Clear Instructions

Several years ago, I went through a communications training at work. One of the exercises was to sit back-to-back with your partner. One person would look at a simple picture and give instructions to the other person on how to draw it without saying what any of the objects were in the picture. For example, I would say, "Draw a circle with lines coming out all around it in the upper left corner of the paper," to indicate my partner should draw the sun in the upper left corner. Except for a few cases, the exercise illustrated that we need to be much more clear in our communication to ensure that others know what we are really trying to ask them to do.

It did not surprise me, therefore, when I asked Lee to cut out the "e" and "i" the other day, and I turned around to find him very carefully cutting out each letter.

I had meant for him to cut the paper in half. It would have been helpful if I had said that.

Shoe Chaos

It seems no matter how many organizational elements I add to our shoe life, it remains chaotic.

Our most recent venture was to build a floating shoe rack. I thought ahead and we made two.

The goal was to empty B's nicer (work) shoes out of the basket, so they don't get beat up with the tennis shoes and my everyday shoes. Goal accomplished, but take a look at that basket.

We should have made three.

Leapin' Leaves

Bryan started the long fall of leaf maintenance last weekend, and he caught some great photos. The kids have been begging to get into the leaves, and I have been longing for something besides the ones in the street gutter for them to enjoy. It's a win-win!

New Routine

She comes into the room just as I begin, without fail. Her face lights up. "Bible verses?"

"Yes, come sit with me," I reply. She breaks into a smile as she runs around the table and climbs into my lap. "Bible verses!"

I read to her from the passage. We take turns with my pen, scribbling notes on the page. And she sees what a daily time with the Lord can look like. I am thankful.

Math Games

Many of my math activities with Lee this year are games. I try to weave in whatever concept we are working on for the month. This week, I made a Lego board game. (I actually pinned it from somewhere, and I wanted to give credit, but I pinned it wrong, and can't for the life me find the blog.)

We first worked on board game etiquette and rules. He wanted to skip all the colored spaces where "nothing happened". He also thought we were racing to the end, so I had to explain - again and again - that we were only ending the game when someone reached the finish; it was the height of the towers that would determine the winner. Finally, Lee incorporated a policeman-taking-you-to-jail component. No worries, though - I always got to return to my space after he acted out the scene.

And the math? We counted the number of blocks in our towers and determined whose was greater than / less than the other's in order to declare our winner.

PS - I may have mentioned this before, but Lee has access to plenty of clothes - he just prefers not to wear them!