Creative Problem Solver

Today Clara was struggling with some subtraction problems. Suddenly she grinned and told me that she had solved them all. What she'd done was change all the '-' signs to '+' signs!

Parcheesi

A few summers ago it was Mille Bornes, then she moved to Yahtzee, then checkers, and now it's Parcheesi. She spends hours a day playing, either with others or by herself. It's interesting how long the fascination has lasted (three or four weeks now), but she has become very good at the strategy.

Chez Lee

Lee's been having fun setting up restaurants lately. She makes up a menu, dresses as a waiter, takes orders, delivers snacks, and (sometimes) cleans up! All-in-one service.


This was one of her tables. Notice the blue theme. Blue's been her favorite color for a long time now, although recently that may have switched to green.

Musicals

We've been watching some of the classic musicals. We've watched Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, and Fiddler on the Roof. I was going to move on to Oklahoma, but my singing group is performing "Will You Buy" from Oliver!, and since I'd been singing it around the house (and therefore the girls have been singing it around the house), we started watching Oliver! instead.

While we were watching, Clara suddenly looked at me and said, "Mom, it's really cool how one person just makes up a song, and then all the other people start singing the same song!!!"

Fiddler on the Roof

Why is it called "Fiddler on the Roof?" It should be called "That Sad Movie!"

(Lee, age 7, at intermission after the pogrom scene)

Clara's Ideas

Clara is full of ideas. She's so full that sometimes she can't sleep at night. The other night we suggested we write down her ideas so that she could go to sleep. We started the list that night, but continued it the next morning as well. Here it is:

- make two books: school things and animal things
- make a fairy house that is very big to fairies but small to us
- every two weeks send a letter to Xan
- have the power to pull animals out of quicksand
- have the ability to turn into any animal
- have all powers of herbs
- talk all animal languages
- make awesome forts
- have a beautiful cape that swings behind me
- wear matching clothes every day
- run faster than a cheetah
- have tiger babies instead of human babies
- eat well
- have cat babies instead of human babies
- be an awesome climber
- be an awesome swinger
- be good at sneaking
- always be smiling
- have hair powers
- have eye powers

Where does she come up with this stuff? Whew!

Stripes, Polka Dots, and More Strips!