Revisiting Dinner

An amazing milestone. When we were having dinner at 6pm, Quinn said that she didn't want dinner now, but that she would come back to it. Thinking that we were being tricked (as this meal was new, and certainly didn't meet her visual criteria for food) , we said okay and kept her dinner separate.

Later that night, just before bed, Quinn was now hungry. On her own, she said that she'd finish dinner now. So we gave it back to her, and she ate it. Flavorful ginger chicken. Awesome!

Family Meetings

We started family meetings this week. While Brock lost interest quickly, the meeting was an overall success. After a round of praise and kudos, we determined as a group that "Stop please" would be our phrase that indicates that the current action has gone to far. Then we had cookies (BTW the kids didn't like Sandies, clearly they can't be related to me), and watched a video.

Jobs: Critic, Buyer, Horticulturist, Author

As a critic, we tried new foods (she liked the Red Robin Burgers... the only burger she has liked), saw Brave  the movie (of course we liked it, but the bear part was a little scary), and evaluated some songs.

As a buyer, we shopped for items for Quinn's birthday party. We had to balance a budget, items appropriate for the hot outside weather, and the range of kids appropriateness (1 - 6  yrs old). We also worked on thinking about what others might like, not just what she wanted

As a horticulturist, She went shopping for a lemon tree. She had to evaluate the different trees and options with them. There was not as much maintenance involved with the tree this week as it rained everyday. There we compared and contrasted a horticulturist to a florist (who we talked to at length in the grocery store).

Quinn came up with the author idea on her own. She wanted to color pages from a coloring book and write a story about it. We've had to extend this job, as she is more focused on the coloring than on the writing. But she choose it, so we will see if she actually completes this job.

Not Playing with Brock

"Brock, I don't want to play with you right now. Because then we will fight, and I don't want to say I'm sorry," says Quinn in very nice non-whiny words.

Progress!

Long bike ride

Tonight Quinn rode her bike from our house to Fioza, for a smoothie, and back. 2.2 miles round trip. I only made her stop to walk across the busy streets.

Yea! Quinn!

Excited about 5th birthday

Quinn's birthday is Sunday, her party is Sunday morning.

The Monday prior, here is what she said:

"I can't wait until Sunday morning, no I can't wait for Sunday day, no Saturday night, no I can't wait for Sunday morning, no Friday night, no Friday at school, no Saturday for dinner, no Sunday morning....

Job 7: Banker

We started a minor's savings account for Quinn this week. She put in $6. So she still has $6 to spend
Also this week she decided to buy a headband with her allowance. The label said it was $3.13, which I told her was about 1/2 of her money. When we went to check out it was actually $4.20, which I told her was most of her money. She was very upset by this.

I was looking forward to the teachable moment of you-have-to-choose-between-the-things-you-want-and-can-afford, but a generous spectator gave Quinn a dollar to account for the difference... . I guess that teachable moment will have to come around again. 

Job 6: Pet Shop Owner

This week, as a pet shop owner, Quinn was in charge of feeding Zoe. We also went to the pet store for a scavenger hunt. We found a gerbil's house, frog food, cat toys and doggie day care.

My house is peaceful when....

"my brother and I aren't grumpy, and we take naps" -- Quinn


Quote taken from kindercamp

Job 5 - toy designer

This week we talked about what makes a good toy versus a bad toy. We talked about different contexts, like airplane versus at home and different audiences, like girls, boys, and parents.

Quinn made a puzzle and several logo based cars and planes for Brock and Gavin (the son of the person that Pat is currently dating)

Do-re-mi

Throughly enjoyed playing Do-re-mi on the piano this morning. Both kids were singing along... What a warm fuzzy.

Job 4: Hostess

Quinn was a great hostess last week. For our Memorial Day party, she greeted all of the younger guests and would play with them. She helped set the table and bring out extra napkins.

Then she helped Popo get ready for her Maj game

And finally, when we went to a friends party (house warming), she helped light candles and clean up.

I think she really enjoyed being a hostess. It is a good thing. She comes from a long line of party throwers.

Memorial Day 2012

We had a great party for Memorial day.

It is fantastic to be able to have Quinn swim with all of her friends and not have to worry about her in the pool. She can swim, dive down, jump in the deep end, and be completely okay in the water. Fantastic!

Also, I think that she was so hungry and involved with her friends that not only did she eat a burger, but it was a spicy Tex Mex burger... This is hope!

Job 3: Event Planner

There was so much going on this week, that we needed Quinn to help by being an event planner. 

This week there was  

• Monday: BAC Pool party and Gymnastics Showcase
• Tues - rest
• Wed: Graduation
• Thurs - Messy day @ school and dance recital
• Friday - Playing at Popo's and Shawn's Bday

The actions that Quinn took as event planner were

• Drawing up on an hourly calendar all of the events for the week
• Packing all of the outfits, bathing suits, and other clothing that she would need for the day
• Deciding what meals and snacks would be

Pre-K Graduation

Quinn is super excited about her graduation today. She is talking about Kolter kindergarten for next year and how she is a big girl. I hope that all of her graduations have as much excitement for her.

Job 2: Dress Designer

Quinn was a dress designer this past week.

• We designed a dress using Dress creator, where we talked about different necklines and dress types. 
• Quinn particularly liked the sweetheart style
• She spent lots of time coloring different style dresses. Greens for Daddy and oranges for Mommy.
• We went to International Dance Design to look at different gowns and costumes and also the different types of fabrics.
• Quinn even tried on a latin costume that was close to her size.  

Job 1: Picture Framer

Quinn's first allowance job was a picture framer.

• We looked at many different pictures around the house. 
• She identified that some were thick, and some thin. 
• Some were decorated and some plain
• Some had different color borders. We learned that these were called mattes
• We also noticed that the corners of the frames had diagonals. 
• Quinn drew a photo and then drew a matte and frame around it, making sure to add the diagonals in the corners
• We visited a picture framer shop and got to choose several frames (pink and purple). Then we choose several mattes (green and orange). 
• We talked about how the frames and mattes should be choosen with the photo in mind, so that they bring out certain colors from the picture. 
• We also discovered that some frames are deeper, to allow for things like baseballs and bats to be framed. 

She was neutral about this career

Careers and Allowances

So we've started Quinn on an allowance. After doing some research, we didn't want to pay her for nothing. We also didn't want to pay her for normal expectations, like cleaning her room, or putting her dish in the sink. Furthermore it is difficult to do extraordinary things all of the time. Then we came upon the Earn it, Learn It approach.

This approach is basically get a career for a week and learn the different aspects of that career.

For us, we are at minimum having Quinn keep a journal. In this journal she needs to write the job title, date, draw / photocopy / create a picture of the career, and finally a happy, sad or neutral face for her impression of it.

She will be earning 2 dollars a week. A $1 bill, and $1 in coins. The intent of the bill is to be saved, and we will deposit it in the bank every month. The intent of the coins is for whatever she wants.

We will let her use the saved money after 3 months in the bank, but then she can only take out 1/2 of her savings. At least that is the going plan at the moment.

We are using the Earn it, Learn it book, as well as Would you like to Fly a Jet, Would you Like to Be a Vet for inspiration on what careers to choose.

The most challenging things at the moment, is keeping track of the coins, and not letting Brock play with them.

Shadows

Quinn is really good at problem solving. She was excited about how long her shadow was this morning. I asked her to see if she could separate herself from her shadow. I was thinking that this would be pretty hard for her. In probably less than 30 seconds, she figured out if she got in the shadow of a car (we were in the parking lot), that her shadow would go away and she'd be separated.

That was really really fast. I was a little stunned.

Gold fish

Last weekend we "won" 14 goldfish from the Japan festival.... yeah, couldn't keep them alive for 12 hours... they were all dead by the morning.

Strings on the sun?

Queston of the day:
How many strings [rays] does the sun have [for drawing]?

Anti - Sharing Decree

If I were King, I would decree that there shalt be no sharing or attempted sharing before breakfast.

Brock, as usual, was up with mommy working on a puzzle. Quinn said that she wanted to "help". Which meant taking every piece that Brock was working on away from him. Even after delegating the sun to Brock and the beach to Quinn. She still wanted the sun. And of course after switching out the sun and the bird, Quinn wanted the bird.

Oh the drama of a morning kid versus a non-morning kid.

Brock time

This morning Quinn was reading Brock a story. Pam asked them if they wanted cereal. Quinn said no... "This is me an Brock time. We will have it after I finish reading..."

Awesome

Imitation Drawings

If I haven't mentioned it already, Quinn loves art projects, drawing, and coloring. I wanted to post some examples of her ability to mimic what others have drawn. The one on the chalkboard, Pam guided her through "circles for faces" and "rectangles for arms". The gnomes almost all on her own.... I did have to help her draw the swing, stop at the body, then continue on the other side. And just for the record, she is 4.5.

Falling lessons

Last week, Quinn was determined to watch a movie and that ment pulling down the projector screen. She carefully constructed a stool on top of the ottoman cushion to enable her to reach up high enough. I told her it wasn't safe and she was going to fall. She of course countered and said that she was being safe.

She fell, and probably hurt herself, but she didn't let it show.

I then did an experiment where we stacked up blocks on the floor and had her try to jump to knock them over.  Then did the same experiment on the cushion . Clearly the pile was less stable on the cushion.

You could see Quinn processing, that the next time she needed more solid surfaces (like the buffet) for her next climbing adventures.  I love teachable moments!

Cinnamon Life Cereal

Cinnamon Life changed their packaging, now Quinn's favorite cereal is invalid. Yup, that is the logic that we live in.

Cute / Sick Quinn

Quinn woke with a fever today. She didn't go to school, so she is hanging out with us. Currently she is asleep on the floor in my office while I'm working. She is such a great kid.

Daddy / Daughter Dance

We did our first daddy daughter dance tonight. I went in having the expectation that I might get a dance with Quinn, but hoping that we'd dance all night. Quinn had a blast dancing with her friends and eating desserts. I got 1/4 of a dance, split across two songs (so that would be an 1/8 of a dance each). I guess this was better then my expectations, yet still disappointing. Maybe she will actually dance with me at her wedding :)

G/T Testing

Quinn took the G/T test today. It was a 40 minute test, that Quinn described as a lot of "find the ...." She said that it wasn't much fun, at least not as much fun as we made it out to be. We will find out in March what the outcome is

Cheese toast with Parsely

Huge milestone today. Quinn tried cheese toast with visible parsely. She said that there was more cheese than green things, so it was okay. THERE IS HOPE!