Another Messy Day

I had to stick around Peter's school for a little while today, making copies.  So Grady had to sit in the hallway and read or play quietly while I got these things done.  He got many comments about how well he was sitting and being quiet.

But in a sort-of reward for letting me get the stuff done, I told him we'd have a messy day after we were done.  I mixed up some cornstarch and water (with a little food coloring) at home and let him go to town.

For a while it was just squishing his hands in it, but then the "tools" came out too.  At some point I had to tell him he couldn't take anything more out of the cabinets because I didn't want to wash that much.  He seemed to have a lot of fun.  He didn't get tired of it until I said no more tools and we could get clean whenever he wanted to.



He had fun sitting in the bath tub for a while to rinse all the cornstarch off.  It's starting to cool down a little here, so he enjoyed the warmth of the tub.  He sang and played and splashed around in the tub until he was ready for lunch.

After lunch, he spent nearly an hour working on this 117 piece puzzle.  It was hard for him, but somehow the whole idea of all the states and their shapes is really starting to take root in his head.  He's starting to know where things go in relation to other states.




Of course, I'm helping him process some of the logic like "all the words face the same direction".  Because sometimes he'll be convinced a piece should go in a certain spot, but he'll try every direction except straight up.  Then again, when Peter got home and accidentally broke some of the puzzle, he did the same thing putting it back together.

Grady pulled out the puzzle and said he "wanted to do it together".  But that's just code for "I want you to watch me, but don't actually try to fit any pieces together".  I get around it a little bit by helping him sort the pieces a little.  He hasn't gotten upset with me for that one yet, but I can see that there'll probably be a day he doesn't want that either.

And just to round out the day, we got out the paints too.  (That doesn't include the part of the day where Grady got out the stamps and ended up with ink all over himself, including his back somehow.)  I wasn't sure what he would paint on the paper, but he immediately started painting out the whole alphabet.  I was surprised by how well he wrote out all the letters.  When he finished letters, he moved on to numbers.  I think he made it up to 16 before he ran out of room.  He also painted a house and when I asked if he was going to add grass, he looked at his color palette (with green, red, brown, yellow, etc.) and chose brown for the grass.  I still just can't figure out what color he sees when he looks at stuff.

And in Peter news, he is reading up a storm.  I swear he must just start picturing words in his head sometimes now.  He's got about 3-4 different books that he works on at school.  And every couple days he'll tell me he finished one and took the school quiz for it.  These are now 50+ page chapter books that he's just deciding he can read by himself!

Every night before bed, he's been reading comic books to himself.  And it seems like he actually reads the words now too, not just looking at the pictures.  I'll come in and tell him to turn out the light after a half hour, and he says he still needs a few more minutes to finish the story.

The book that his teacher assigns for him to read nightly at home has had some really short chapters lately.  Maybe 5 pages of text instead of the normal 10 pages that she was giving, but I haven't bothered to say anything about it because he reads so much besides that.

For second grade, students are supposed to get 6 reading points a month.  You read a book and then take a computerized quiz to earn your points.  Peter's been through so many books this month, we're estimating he has about 15 points for the month.

He's also going to be taking the GT placement tests soon so see if he qualifies for the GT classes.  I'm not sure what all of it entails and he's not sure he likes the idea of it, but he catches on to all the second grade stuff so quickly that this might be good for him.