The girls and I met Jenn and Calvin at Gorham Park downtown for a picnic/playdate/beach-going experience. We accomplished the play and eat portions, at least, but the place was a madhouse. Present were numerous sunbathers, a whole class of kindergarteners having a 'graduation' ceremony and treasure hunt, and a cadre of public works people doing beach repairs and mowing. So noisy!
After eating, we decided to venture, instead, to the relative seclusion of Spring Harbor Beach, which is not only near our home but a much better quality beach. It featured restrooms (locked), a water fountain (inoperable), and a lifeguard chair (empty), but aside from those bait-and-switch features, it also boasted a relatively nice little sandy patch of beach at a shallow portion of the lake.
Jenn and I caught up on events and gossiped while the girls played with Calvin and other kids. The sun was blazing hot! Luckily, I packed the sunscreen but I completely forgot about a drink for myself. The girls slowly and steadily acquainted themselves with lake swimming (wading) in their new swimsuits, and I wished I had taken the time to shave and wear my own suit - so hot! After a good 90 minutes, Jenn and I decided to call a halt to the play, even though Calvin and the girls were in no mood to stop. We will certainly be doing that again.
This evening, after dinner, I let the girls go outside to play with the neighbor kids in our communal backyard. We have a sizeable local playgroup of eight kids now: three boys (ages three, four and seven) and five girls (ages two, three, and five, and two 18-month-old babies) representing four countries (US, China, Korea, and Turkey). Rocks!
The five- and seven-year-olds just moved in while we were visiting my parents. They are from a military family where the mom homeschools and the dad, who had been in Iraq for 18 months with the Reserves, is now pursuing his PhD in Civil Engineering. I was just surprised to return home and find other Americans in our building! Juliette has a serious case of hero worship for these two kids, and I am fascinating by the skills she is attempting to develop with these older role models: conversation, sharing, and full-on mimicry.
But really, she could not have picked better kids to follow around. They are smart, articulate, generous, and incredibly polite - not just when their mom is around and not just to other kids. Their relationship with each other as siblings is one that I set my sights on as a goal for our girls. They are patient and talkative with each other, with no cross words between them that I have yet seen. I look forward to spending more time talking with their mom and picking her brain about homeschool and parenting issues!
After eating, we decided to venture, instead, to the relative seclusion of Spring Harbor Beach, which is not only near our home but a much better quality beach. It featured restrooms (locked), a water fountain (inoperable), and a lifeguard chair (empty), but aside from those bait-and-switch features, it also boasted a relatively nice little sandy patch of beach at a shallow portion of the lake.
Jenn and I caught up on events and gossiped while the girls played with Calvin and other kids. The sun was blazing hot! Luckily, I packed the sunscreen but I completely forgot about a drink for myself. The girls slowly and steadily acquainted themselves with lake swimming (wading) in their new swimsuits, and I wished I had taken the time to shave and wear my own suit - so hot! After a good 90 minutes, Jenn and I decided to call a halt to the play, even though Calvin and the girls were in no mood to stop. We will certainly be doing that again.
This evening, after dinner, I let the girls go outside to play with the neighbor kids in our communal backyard. We have a sizeable local playgroup of eight kids now: three boys (ages three, four and seven) and five girls (ages two, three, and five, and two 18-month-old babies) representing four countries (US, China, Korea, and Turkey). Rocks!
The five- and seven-year-olds just moved in while we were visiting my parents. They are from a military family where the mom homeschools and the dad, who had been in Iraq for 18 months with the Reserves, is now pursuing his PhD in Civil Engineering. I was just surprised to return home and find other Americans in our building! Juliette has a serious case of hero worship for these two kids, and I am fascinating by the skills she is attempting to develop with these older role models: conversation, sharing, and full-on mimicry.
But really, she could not have picked better kids to follow around. They are smart, articulate, generous, and incredibly polite - not just when their mom is around and not just to other kids. Their relationship with each other as siblings is one that I set my sights on as a goal for our girls. They are patient and talkative with each other, with no cross words between them that I have yet seen. I look forward to spending more time talking with their mom and picking her brain about homeschool and parenting issues!
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