine, never hesitated to check out books from that section for us, if we were interested... but there was a thrilling sense of wonder the moment it was okay for us to have ANY book in the entire library for ourselves alone. I think that reading beyond your ability is what makes readers out of people, you know? If I hadn't tried The Hobbit in sixth grade, where would I be now? I didn't "get" a lot of it, but I was AWED.