M and K have been called upon to play quietly together while I tutor – mostly by collecting puzzles and games from their dusty shelves and camping in the living room with a plate of snacks. Other times they play outside in the snow. We still have lots and lots of that.
Last week I handed M the Greek Myths for Young Children from Usborne and told him to amuse K by reading her whichever stories she wanted choosing from the illustrations – I’d skimmed it before, no naked nymphs. K has a strong stomach for monsters, and she doesn’t mind sad endings if there is some sword thumping in the middle. My warrior princess with older brothers…
Apparently she became inspired by the labours of Hercules, because she started making as many paper and felt masks as she could, drawing miserable Atlas holding up the sky by the golden apple tree (with dragon), and asking me for a paper template to cut out lots and lots of construction paper snakes.
“But K, Medusa goes with Perseus.”
“I’m adapting the story Momma.”
They loved how King Eurystheus was so scared by Hercules’ trophies, he’d jump into a bronze pot in fear. But he was so mean to Hercules, they decided to turn him into stone in the end, like Perseus did to Polydectes. But then Hercules un-stifened him so they could bow.
K then set her heart on a production to be performed on her birthday for Grandma and her friend E. The stress of the deadline made things tense for M. I declared that he was the producer with final say in what details were included in the play, and called K the Artistic Director. I gave M a large lecture about how you want to keep the great ideas coming, so don’t be mean to her, but you will be overwhelmed if you let her use all of her ideas, so pick and choose. Then I gave K the opposite lecture. Does that count as spinning or do I get masterful inactivity points for only being called in at this point of their project?
The snow meant that E’s Daddy picked her up before the roads were dangerous so only Grandma, Dan and I were in the audience on Saturday. But K and M performed it on Tuesday for E when they were together because drama class had been cancelled due to even more snow.
Dan and Ben climbed onto Mom’s roof to clear the vents and any ice dams. The piles of snow below were so high, Ben just jumped off onto them.
I’m glad I wasn’t in the audience for that though.