Last night Clare informed me that we would be spending some one-on-one time together this afternoon. After all, Meg had an entire night at the museum of one-on-one time with me Friday night. Clare told me her plan for our time and I readily agreed.
We began by attempting to play the board game she designed. At the Smithsonian Sleepover, Meg and I bought Clare the Creativity for Kids Spark!Lab Smithsonian Invent the Greatest Board Game. Clare immediately began work upon receiving it and created her game: Portals and Passages. Today she showed me the game board and began explaining the very complicated rules. There were numerous sets of cards and by the time she sorted through all the cards, she had lost the dice. So, we put the first official playing of Portals and Passages on hold.
We began by attempting to play the board game she designed. At the Smithsonian Sleepover, Meg and I bought Clare the Creativity for Kids Spark!Lab Smithsonian Invent the Greatest Board Game. Clare immediately began work upon receiving it and created her game: Portals and Passages. Today she showed me the game board and began explaining the very complicated rules. There were numerous sets of cards and by the time she sorted through all the cards, she had lost the dice. So, we put the first official playing of Portals and Passages on hold.
Next on our agenda was practicing and performing a play from her BrainQuest book. Clare assigned me the part of an old man who insists that he owns the shade from a tree. She plays the young man who eventually buys the shade and ends up taking the old man's house when the shade falls over the house. Clare played the part of the director and demonstrated the hand motions I should use as well as the voice inflections. She also insisted that I memorize my part. Clare has always had a vivid imagination and loves make-up and dressing up, but I had no idea she had such a theatrical bent. We eventually performed our play for Anne, who gave us rave reviews.
The final portion of Clare's one-on-one time was reading poetry together. Clare has always loved rhyme and recently that has developed into a love of children's poetry. She writes poetry (and songs), but she mostly loves reading it together. I was recently watching the BBC series The Secret Life of Books (which I highly recommend) and learned about Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense written in 1846. I knew Clare would love his work. I then discovered the British Library had issued a beautiful edition of Lear's Nonsense Songs and Stories, so I immediately bought it for her. This afternoon Clare and I read several of the poems from the book. She likes us to read in unison so she can follow my cadence and learn how the poem should sound. It was quite enjoyable.
This completed our special time together. I couldn't have planned a more pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon and I was quite happy it was Clare's idea of a nice afternoon as well.
The final portion of Clare's one-on-one time was reading poetry together. Clare has always loved rhyme and recently that has developed into a love of children's poetry. She writes poetry (and songs), but she mostly loves reading it together. I was recently watching the BBC series The Secret Life of Books (which I highly recommend) and learned about Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense written in 1846. I knew Clare would love his work. I then discovered the British Library had issued a beautiful edition of Lear's Nonsense Songs and Stories, so I immediately bought it for her. This afternoon Clare and I read several of the poems from the book. She likes us to read in unison so she can follow my cadence and learn how the poem should sound. It was quite enjoyable.
This completed our special time together. I couldn't have planned a more pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon and I was quite happy it was Clare's idea of a nice afternoon as well.
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