The Secret World

We had a funny story this morning - a made-up story.  Madison wanted to hear about Indiana Jones, Marion and Short Round (she likes Marion better than Willie).  This is all based on her memory of the Lego Indiana Jones game, where Marion was apparently the queen.  In any event, as with most of the stories, Madison tells part of it:  today she wanted ten robots to battle.  Apparently they were at our community playground, with the sinister purpose of stealing all the slides and jungle gym equipment.  Fortunately, Indiana Jones, Marion and Short Round were there to stop the robots:  and here's where it suddenly turned into a bizarre math lesson!

Indiana Jones used his whip to smack three of the robots into the pool, so how many were left?

Madison:  "Seven!"

Marion bonked two on the head with a frying pan.  How many are left now?

Madison:  "Five!"

Short Round did a karate chop and knocked two into each other.  Now how many are left?

Madison:  "Three!"

Finally, the three heroes each tied up a robot.  How many are left now?

Madison:  "None!"

It seems as if Indiana Jones and company are the heroes of made-up stories lately.  Just last week, we had an fun series of stories where a bad guy took one of the gold medals from the Olympics.  He ran into the gymnastics arena, across the balance beam, over the vault, up on the rings and swinging over to a trampoline.  Of course, our heroes had to follow carefully - you can imagine the descriptions of both of these stories as Madison and Daddy make up the adventure as they go along.  Each day, the bad guy would lead them on a chase through pools, diving boards, cycling tracks, and more.  One day, the bad guy was launching shot puts and discusses at our heroes - but no javelins.

Too bad Daddy has to drop her off at school!  But that's the way the stories work:  there's always a cliffhanger, just like in an old serial television show.  What happens to our heroes?  You'll have to join us tomorrow!

School has been fun for Madison, who has been doing all sorts of crafts - and learning a thing or two in speech class.  Today's lessons were focused on the endings of words, so it's been good practicing with Madison at home.  She is getting better when she puts her attention to pronouncing things correcting - classes help her keep that focus.  She has a ways to go, but there's no question she's been improving gradually.  We're glad to have her in classes.

Daddy had to work much of the day, but tonight he hurried home for spaghetti - and a movie!  It was movie night for the three of us, so together we sat down together with a big tub of popcorn and watched "The Secret World of Arrietty."

It was a fabulous movie that kept the three of us engrossed until the end.  These animated movies are always so different, and such a joy to watch.  This was Madison's first experience with anything animated from Japan, and anything Miyazaki.  Josh and Daddy are big fans of Hayao Miyazaki - and sometime soon, maybe Madison will be enjoying movies like "My Neighbor Totoro" or even Daddy's favorite: "Spirited Away."

Daddy isn't a huge Japanese animation fan, but these movies transcend all that, and are a sheer joy to watch.

Tonight was no different.  It was so nice for the three of us to sit together on the couch and relax.  And munch on popcorn too, of course.  Now, thanks to this movie, we know just what happens to all the little pieces that fall to the floor.  And any other little bits we won't miss...

"My mother, father and I are all borrowers. We borrow things like soap and cookies and sugar - things that beans don't miss if they're gone."
- Arrietty