And P.S. They Do to Melt in Your Hand

M&M's, rotavirus, conjunctivitis, and a cheapened sense of accomplishment. Who knows what we actually got today from M&M World. 

The kids have been working hard since school started to automatize the number pairs adding up to 10 (and the number pairs' relation to 10 in a subtraction problem). After a few different games, and a lot of drilling, today they both hit the goal (completing two worksheets -- addition/subtraction -- each under 30 seconds). Thus our trundling off to Times Square to enter a land of nasty fake chocolate scent swirling around giant, plastic, dressed-up M&M's. I walk into places like that and it becomes very clear why people from other countries -- countries where people work all day pulling a rickshaw through waste-high putrid monsoon water in order to buy enough bananas for their kids -- hate this country. It is gross (and I'm not even addressing those handles that I'm pretty sure aren't sanitized between daytime tourist visits and nighttime cockroach par-tays).

I don't know if incentivizing is a good thing. I don't know if supporting candy-coated consumerism by plunking down a truly bloated amount of money for a cellophane bag of sugar and chemicals is a good idea. 

I know it was nice to see the offspring work hard to shave seconds off their time, and then be really, really excited when they reached a specific goal. I know that they were grateful and understood that this was a once in a lifetime experience. I know that we have to build up immune systems somehow... I for sure know that the journey to and from Times Square was more valuable and smelled fresher. We saw:

An independent business man selling munchies from this truck.

An enormous iguana crawling down a building.

A gorgeous wall of books at a publishing house. (We wondered how much longer books will be printed and bound.)

One of the new 100% all-electric, zero-emissions Duane Reade trucks.

Union members calling out a business owner for rat-like actions.  (Oh, how we love these inflatable rats! Our blood quickens when one is spotted around town. Our favorite spottings are on breezy days when its creepy fingers blow about in a menacing way.) 

Public art that looks like an enormous unicorn horn.

Innovation, creativity, courage, design, beauty, giant rat fingers dancing in the wind... There is so much out there to engage in and be motivated by and feel proud to be a part of. I hope that is what ultimately incentivizes us... 

Scraps

Does success or failure largely depend on one's ability to access a situation? To look and listen and have the confidence to figure out what the next step needs to be? More than stockpiling an enormous pile of material, is it about being observant and piecing together what the current climate calls for?

There is something to be said for having the basic skills of listening, observing, and honing/trusting common sense.  

Today we did a bit of sewing. In every single mommy/DIY/my-life-is-awesome-and-yours-sucks blogs you've seen those garlands made by zipping along on the sewing machine and throwing down a circle every few inches.  

My friend lets her spawn go for it on their own. I like my kids' fingers. I figure that we can increase their independence with each coming holiday. According to my calculations... assuming we do it for Thanksgiving... they might be ready to make a garland solo by... Arbor Day... 2015.

Today we worked as a team. I guided the thread chain and circles while they took turns working the pedal and raising/lowering the needle as needed. I think I said, "Stop. Go. Stop. Go. SLOW DOWN -- SHEESH! Stop. Go." Approximately 5,000 times. But both kids liked it, they are proud of the finished project, and I feel like they really did get better about not putting the pedal all the way to the floor, but rather feeling along for a nice, steady rhythm. 

I do know that academics are critical, that we can't revert all the way back to baking bread, sewing, and raising poultry (though we really are hoping to do those things this year)... And yet, I can't help but feel that the further we get from basic tasks that require listening, and common sense, and finding a rhythm, that culminate in a tangible finished project, the further we are getting from our humanity. 

So we became more humane today by creating a garland to enhance our bat mobile. 

On another note: we switched our piano lessons from after school to during school so as to accommodate a standing play date with one of The Girl's friends. I am very much appreciating how not-segmented our days are. Sure, this was just a moment in our play date:

But it was also a bit o' exercise. It's cool when the kids ask, "So was that kind of gym?" after we do something like this. They are getting that "school" is rather arbitrary. The more cross-over and the less constructed binary opposition (school/free-time; learning/fun) the better.