Eli's Book Gallery

So Eli has decided he wants to open his own book gallery. It is going to be on the side of our house and will be 2 stories tall with an escalator and a basement. And he will pay me a dollar to watch it for him while he is at school. He will write and illustrate the books, which he will probably sell for $1. He also thinks there should be music playing in the background since a lot of stores have that. He wants Justin to call his Uncle Bill to start digging the basement. I hope he doesn't mind that we will probably have to just sell books out of his treehouse...at least in the beginning. Maybe after he's been in business for awhile, we could build the fancy building...

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

I want to read this. "Nature-deficit disorder is not a medical condition; it is a description of the human costs of alienation from nature. This alienation damages children and shapes adults, families, and communities. There are solutions, though, and they're right in our own backyards. Last child in the Woods is the first book to bring together cutting-edge research showing that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development—physical, emotional, and spiritual. What's more, nature is a potent therapy for depression, obesity, and ADD. Environment-based education dramatically improves standarized test scores and grade point averages and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. Even creativity is stimulated by childhood experiences in nature."

The boy is 6

I've always dreaded Eli getting older, b/c I always think that I'm not going to like the next stage as much as the one he's in. I LOVE having a 6-year-old. About a month or so before he turned 6, he just turned into this more mature, more obedient young man. And his love of reading is just beyond fun. He reads all the time and has started reading the Harry Potter books. He can actually read them himself, but I've been reading them to him b/c I didn't want him to get burned out reading such a long book by himself (but mostly b/c I really want to read it with him). It's so exciting getting to share this world with him. And the questions he asks! He comes up with questions I've never thought about, like "Where does Voldemort live?" How on earth do you answer that before he has a body? Not to mention the whole horcrux thing! Some other questions were "How did Harry live and his parents didn't?" and "Why did Voldemort want to kill all those people?" We're not sure how far we'll let him read into the Harry Potter books at this age. We might let him read the first 3 books and then wait until he's a little older to read the others. It's just amazing to view the books through his perspective. Eli has been at theater camp this week. He wasn't sure about it at first but now he LOVES it. We get to see his play this afternoon, where he gets to be the crocodile (it's a pirate-themed play). He has gotten really good at his line. "I took both things from the treasure chest. Hahahaha." (Imagine this being spoken with a really scary 6-year-old voice.) I think he's a natural ham.

Wilderness of Reading

One of my favorite things as a child (and as an adult too) was reading. I would get lost in my books and in the adventures they would invite me to be a part of. I hoped to create a love of reading in Eli too. We have always read to him, even in utero, and I think it really paid off. He had known his letters and sounds for awhile but didn't want to read-he wanted us to read to him. Then all of a sudden he got interested (maybe last summer or fall?) and started reading Bob books and sight words. Then he started reading labels and signs. Then easy books. Then in the past month or so his reading level has just exploded. The other night he read the whole Cat in the Hat book to me at bedtime (about 30 pages if you take out the pictures, 60 if you include pictures). And he's not afraid to try to read harder books. He has read some pages out of the Magic Tree House books and other chapter books. He will pretty much try to read anything. And it's really cool b/c he will go back and correct himself when he realizes he read something wrong. And I love listening to him figure out words. Our crazy English language makes no sense, so when he sounds out a word and it doesn't sound like a real word, he figures out what it is supposed to be. One morning he and Justin were walking to school and Eli brought a book with him and read it the whole way there. He reads in the car, at church, in restaurants, wherever-a lot of times I have to make him stop reading so we can go do something. Of course he still likes watching TV and playing games on my phone, but more and more time is being filled with him reading to himself. I'm hoping eventually he will love books more than technology. It could happen! The better he gets at reading, the more he wants to do it. I think this is my favorite milestone so far. I was worried about leaving the "little boy" phase, but I think we're going to have a lot of fun.

Wilderness in progress

A lot has happened in our little world lately. Since my last post, Justin has built a greenhouse in our backyard (with the help of the wonderful Micah McCarty) as well as a new coop for our chickens. We got a fabulous hammock from Panama from Justin's brother and sister-in-law, which is way above average. And last, but not least, we got some baby chicks and baby ducks. It's so fun having all this even though we live in an urban setting (well, as urban as Guthrie, anyway). And with the weather being so nice now, we have been outside a lot more. It's been fun letting Eli go a couple houses over or across the street to play (always with help from us or the neighbor girls). We can sit on the porch or the hammock while he plays with his friends. I kinda like it.

The Terrible 5s

Eli never had the terrible twos or threes. Our rough years have been four and five-and not solidly for two years. We'll go for awhile and I think we've gotten past it, but then it shows up again. Yesterday, we had multiple meltdowns and I was about at my wit's end. So I found this really great website for parents called Empowering Parents. Click here to check it out. I realized I over-negotiate with him and so when I say no about something, he knows there is a chance I will change my mind, at least in part. So when I don't change my mind, sometimes he is okay with it, but other times we have a meltdown. Which leads me to our other issue-he feels entitled to get something any time we go out. I don't get him something every time we go out, but I think I do it often enough they he figures he has a pretty good chance he will get something. So I've decided to come up with a specific plan instead of some wishy-washy idea of how I'll deal with these issues. First, I found this website with behavior charts (which we have used before, but not religiously enough). You can find these awesome charts for kids (or any chart for that matter) here. I picked the 3 strikes chart. Each day he does NOT get 3 strikes, he gets a behavior buck (from the same website). At the end of the week, he will get a $1 for every behavior buck he earned. Then, any time he asks me for something, I'll say, "Well, how much money do you have?" If he doesn't have enough money, he will have to save up for it. Any time I personally buy something for him, I'm going to save it for his birthday or some holiday so he isn't getting some book or toy out of the blue, just because I thought he would LOVE it. And last, I need to decide what constitutes a strike and spell it out clearly for him so that there is no wishy-washiness there either. I think I'll make a chart for that too...

McCarty Farm=perfect wilderness of childhood

We went to the McCarty farm yesterday so Justin and Micah could work on the cobb oven. We love going out there. It's in the middle of nowhere and you just feel so calm and peaceful when you're there. This is the perfect place for Eli to experience the wilderness of childhood. He can pretty much go wherever he wants without having meddlesome parents interfering. For instance, he and Harper went out to one of their ponds to look for fairies and trolls. Eli wasn't buying into the whole fairy and troll thing, but Harper had him convinced they were real by the time we left. Another adventure was going down the rabbit hole to find Alice in Wonderland (a hole in the ground there dog started). Eli was really disappointed that we didn't want to keep digging so he could find it, but all was well once he and Harper started watching the movie, after which Harper and Eli took turns being Alice and Mr. Rabbit. Another note: Eli pretty much spent the entire day in his underwear. It was beautiful outside and we're in the country, so why not? There were places where some snow hadn't melted yet, so it was really funny seeing him walking through the snow in his underwear. He even tried it with no shoes but that didn't last long. We are so grateful that Eli has a place like this where he can really be a kid. Pics to be posted soon.

Pillow fights and snowball fights

It's amazing how much fun a 5 1/2 year old can have with pillow fights and snowball fights. They are pretty fun for the mom too. Although the 5 1/2 year old and his mom may have to wear protective gear next time...

Magic Tree House

Eli loves the Magic Tree House books. We've read all of them plus the research guides. He has always wanted a tree house or outdoor playset (actually, if he had his way, both). I would love to give him a tree house for his 6th birthday in June. We don't really have any good trees for a tree house, so we would have to build a "treeless treehouse." And by we I mean Justin and possibly 1 or 2 friends. I could paint it though! Anyway, here is a really cool picture and blueprint for building one. Now we just have to see how much it would cost to build this monster... Here it is.

The Joy of Destroying Things

So I got bored last night. Must be the weather. I started thinking that it would be fantastic to stand at the oven and be able to look into the dining room at the same time. Out comes the hammer. Out comes the saw. Wow, I have no idea what I'm doing.

On a positive note, no child has ever admired his father more than Eli admired me as I recklessly threw the hammer into the wall. He kept asking me if I knew what I was doing. Of course I said yes. Lying to children is what fathers do.

At one point Eli said, "Is this when the house falls down?". I had to put the hammer down, laugh, pick it back up, and say (in my best Atticus Finch), "Not yet."

The Dangerous Book for Boys

My parents gave Eli a book a few years ago for when he gets older called The Dangerous Book for Boys. This whole "wilderness of childhood" thing reminded me about this book, so I got it out. The chapter on building a treehouse got me especially excited b/c we're trying to figure out a way to build Eli some kind of treehouse/fort. I think this book will be perfect in our quest to let Eli have his own adventures. If you want to read more about this awesome book, click here. And for you parents out there that have girls, they have The Dangerous Book for Girls too!

Our Backyard

During the devastating blizzard that we somehow managed to survive this past week, Eli was a little more willing to bear the cold than I was. I did make it outside for some sledding and snow fort building, but the little fellow still had some energy to expend, so we bundled him back up and threw him in the backyard.

Our backyard is something to behold right now. It's pretty much a junkyard. I'm a magnet for free stuff, so there's a neverending collection of scrap lumber, windows, bicycles, and an assortment of used "_______" mixed in with the chicken coop, the straw bale garden, the "junk" shed. So I settled in next to one of our windows to observe our little explorer.

It was SO interesting to watch him pick up random pieces of useless bits of whatever, and try to figure out what he could do with them. Pieces of sheet metal were collected into the wheel barrow. Scraps of wood were lifted, inspected, and usually dropped back down where they came from.

I gave him one bit of guidance. Under no circumstances was he to enter the shed. I described it to him as a death trap for adventurous 5 year olds. Sharp, heavy objects just waiting for someone to pull them down in a murderous pile. To add just a bit more temptation than was reasonable, I had managed to leave the shed door open.

Watching him stare into the cavernous shed of death, pulling together every bit of restraint he could muster, was pretty entertaining. He didn't go inside, but he sure wanted to. And he will, eventually, and that's ok.

Wilderness of...theater!

A week or so ago I signed Eli up for this. I think he is going to LOVE it. He's such a ham and he loves to sing and dance. So this will be a kind of wilderness for him-he gets to use his imagination and he will at least be free of parental advisory.

Regaining the adventure of childhood

After reconnecting with the blog world of my friends, I have been inspired to start a new blog for Mr. Fortney and myself to author. Justin has been reading this great book, Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon, which is what inspired the title of this blog (thanks to Micah McCarty for loaning the book to him). He writes about how childhood "is, or has been, or ought to be, the great original adventure, a tale of privation, courage, constant vigilance, danger, and sometimes calamity." He talks about the incredible amount of freedom his parents gave him to explore, in a land ruled by children, where a kid can exile himself for at least some portion of every day from the world of adults. Now, we schedule everything for our kids, driving them from place to place so they never get a chance to discover the unexplored lands between. I want Eli to be able to have this adventure. He needs time when we aren't telling him what to do or what not to do. I'm not sure exactly what this will look like, b/c I don't feel comfortable with him just wondering the neighborhood by himself-at least not yet. But I want to find ways for him to explore and get away from the world of adults.

-Amanda