Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Last Day of the Month

Kelvin snatched a small planner that we received in a Christmas "goodie bag" prepared by a friend and now he's marking his days there. It's the cutest thing, he writes a "P" (as in past) for the days that have passed, "N" (for now) for the day he's writing, and "A" (after) for the days in the future that, in his logic, will come "after" now (I suggested F for future...).

Today we were discussing that it would be best if we reduced the amount of TV they watch (generally two PBS shows a day and, occasionally, a 30 minute DVD in addition to that plus half an hour or much more online playing games [Kelvin]) so we could do a schedule, e.g. Curious George on Mondays, Super Why on Tuesdays, Ruff Ruffman (his new obsession, recommended by older schoolmates) on Wednesday, something like that. He immediately went to get his planner and then, found out which day it was and concluded that January is almost ending.

I agreed, and I told him that the month would end on January thirty-first.

"No," he screamed from across the kitchen, not missing a beat,
"January thirty-last!"

Yeah, that was smart!

P.S. and this one is not "in translation" as the label says, we spoke it in English.

2 comments:

Tracy said...

Love it! That's really quite funny!

Do your kids watch "Word Girl?" I think that is my absolute favorite PBS Kids cartoon, and so few people have seen it. It's almost funnier for adults than children, but I love the idea of a superhero who derives her power from her excellent vocabulary. (And the exclamation, "WORD UP!" doesn't hurt, either!)

Nathan had a thing for "Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman", too. It's a cute show, but annoying because they don't have any new episodes. Once they started repeating, Nathan cut it out of his afternoon PBS selection (in favor of "Arthur", another great one even I enjoy watching).

Like you, we limit Nathan's TV time. He usually just gets an hour after school, which gives me time to make supper, nurse Meg, and generally get the house in order before the evening's activities begin. I have a feeling we might have to limit his Leapster time, too. He LOVES that thing, maybe a little too much.

kate said...

Wow, that is really cute (and shows a very good, albeit not entirely correct, understanding of numbers!) I love that he is using his own calendar.

As far as TV, I would absolutely love it if we had access to something like PBS here. No commercial-free TV whatsoever, and most kids' shows are as market-driven as the commercials. They do watch Clifford in the mornings before school, which is preachy and annoying from an adult perspective, but they can watch it in English and it's better than most.

That said, I think the idea of scheduling specific programs during the week is a great one. Cuts down on the all-TV, all the time mentality and actually gives them something to look forward to (not to mention it reinforces the concept of days of the week, etc.)