We've been using the One Second Everyday app for one year, now! I *love* this app. Great way to use all those little video clips without feeling overwhelmed by it all.
To watch other months, check our archives or visit our 1SE page, which can be found under the 1 Second Everyday tab in the top menu.
Not only did we have an extra-early Easter this year, I'm really late posting these. Better late than never! Dyeing eggs with Gram and Pops, and decorating Gram's Easter tree!
Waiting...patiently...for Pops to arrive so she can show him her new bike!
Usually Sam does homework at the kitchen table while I fix dinner, but on this particular day we took a field trip to one of the coolest, and probably one of the most unusual stores in Denton to do homework - SCRAP!
Picture your junk drawer in the kitchen - the one where you throw old keys and the button that falls off your jacket - then imagine the contents of your drawer filling every nook and cranny of a fairly large building. That's SCRAP.
Because it has a little bit of everything and the items there are meant to be used in the creative construction of something else completely different, it was the perfect place to get materials for Sam's first EXPO project - his "Trashion Fashion" costume.
A Trashion Fashion show is exactly what its name implies - models strutting the runway wearing outfits made from trash. Sam's assignment went a little further in that it needed to represent something he learned in EXPO class this year. At Open House last spring, he showed us the logic puzzles he solves in class, so we decided he would make the perfect "Puzzle King" for the fashion show. So one day after school we put on our creativity caps and headed to SCRAP!
Every puzzle king needs a scepter - we made one out of this old curtain rod, an empty roll of packing tape and a giant puzzle piece!
Sam found some bulletin board border that was perfectly wavy for a king's crown!
We ended up getting most of his supplies at SCRAP; all the parts of his scepter, fabric for his royal robe, and some glass beads for the jewels in his bulletin border-crown. It was a perfect lesson in reduce-reuse-recycle and a fun field trip to our favorite downtown!
Our Downtown Denton version of American Gothic. Haha!
Photo by, and used with permission (purchased) from, Cesar Guzman
Sam the Puzzle King, "backstage" in the science lab, waiting for his turn to line up and walk the runway of his first Trashion Fashion show!
Showing off the rest of his costume - he used a (clean) trash bag for his shirt and pants, made a question mark out of a Cheerios box, and we photocopied the designs on his EXPO puzzles onto the backs of used cardstock. How's that for repurposing trash!
Shaking his Royal Hiney!
Field Day....
Field Day, Field Day, Field Day, with your potato-sack races and your tug-of-war. Such a happy day you are for so many little people - as you should be - and yet for others of us, well, it was just never meant to be.
Yep, it appears as if MY childhood feelings of Field Day dread, anxiety, and humiliation have been passed down to our firstborn. Sorry, Sam.
This was Sam's first Field Day ever (his Kindergarten Field Day was cancelled last year because of rain) and he was so very excited. We talked about it each day after school the week prior; he explained the games to me, where they would be played, and how they practiced every time they had P.E.
He was giddy when I dropped him off at school that morning. But when Evie and I returned to watch the games later that morning, he ran to me crying. It wasn't going well. It wasn't quite what he thought it would be.
Ms. Torres was dressed so cute in her silly workout clothes and all the teachers tried to make it fun for the kids. But for the most part, it just wasn't happening for our Sam.
He's an athletic kid, for sure. Baseball, golf, and bike riding have all come easy for him. But it wasn't about the physical challenges for Sam (as it was for me). It was the pressure, I suspect. And too much going on. Too many kids yelling at each other (and him) to Run! Catch! Pull!
Plain old sensory overload for someone as sensitive and in-tune as Sam. And a lot of pressure for one who expects such perfection from himself and others. Lots of eye-rolling and throwing up of hands in exasperation that day. I caught a smile when he did the bouncy-ball race, and a little smirk as he was about to fall out of his tater-sack, but that was about it.
He told me later they did get a long turn in the bounce house at the end of the day. That definitely helped make up for an otherwise stressful day.
Here's hoping Field Day 2017 is a whole different experience - for everyone!
Just about the time Sam was raising baby chicks at school, we had a snail visit. He was on the outside of the house as we left for school one morning. Sam moved him to our front flower pot and I spent the morning taking pictures of him with my macro lens. (see the "Other Projects" tab above for photos of Mr. Snail) We thought he was pretty cool.
Then that one snail turned into two snails which eventually turned into twenty-seven snails. I think word got out that things were pretty good on the Straka's front porch! Sam made a home for them in the big flower pot, then a hospital for sickly snails in a small pot, and finally a snail graveyard behind our largest pot. Things got a little crazy - we'd leave for school in the morning and there would be snails crawling up the walls, snails on the ceiling and snails on the ground. Slime trails everywhere. They are funny little creatures to watch and photograph, especially since we've never seen them around before now. Brian said he and Papa Emil used to step on them on their way out the door in the morning in California because there were so many. Eew!
The Straka snail population seems to have decreased for now, I guess due to the dry, hot weather. But they sure kept this boy here busy for a while! Hopefully the Straka Snail Hotel will open for business again soon!
Sam's wonderful, patient teacher let her first-graders raise chicks this spring. They incubated the eggs, counted down the days, watched them change (through the shell!) and eventually hatch into fluffy chicks of all sizes and colors. She offered the kids a chance to chick-sit at night and over the weekends if they wanted. I signed up for a weekend thinking that one night was not enough. I want to play with the chicks! I want pictures! It will go by too fast!
Wrong.
All in all, it wasn't too terribly bad keeping them for a whole weekend, but like Brian said, "It's been fun, but I won't be sad when Monday comes!" Lots of peep-peep-peeping. Lots of neighborhood kids coming over, wanting to hold them, arguing over what to name them, etc. But it was a good experience for both Sam and Evie. Sam was not afraid to hold the chicks, and was very protective of them. He knew their personalities, too - which one liked to be held, which one was afraid, which one was most likely to try to escape. And Evie did a good job petting them gently. She was cautious, but curious.
Soon after we returned the chicks to Ms. Torres' classroom, they were sent to "live on a farm", ahem. So glad we have these pictures to remember them by!
Sam's made friends with several kids on our street. They're a bit older; one and two years ahead of him, but they all play really well together. Until they don't. Which is about every fifteen minutes, or so. It's an emotional rollercoaster around here sometimes.
This was a fun evening, though. Brian went and bought a bunch of stuff to make ice cream sundaes for all the kids and they had a little party on the porch. Such a nice dad!
