Skip to main content

Eleanor, the party planner

Eleanor announced today that she wanted to have a New Year's party, with just our family. As usual, she was trying to explain this to me while I was doing about 10 other things, so I asked her to write down a list of what she wanted to eat and what she wanted to do, using abbreviations if necessary.

In the past she would have demurred, saying that she didn't know how to spell, or write, or something else. This time, however, she agreed. Here is her list, from both sides of a sheet of paper:

First side:
  • 2009 cupcakes
  • sandwigis
  • yogret (Amanda)
  • OJ Mlik
Second side:
  • race
  • hoop's
  • obstickle
  • sandbox
  • trow
Thus we see that Eleanor is getting braver about sounding out words and writing down what she thinks they sound like. We also see that adding extraneous apostrophes starts early.

Some notes: she wanted to have cupcakes decorated with the numbers 2009. Since we didn't have frosting, we used some chocolate chips on the chocolate cupcakes. The "trow" refers to each person throwing a ball as far as they could, to see who can throw it the farthest. I was never quite clear what she wanted to do with the "hoop's," it involved making hoops out of toys and jumping from one to the other... The obstacle course involved putting pillows on the floor and jumping from cushion to cushion. Amanda didn't understand exactly what she was supposed to do, which created conflict. The kids played in the sand box, but it was pretty cold (for North Carolina) so we didn't stay outside for long.

We had a good time, even though we didn't do all of the activities. Eleanor's party planning ability far outstrips mine at that age.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Ca...
Post a Comment
Read more

My hero, Helen Parr

Otherwise known as Elastigirl , a.k.a Mrs. Incredible. She is a stay at home mom ( SAHM ), she clearly feels that what she is doing is important and is willing to give up a lot to do it (remember her comment in the intro: "I'm at the top of my game! Leave saving the world to the guys? I don't think so.") But she is finding fulfillment in leading her family from day to day, in doing a hard job well. She also knows that she is very talented, and that knowledge helps her see beyond the repetitive drudgery of staying home. My favorite scene is from the deleted introduction, where she talks with a "career woman" who is of the opinion that staying home is fine for people who can't do anything else. She responds that taking care of her kid is at least as hard as saving the world, and is valuable contribution to society. The point for me is that someone has to do the job that I'm doing, and it's not something that you could pay someone to do. I see...
8 comments
Read more

Comfortable

Last night Amanda was sent to bed early for gross insubordination. I did snuggle with her for a bit, but then went to wash dishes and other exciting stuff. When I came upstairs, 20 minutes after her usual bedtime, she was still awake and flopping around. "Amanda, are you comfortable?" I asked. "No," came the answer. "What do you need?" I asked, thinking she wanted water, to be tucked in, her doll, something like that. "A mama," she answered. I could do something about that. I snuggled her for about 5 minutes and she fell fast asleep.
2 comments
Read more