The end of the holidays

After my 14yo niece went home, I tentatively suggested that the kids might like to get back to our new work schedule even though the school holidays continue this week. That suggestion was scorned. It was maybe unrealistic anyway as it turns out Tessa has three sleepovers this week. And Josiah seems to be having a productive week regardless. He has done some further work on his lego movie. Something made him get out our electric circuit equipment - wires, bulbs, batteries, switches, buzzers etc. He experimented making different circuits, trying to light two bulbs at once: the perfect opportunity to explore what happens when you place objects in series or parallel in a circuit. I hunted out our various science books which have sections on electric circuits and Josiah and I read what each had to say. Not a bad day's work. There are a couple of other experiments Josiah wants to try but we need more parts. [Update: just picked up the needed parts this morning and Josiah is at work building circuits again as I write.]

Both kids are spending a surprising amount of time reading, sorting and playing with the "Stat Attack" cards they've been collecting from weetbix packets and swapping with friends for the last few months. Each card has the picture of an All Black and his "statistics" - year of birth, average tackles, test points, weight, etc. It is hilarious listening to Tessa, who has only watched two or three rugby games in her life and fell asleep during at least one of those, knowledgeably discussing different All Blacks with her brother. Lots of maths is being done around these cards: how many children Tessa's and Josiah's weight (35kg) would it take to make an All Black? (Answer: approximately 3.) Josiah has drawn up a huge table of statistics and is spending long periods bent over a calculator and jotting down figures. I've had a peek at the table and at first couldn't work out what it all meant: Grant Fox is not two years old so why is there a "2" entered for him under age? I think what Josiah has done is rank the All Blacks in each statistic. That would explain why I keep coming across the cards lined up across the living room floor in different sequences.

I have been making use of journalling during the day to identify what I should do next. As I mentioned recently, writing is how I think things through and reach decisions. I have made surprisingly little use of this to control the flow of my days, restricting my writing to bigger picture, analytical writing after the event. Yesterday, soon after Josiah started working with the electric circuit equipment, I wondered if I should join him or if that would be interrupting. I picked up pen and paper and, from across the room so he wouldn't notice what I was doing, just started writing what I saw. I had only written a few sentences when I knew it would be helpful if I got out our science books: Josiah was questioning the causes of what was happening in the circuits he was building.

I did the same again later in the day when Tessa came home from a friend's place and immediately got out the aforementioned Stat Attack cards to show Josiah the new ones she had got from an exchange with her friend. Josiah was being a bit confrontational, grabbing cards from Tessa's hands to look at them - he had that urgency that kids often get when they want something. I wondered if I should intervene but as I wrote what I was seeing, I noticed that Tessa was entirely unperturbed - perfectly calm. Josiah soon relaxed too and the kids started a game with the cards.