Leave him wanting more

Mon. to a friend’s house to swim. Always fun to swim with friends, never want to go, noooo, home.

Tues. we went to the “Cube” aka “The Discovery Science Museum.” Jamie really loved, which I am glad of, and it is a great museum, although generally busy, less so Tues. perhaps because most are back to school and field trips have yet to begin, but here comes a rant anyway.

They had an exhibit from Sesame Street, “Elmo and the Body,” and a lot of it was completely incomprehensible, which is kind of how I feel about Sesame Street. It’s aimed at kids who are too young to really pay attention to a show with a plot (side note: I was brought up on Sesame Street, a first generation if you please, and loved it; does this make me a rebel?) and so it bounces in teeny tiny little segments so they don’t wander away from the all powerful t.v. screen. I know, it’s educational. I know, it’s PBS. I’m attacking the sacred cow. But Jamie and I stared at some of the exhibits and they simply made no sense. He tried to create some sort of cause and effect and there just wasn’t one: colorful, eye catching, loud, it was all of these things, but logical, not necessarily.

That said, there were a couple of the exhibits he adored. One was an organ from the Count with a picture of the organs of the body.
You pushed it, it lit up, and the Count sang a little song about what the organ did. He sat there for half an hour, methodical going through the organs again and again. Other kids would run by and, frustrating him, run their fingers over the keys. Seeing no immediate response, they would run on. They had been trained to see no response from the other exhibits. Another mom watched him and observed, “He’s going to be a doctor.” “Well, he’s really fascinated.” Because he’s trying to learning something, he’s immediately going to be a doctor. Guess, I better start saving my pennies. He has the handwriting for it.

The other one, you pressed a button and made poop. What’s not to like?

He didn’t want to leave, but I had decided to get passes (gingerbread around Christmas, the Big Red dog in the spring, as well as Animal Grossology, I decided we would get our use. And, learning from our camping trip, I upgraded to be able to bring friends).

Weds. was book club and a failed slime experiment, which later ended up on floor, the patio, the outside table. Again, he didn’t want to leave, having fun playing good guy/bad guy, but I lured him away with Starbucks.

Thurs. and today we’ve been home.

I’ve found a math book, well, booklet really, that Jamie likes. It’s Starting to Add from Usborne books, super easy, lots of coloring, but he asks for more math now, actually doesn’t want math to end. I picked it up at a local store that is soon going out of business, an impulse purchase. We’ll be done with it fairly quickly. I’m not sure whether or not to look for another in the series or to use the Hersey Kisses addition book (sure to be a hit) for a while.

So, that’s been the theme of the week: leave him wanting more.