Spy Birthday Party

Spring and Summer

First Day of Kindergarten

Learning to read

We've been working through some early reader books. Here's a recording of a session from last week.

Birds

Samuel [shooting water gun at daddy in the shower]: "You feeled that!"
Daddy [being way too verbose, and speaking with laryngitis in a noisy shower]: "We say 'felt', instead of 'feeled.' 'I felt, you felt, he/she/it felt.' It's verb conjugation. Can you say 'verb conjugation?'"
Samuel: "Bird congregation."
Daddy: "Hm. OK."

Composing Music

Daddy: "Do you want to do a new song for your piano lesson today?"
Samuel: "Yes."
Daddy: [thinks quickly to try to pick a song they haven't done]
Samuel: "Let's do this one: <sings a new song>"

I didn't record his initial singing, so I'm sure what we ended up with is only approximate. But here's a recording of us both playing (with only me singing) his new song: Mary Had A Cow

But they can't eat everyone!

On Sunday, I recited Lewis Carroll's The Walrus and the Carpenter to Samuel for the first time in many months. The ending is quite dramatic:

Daddy: "...because they'd...eaten...every..."

Samuel: "One!"

But, as he said to me last summer (IIRC), he reminded me again:

Samuel: "But if the one oyster eats all the other ones, who can eat that one?"

He didn't state it quite so clearly this time (because obviously the oysters aren't eating each other). IIRC, when this came up last summer he said:

Samuel: "But nobody can eat everybody, because who can eat the last one?"

I think it comes down to this: he's hearing "they'd eaten everyone," instead of "they'd eaten every one."

So I explained again that the walrus and carpenter had eaten all the oysters, but that they hadn't eaten everyone.

So I guess we can all be thankful for that.