Thursday, March 6, 2008

We've been watching the two best kids' shows lately. Normally, I don't have a lot of regard for kids' shows. But sometimes, I see that my kids learn from them. Like when B was figuring out reading but didn't want us interfering, "Between the Lions" helped him make a lot of connections on his own. TV has its redeeming features.

Anyway, they started watching this really sappy show on Disney (ugh) called, "Little Einsteins". The title by itself is kind of obnoxious. The show seemed pretty harmless, however. I swear that most little kids' shows now seem to use the "Dora the Explorer" formula; if you watch kids' TV then you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, they have learned so much from this show; I was really surprised. First, T started going on about "adagio" and "allegro", etc. I don't know what most of that means tbh, so I was a bit confused when T would urge us to go adagio. He really got into that. And second, they've started recognizing pieces of classical music. Some were pieces that most people know, like the Nutcracker stuff. But when I had a classical music station playing the other day and something from Handel came on, B yelled, "That's Annie's Love Song!" (a LE episode) and they were both so excited. One time when they were watching the show and the cartoon characters introduced Schubert, B turned to T and said, "Oh Schubert. We know Schubert".

So, sappiness and obnoxious title and all, my kids are learning a lot from this show.

The second show is one that an online friend told us about the other day, a Nick Jr show called, "Ni hao Kai-lan". It's like Dora the Explorer, but with Mandarin. She seems to use a LOT more Mandarin than Dora uses Spanish. I was really impressed with it. I'm studying Mandarin right now and I've been teaching some to the kids. So they are obsessed with this show now and they recognize some of the words that I had taught them like "ye-ye"/grandfather.

This morning, T asked me how to say "slippers" in Chinese again. They had watched their first episode yesterday, one that used the word for slippers and we had only seen it once. I honestly didn't remember how to say "slippers. Then, B piped up with, "It's duo-xie". I don't know if those are the words but that's what it *sounded* like he said. I couldn't believe he remembered how to say "slippers" from one viewing of one episode!

Anyway, those two shows get a thumbs-up from me for now.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

I'm trying to remember what we've done lately. We recently saw a live production of Pinnochio. All four of us went. It was really good, perhaps the best production I've seen from the Children's Theatre so far. Dh thought it was remarkably similar to British Pantomime. British Pantomime is a weird Christmas play ritual that features a traditional fairy tale where the leading lady is played by a man and the leading man is played by a woman. There's lots of audience participation ("He's behind you!!"). I've been once; it was a blast. With any luck, we'll be in England this Christmas and my kids will finally get a chance to see a real Pantomime.

T is really enjoying his drama class. I arrive to pick him up before the class is actually over, so I can see what they're doing through the window. He's always really into whatever they're doing. My father said, "Does he need any more dramatics??". This class is right up T's alley.

I think B and I are going to the open art gallery night downtown. Both my kids like art but it's more of B's thing and it's just nice for us to do something together. The weather is great and downtown is so beautiful. We've looked inside the windows of various galleries before but it will be great to actually go inside and see what they do. I hope to go by my photography instructor's studio, but her studio is a bit further away from the main area.

Speaking of photography, my recent revived interest in photography has passed on to B. They kids got a V-tech toy digital camera for Christmas. B has been making full use of it. If I can find our old, original digital camera (which is very light), I'll let him use it. One day while T was in class, B and I took our cameras to the park. He took some great pictures. He has a good eye for things. I copied at least one picture idea from him and we both raced toward another thing (the base of a suspension bridge) at the same time because we simultaneously saw its interesting geometric shapes. When our lives calm down with moving madness and such, I plan on taking B downtown really early in the morning when I retake some of my downtown shots. I figure it would be a fun photography outing and then we could get breakfast afterwards.

I think we're going to the park today. Earlier today, T was building a Lego pyramid and B was making a Dalek puzzle. I think they're playing with the Playmobile airport right now.