Brainstorms: Advent Calendar II: The Preparening

In typical fashion, my preparedness for upcoming holidays is a big jagged line of highs and lows. Let's start at the bottom. Thanksgiving is, like, forty eight hours away, and not only have I not done any shopping. My cookbooks, spiral notebook, and pen, are sitting on the living room coffee table, making sad trumpet music of failure at me every time I look at them.

However, at the tippy top of my super mom accomplishments is this year's Advent Calendar. I capitalized it because it has earned a spot in the list of traditions I attempt to cram into December. Only, remember last year, when I realized you actually have to start thinking of them in November? I didn't forget that this year. I got right on it about a week ago, because, not only did I want to have it finished by December 1st, I wanted to be able to share it with all the world well before then.

I decided to make the different units of the calendar hold the chocolate. Oh yeah, I also learned, just give them chocolate each time. Always learning here.

Our take on an amalgam of a million different kids craft idea sites all over the internet. Paper pyramid trees, a forest of them, full of candy, each waiting to be opened and harvested.

Here's how they started.

 It's like a triangle base, with three triangle sides, each of those sides having a little flap.

That helps sturdy the box corners.

We decorated them, numbered them, scored and folded them, punched holes at the top, stuffed them, and tied them shut. When you're doing 24 of anything, it's best to go as simple as possible. My mind could imagine all sorts of adorable embellishments, scraps of lace, buttons, magazine pictures, wrapping paper. They could look much more dolled up. We just used our stencils, stamps, fingertips and ink pads, with stickers and the occasional glued on dot from a hole puncher. Sometimes you have to let some things go and just plow through. Get her done, so to speak. I mean, there are springerle cookies to make, for goodness sake. Otherwise they won't be properly aged by the time we watch Sound of Music! (panting, wild-eyed)

Holiday Traditions: Sometimes they fill you with a love for the steady rhythm of time, like a song whose beat never fails; a song to which you are invited to add your own artful meaning, thus sharing a bit of what's inside you with those around you, and partaking in what they offer. This loving commune can be what makes life worth living. Other times, it can feel like, "OH NO! Christmas Eve is tomorrow and we never made those gingerbread Tardises I saw on Pinterest!! AND WHY HAVE WE NEVER GONE ICE SKATING AND THEN HAD COCOA?! This is when I take a deep breath and tell myself to move on. Enjoy finishing something, instead of spending forever making it just so. The little people in your life will benefit more from that light-heartedness than any clever craft activity.

Another variation on this idea is to fill the boxes with something other than candy. A small ornament or gift could fit in the box, which can be adapted to fit most anything. You could also stuff the trees with little slips of paper, saying that it's time to make a wreath with a parent, or read a seasonally-themed story, or play a favorite song from a CD, turned up loud, dancing around. As long as you mix it up and do something out of the ordinary, it should feel like a treat.

Only, don't intermingle candy and non-candy box contents. I learned that lesson the hard way. If it goes- Day. 1: Make a wreath, Day 2: CHOCOLATE, Day 3: Read  'Winter is the Warmeest Season" with Henry. Guess who hates reading books now? The kid who was really hoping for some candy. So pick one road and stay on it. We're stuck here, giving them chocolate every night, but it's not too late for you. Don't worry though, we're a merry bunch.  Rocking out to carols and making wreaths will happen, even if we are not commanded to do so by the little trees.

Tails and Tidings: Visitng Purrfessors

Halloween was over two weeks ago, but we still have a few sweets in the old trick-or-treat bucket.

 Meet  our latest house guests:  Tootsie, Snickers, Taffy and Twizzler, here to bring the mewing, the clawing, the purring and a big dose of vitamin Awww.

 Circumstances did what circumstances will do sometimes, and these local little felines suddenly found themselves without their mother. Of course, the stellar Tillamook Animal Shelter rescued them, and shared photos of them on Facebook, drinking from bottles and napping in fluffy piles. When I saw this, I waited exactly three nonchalant minutes before asking Geza if we could provide them with temporary foster care. He waited exactly one tenth of a second before saying, "Yes."

Why? When life is so hectic and there is already too much not getting done, why bring kittens into the mix?

Because, well, shoot. The reason is sort of deep inside my head, like a feeling that something is happening now and it is important. I've had this feeling before, and I liked what happened when I listened to it. Yes, it was when a pregnant dog spewed puppies all over my living room. Noticing a theme here?

I suppose this is what people romanticize about country life: all of the life. I've never heard a person speak disparagingly of a childhood filled with baby critters, even if things are messy and laborious at times. When we chose to homeschool, I decided against any particular program or curriculum, and cut out activities the kids weren't actively begging me for. This wasn't because I'm lazy, which I can be, but not in this case. It was because I believed something else would fill that space.

And that something just happens to be animals a lot of the time.

Impromptu Kitten Unit or What My Kids Get Out of Caring for Critters

Science: Squirming cause and effect.

For the younger two, the conversations have gotten deep. Often, we compare our bodies to the kittens'. Look at her forepaw. It's like your hand, isn't it? But it's also different. How is it different?

The way an animal behaves when he's content, hungry, in pain, or looking for some fun, is communicated without the fog of verbal meaning. For a person who is still getting the hang of words and their definitions, it is useful to employ these concepts without being graded on syntax. By responding to another creature's cues, a young person can practice caring, before they know what it is. Which leads me to

Empathy: What's it like to be you?

Not only can we talk about their body parts, their habits, and their needs, we can try to put ourselves into their paws.  We learned that kittens have very limited vision and rely on their whiskers to figure out the world directly in front of their faces. As soon as Mae saw Tootsie shudder and stare blankly at a shadow, she melted with empathy, scooping her up to keep her safe. Imagining that someone else is having a totally different experience than the one you are having is a heavy-duty abstract notion for somebody who is not yet five.

Confrontation Therapy: Sensory Overload, but in a Good Way

A litter of kittens, like most critters, provides ample scratching, stubbornness, wriggling, and sudden noise-making. This barrage of sensorial tricks and treats can surprise, startle, delight, frustrate, and sometimes hurt a young person, trying to make the kitten stay in the Lego house.

I can see how someone like George benefits from this. He's a big fan of predictable routines, and doesn't appreciate sudden anythings, except when flappy chicks, pushy puppies, and scratchy kittens are involved. When, while handling resident or visiting animals, he gets a faceful of wings, or a tiny little nibble from a barely-weaned, furry mouth, his resilience is inspirational. There's no giving up on loving a kitten. They spark in him a desire to return and try again; to build relationships over time.

Math: Count the Combos

Last, but not least, when you have to care for four kittens, you have frolicky fun word problems in the making. While they are our furry little teachers here at the BU, they are also doing their fair share of learning. These babies need to be handled, startled, cuddled, and surprised by humans during their early days. That's because, when they find themselves in a shelter eventually, potential adopters will not consider a hissing frightened ball of feral fur for a pet. So, every evening, Henry and Thomas bring the kittens upstairs in pairs, to climb up pillows, jump off of beds, surf the storms of beds sheets and hide in book forts.

Night after night, as they took up various combinations of cats, we got to talking. How many different kitten pairs are possible?

What's the best way to figure that out? Sure, you can start with:  Snickers plus Tootsie (1), Snickers plus Taffy (2), Snickers plus Twizzler (3), and then keep counting all of the other cats that way, but you'd soon run into some repeats. Taffy plus Tootsie (4), Taffy plus Twizzler (5), Taffy plus Snickers? Nope, we said that already. So, moving on to another kitten, Twizzler or Tootsie, we're going to have even more repeats. I asked aloud, "Isn't there some kind of mathematical formula, to help us know how many possible kitten combos can be taken for playtime upstairs?"

Lucky for all of us, the dad of the house is mathmalicious. He dropped this little beauty on me before I was even done asking for it.

N  x (N-1) = X
            2

N=the number of kittens, or puppies, or platypi you happen to be grouping into pairs. In this case, that number is four.
I'll spare you the ciphering. Where N=4, the answer to how many unique pairs can be made, X= 6. The kids may romp with six different sets of cats in their adventures upstairs.

Question: answered
Math: learned

We can move on to play time. I give you the Tabletop Kitten Arena

Nowadays, people tend to talk about what they feel thankful for in their lives. 'Tis the season. I know if I asked this house, everyone would say they're grateful for kittens. If could ask the kittens, I'd like to think that they'd say they're grateful for us. And the heat lamp.