Six for Saturday: Milly Molly Mandy, Batman, No TV and more

1

We finished reading Milly Molly Mandy yesterday morning. At first, I thought the book was too precious, but then I fell in love. And now I think it should be required read-aloud material for little girls. In the last chapter, Milly Molly Mandy plays with her dog and accidentally rips her dress. Now, Milly Molly Mandy doesn't have two dozen outfits. She has one pink and white striped dress that her mother sewed for her. Milly Molly Mandy takes responsibility for her ripped dress, but her mother understands that it was an accident and that the dress was old. She lets Milly Molly Mandy go outside and rip it to ribbons (fun and free!). Then, Milly Molly Mandy and her mother go to the village store to buy fabric to make a new dress. They have planned to buy flowered fabric, but they arrive at the store at the same time as a grandmother with a little girl named Bunchy, there to buy flowered fabric. Of course, there is only enough flowered fabric left for one dress, and Milly Molly Mandy offers the flowered fabric to Bunchy, and goes home with the same pink and white striped fabric as her old dress, but she also goes home with an invitation to Bunchy's house for tea. So, Milly Molly Mandy's sacrifice made her a new friend. I <3 Milly Molly Mandy. And that's just one chapter out of twenty-one!

2

This picture speaks for itself:

Yup, Batman. Just another day in Santa Monica. Vegan Octoberfest, acro-yogis, and Batman. I once saw him running down our street. Betcha that doesn't happen in your neighborhood.

3

Today is Day 7 of our No TV project. I like TV. Teaching public school is physically and emotionally draining, and I come home exhausted. It is easy to turn on PBS and make dinner and eat dinner and do necessary things like laundry, but my daughter was learning some really bad behaviors (complaining, whining, talking back, etc. - very un-Milly Molly Mandy) in addition to all of the educational content. Puppets and cartoon characters get upset, and when they get upset, they react in big ways. Instating the no TV rule has made some things harder and some things easier. Harder: My daughter is an only child, and she's not yet four, which means she likes having someone (me) to play with, or needs someone to get things down for her (and remind her that things need to be put away). Easier: Her behavior this week has been great. No arm crossing. No eye rolling. No tantrums. My husband and I did let our daughter choose one movie to watch today. She chose an hour-long Curious George movie. During the movie, my husband pointed out a moment where a child-character complained about something, slumping his shoulders, then throwing back his head. It was two seconds out of the entire movie. But it's those two seconds that stick. We stopped the movie and talked way too long about how what the boy did was wrong, but we let her finish watching the movie. Yes. It's tele-twaddle. One time this week.

4

My daughter's birthday party is a week away. She's having a magic, mermaid, groovy shirt party. My dad is performing a magic show as "The Great Groovini," my mom is making a mermaid birthday cake and sea-themed cupcakes, and the three and four year old guests will be tie dyeing t-shirts. Here is a photo collage of the supplies my mom will be using to decorate the cake and cupcakes:

5

I'm so grateful to my Uncle Al, Auntie Barbara, and cousin Aris. Their birthday gift to my daughter was her Classical Conversations tuition! It's such a generous gift, and we are so excited.

6

I was able to convince my school to buy a few Institute for Excellence in Writing Complete Teacher Packages. My neighbor-teacher and I were too excited to wait until next year to begin learning to use the program, so we team-taught the first lesson ("Sea Snakes"). We are totally looking forward to next year. (We are totally totally looking forward to summer vacation.)