It's Science!

For the last month we have been a three-kid house, at least between the hours of 7:00 and 4:00. Maya Rose has joined our crew of two, and despite being hopelessly outnumbered I am having a wonderful time in a house that suddenly seems to be swarming with children. One of the great things about having both Geneva and Maya all day every day is that it has pushed me to be more intentional with the activities I plan for the girls. Maybe "pushed" is overstating things; the teacher in me only needed a tiny nudge, and before I knew it I was outlining objectives and making lists of essential reading materials and generally being the world's nerdiest mom. In all honesty I'm not sure it's any more beneficial for Maya and Geneva to have "field trips" than it is for them to just run around and play, but writing curricula and planning lesson plans has kept me sane, so it's certainly not a loss.

So what do preschoolers learn about in the Zoglman house? Right now we're studying water, and although we're only about halfway through the unit I am going to go out on a limb and call it a success. Sometimes activities suddenly veer off in a direction I never anticipated, sometimes they come to a screeching halt, and sometimes we get ridiculously wet, but we always-- always-- have fun. Each day has me looking forward to the next, and I'm already giddy with anticipation at the thought of other subjects we could study and explore. Food! Plants and gardening! Music and sound! Weather! Bugs! Outer space! The possibilities are endless.


Well gosh, when I started this post I felt like I had tons of pictures of the girls doing watery, sciencey stuff! As it turns out, I have... some. The rest of these are just glimpses of life with the girl squad.

The Narrator

This is a transcript of Geneva's running monologue this afternoon as we played in the yard. We had been painting the sidewalk with a bowl of water and several brushes. The "sword" Geneva refers to is a bamboo pole that had recently been removed from the front planting bed.

I'm walking down the street a-painting my head and-- that's a really big sword to... sword with. What's that? That's a sword to sword through there. What do you need? Flour and sugar and baking soda. Flour, baking soda and eggs. Ow! I bonked myself on this. I'll put that in the mailbox. I'm the mailman. I usually put mail in the mailbox. I put it in there and closed the door. What happened? The man and the bad lady... (ran out of earshot)... soar through the air with all his might. I get something out of the mailbox. It's waiting for me. And I put something in the mailbox and I said no. I closed the mailbox. It's hiding. What are you writing? I'm going to storytime. Water, I tooked it. Oh my goodness! Oh man! Dunked my head in the bowl. The stick will go "sword" in the water. Something's on the ground. It's a sword, through the air! Va-va-va-va-va! I want to hit Maya on the head. I need to put the bowl away. In the mailbox. I want a popsicle. How about a pop-- how about a popsicle?

Geneva came to stand next to me on the porch steps and I read her back what she had just said. She laughed.

Let's read it again!

Points of clarification:
Geneva really was painting her head with a wet paintbrush, which she later bonked herself with and then put in the mailbox.
I don't know what recipe she was reciting, but I think it was for cake.
"The man and the bad lady" is a Tangled reference.
She did not hit Maya on the head.
We did have popsicles.
She is always like this.
I was writing as fast as I could.

Haute Couture

Shortly after Lavender was born I started letting Geneva pick her own clothes from time to time. Okay, maybe "letting" is the wrong word; it implies a certain amount of intention on my part, when what actually happens is that I turn my back on Geneva while I'm dressing Lavender and she rummages through the drawers in the meantime. Sometimes she starts out naked and other times she modifies an existing outfit, with results ranging from charming to amusing to... inexplicable. At some point along the way it occurred to me to keep a photographic record of Geneva's fashion choices, mostly so that I can mortify her in front of future Prom dates. Until then, sharing them with the world wide web will have to do.

Some of these you may have already seen, and most of them really aren't the best pictures. I hope the subject matter will make up for it.

Snow hat, pajama shirt and snow boots.

Bicycle helmet and diaper.

Paper crown and sunglasses, though I can't say they're doing her much good there...

Sunglasses again, this time with a shirt and Mommy's necklace. 

Tank top, too-big capris, polka-dot tights.

 Backwards raincoat and... that's it!