#346/ #36
“Reading” before bedtime, in the Rockstar household, The Miss leaves her post crowding Rockstar into a corner of his seat as usual to say conspiratorially and obviously within his earshot…..
Miss: Mum. Actually Ko-ko quite naughty. <nodding convincingly>
I raise my eyebrows and glance over at Rockstar, who gives no indication he’s heard.
Miss: <loudly> Ko-ko really. Quite naughty. <still nodding convincingly>
Me: Ko-ko? (Rockstar grunts but doesn’t look up. Miss stalks back to him)
Miss: Ko-ko. Notti! (Note this is what he usually says to her)
Rockstar: <still reading> Told you no one is going to believe you, Little Miss Stories-All-The-Time.
Miss barely blinks, simply turning and walking over to the box of Mr Men books where (yes, predictably) she flings one into Rockstar’s book, effectively getting him to stop reading.
Rockstar: AARRGH!! <flings himself at her, knocking her into a pile of pillows as she giggles delightedly> MUM!!  Â
Me: I saw. But technically you’d be the one in trouble, as the bigger one, for knocking the little one over. Except…. (Miss starts delightedly running into our padded headboard and falling over) in this case we both know it’s what she wants.
Rockstar: Can’t you do something??? I was reading!!
Me: Well yeah and she didn’t want you to read (the Miss repeatedly runs into the headboard and bounces off, occasionally landing face first on the bed, still giggling)… Give me a minute, I’m thinking.Â
Rockstar: She’s crazy! <Miss falls over again laughing, and he can’t stifle a snort>
Me: Uh… That’s why you have quiet reading places. Your parents’ bed however is Fair Game. Besides, framing you obviously didn’t work, you didn’t even blink and she’s trying to get your attention. She’s getting better though, this time she managed not to hit you on the head with the book.
Rockstar: She’s not supposed to be throwing things!
Me: Yeah, but she knows that. That’s why she’s doing it, because otherwise you’re not going to scold her. She’s trying to get your attention.
Rockstar: <seriously> Mum. What are we going to do with her, can we send her for training or something?  Â
Me: You mean like JD?Â
Rockstar: Y-eah.. Sit, Stay… Don’t Be Annoying…
One fine day when the kids are playing nicely… All 3 of them (JD btw herds the Miss fairly often and it annoys her. So basically in our household it’s Miss Annoys Rockstar, JD Annoys Miss.)
Â
We’re loving these Ikea toy storage bins with the wheels on, btw – they come in a few colors the kids can choose (Miss chose white, after changing her mind a. Lot – we kept going back to that counter to change the bins), but then she also wanted the trays printed with birds to set on top – which allows us “extra tabletops” for Lego and what not, and we can move those little “play islands” about the apartment.
Obviously JD also approves, because then she can see what the other two are up to…
Remember when we used the Ikea bins and tray as an “art island”?
<sheepish> I have a half-baked thought about kids sitting in a proper place to do work… Yes, yes I agree they must have one…. But I also notice a lot of the time they then deliberately avoid it because that place spells “work” not fun, not something creative, etc etc. There’s also another thing that crosses my mind – I see kids doing homework in food courts and cafes all the time, and then I remembered how back in university I had a lot of course mates who deliberately studied in empty exam halls because they thought it would make them wayy more comfy with the exam setting when the time came. Thing is, you could also practically cut the tension in the air with a knife, during study time.
Now, I dislike standardized tests personally because I think they rely heavily on how you’re feeling when you’re tested, those 3 hours or whatever. I do acknowledge that if that’s the “language,” then you have to be fluent in it, else how are you going to “communicate”… but I used to see course mates do thing like pick the courses they were doing that semester, among others, based on the exam timetable so they had optimal time in between papers. (Call it sour grapes, I didn’t think to do that and it did affect my results :D) – BUT after the exam, then what? You do get up to optimal exam performance level, but work life someday will not be a 3 hour exam.Â
(Maybe you think that’s just nuts but I think it’s a waste to put a lot of effort and practice into doing well and then just because conditions aren’t “right” for how you’re used to doing your homework/ schoolwork/ whatever, you underperform a 3 hour exam. I don’t consider either a good indication of how you do at work someday, though I concede correlation “)
ps: The kids are playing with kinetic sand – it’s cleaned-out treated sand that sticks only to itself. The guy at the fair told us it’s magnetic, not sure if that’s true or not – we’ll just have to go try magnets on it for ourselves sometime – but if I google then it says the treated bit uses something similar to silly putty to make it stick.
(This is MAJOR for me because I’m anal about scratched corneas and eye infection from kids rubbing their eyes with dirty, sandy hands at the beach)
