mommapalooza

"it floats on water" quoth madeline

Everyone's preschooler came home from class today with a krathong, right? For Loy Krathong?

Oh. Maybe just in Thailand :)

I am not entirely sure how much of this krathong was made with my child's own two hands (I'm guessing that she stuck in the incense sticks and some orchid blossoms and called it done), but it's one of the neatest things that she's brought home from preschool.

Madeline's school had a small Loy Krathong celebration this morning. Several of the Thai parents helped with activities, and quite a few of the little children were dropped off in Thai costume. As usual, I wished that I could be a fly on the wall of her classroom - I'm so curious about what they learned and did today!

Tomorrow we'll take Madeline's krathong down to the Chao Phraya river and let it set sail ...

down with the mouse

I took these photos in July, when I visited the Children's Discovery Museum with Madeline for the first time. It was packed with Bangkok school children, dressed in identical shirts, supervised by megaphone wielding teachers. It was really hot outside that day, but Madeline still loved the imaginative play area that they had outside. There was the pictured store with fabulous wooden food, an impressively-equipped play kitchen across the way, and a pretend doctor's office right alongside it. Madeline could have played there for hours, and I'd made a mental note to bring her back when the weather was cooler.

So, fast-forward to today, when we made our second visit to the museum together. I should have known something was up when I saw the large cardboard cut-outs of Disney characters outside the main entrance, and didn't find any sort of Disney exhibit inside the indoor part of the museum. Reality became clear when we stepped outside to the open-air part and saw a large pink castle standing in the spot where the imaginative play around had formerly been.

Now, Madeline loves an animated Disney princess as much as the next marketing-susceptible preschool girl, but even she thought that this exhibit was inferior.  Most of the rooms in the castle were dark, which she found scary (especially the Dwarfs diamond mine). The music was loud, which she found scary (even at Cinderella's ball). The Sleeping Beauty section wasn't about Princess Aurora - it was about vicious-looking dragons. We were in and out of the Disney area in fifteen minutes flat.

I know that so many other children must think that this change at the museum is a terrific thing - it's brand-new, flashy, and comes with a smashing gift-shop. The exhibit was using Disney animated features to teach about science, music, geography, and such, and it probably was intended for school-age kids. But I'm still kind of sad for my little kid, and all the ones like her, who think that nothing can beat a white doctor's coat in her size and a stethoscope, or a toy cash register and pretend baked goods.

lifestyles of the rich and un-potty-trained

I just read, in Tuesday's Globe & Mail, back off hyenas - get your own $80 diaper. I honestly thought it was a typo.

For the record, I did not ever spend that kind of money on a cloth diaper!

Interview: Three years, four months

Madeline, what's your favourite movie? "Nemo! And Cars!"

What's your favourite colour? "Pink and purple!"

What's your favourite thing to play with? "My princess game!" Note: we don't have a princess game ...

What's your favourite thing to eat? "Pocky!"

creative process

Madeline's preschool is really interesting; they take their art very seriously. I'm not sure if it's part of the Reggio-Emilia philosophy, or just a reflection of hiring a specialist art teacher to benefit the toddlers and preschoolers who go there. Usually, their art teacher has them working on larger group pieces. At least, I think so, as up to this point Madeline has only brought home two small clay sculptures and she has art class three times a week. Surely, they must be doing something! And then, on Monday, she brought home this:

It's the loveliest thing I've ever seen (yes, my mommy-coloured glasses are on)!

There is a little information sheet posted at Madeline's school about how her class made their paintings. Sketch, then review. Highlight lines, then review. Paint background. Add colours, then review. Silly me thought that her teacher gave them a piece of paper and some paints and said, "Go to work". But no, there was a process. I think it's so wonderful that a teacher would give a group of three and four year-olds the opportunity to approach art this way.

I wonder why she merely produces single-colour squiggles with her crayons here at home?