All about 5 year olds

Well, not ALL about them, but I've got one so I'm getting to be quite the expert ;-) He's just so cute and smart and I love him to bits.

His latest career obsession is that he wants to be an archaeologist. I suspect this may be because he's discovered there are people who get paid to dig in the dirt ;-) LOL, j/k. I'm not sure where his interest came from, but I love it, because I love ancient history and hearing how they piece together the clues to learn about earlier civilizations. We currently have a large stack of library books on archaeology that we are reading our way through.

Evidence that he listens and thinks when I'm reading. Other than the constant interruptions to ask questions or comment on something I read, LOL. I am reading Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze to my dd10. We just started it yesterday. It mentioned that (100 years ago in China) rural children didn't receive any formal education because rural boys worked alongside their fathers, learning to farm, and why waste money on educating the girls so the girls didn't get education either. My dd, of course, protested that this wasn't fair. DS5 stopped my reading so sister could "get this straight" and proceeded to enlighten her that back then, the boys had to work with their "fodders"--"boring" as he put it. I asked if he didn't think it would be interesting working with his police officer father, and he replied that that would be, but being a country boy would not be ;-) Interesting dialogue aside, I thought it interesting that he caught the subtleties of the plot and was able to distinguish between the country and city child's life.

One other "new" thing in his life--he's singing in our little church choir! Grandma, the choir director, works with him almost every day, teaching him the songs we'll be singing. He made his debut last Sabbath and he was just so cute! He really knew the song, too. It was spritely little tune and he spit out all of those words. He even did well when we sang in parts. He can't hold his own yet one-on-one (he's only 5, after all!) but in the group, he even hung in there when we split into a 4-part canon. I was amazed!

Lest it seem I only brag about my ds5, let me mention dd10. She's a sweet, sensitive, caring child. At least the past couple of weeks she has been. I'm not sure why, but she's decided that I need to be appreciated and praised and I love it! She is sincere in her compliments, and thanks me for even the little things I do. Maybe I'm being buttered up for something, but I love it. She wrote me a little "I love you, Mom" note on the top of a math page, so I replied that I love her too on the next page where she'd see it when she went to do that page. She's been offering her help in little ways, without having to be asked (at least sometimes!) She's been pleasant to talk to. Her hand is still hurting a lot and she needs help with her writing still, but she's appreciative of the extra time I spend with her. Wherever the aliens got this child, I'm thankful they brought her to my home. They can leave her there for the next, oh, 100 years or so, and I won't complain a bit ;-)

Career Aspirations

My kids have both made career decisions in the past week or so. Not that they're binding, of course...but they think they are, LOL.

DD9's prayer experience(s) have led her to feel called to be a missionary doctor. She'd like to be a pediatrician. I'm not telling her that she has to be good at math and science, LOL. She'd make an excellent, open-minded ped, if that's where she ends up when she's grown.

DS4 has decided he wants to be a scientist, because "scientists get to find out how things work." LOL, he's very serious about this. He's got The Big Book of Tell Me Why in his bedroom so he can "study to be a scientist" and everything we do that's remotely related to something scientific gets analyzed to the nth degree. Oh, and the questions. Oh yes, the questions. Always the questions about how and why. Yes, he's very analytical, LOL. We used to joke when he was a baby that he would work in the space field because when you walked outside with him, he was always looking up at the sky. And you know what? He frequently mentions wanting to be an astronaut, or study the stars and moon. He's really jazzed because Sunday evening he and dd9 were outdoors playing, and he spotted a meteor streaking across the sky. (I'm researching it...I've found evidence that other people in Ontario and MI also saw it so I know the kids weren't imagining things when they came storming into the house all excited that they'd seen it, and I know dd9 wasn't fibbing when she said it had a long tail because other people saw the same thing!)

So that's what's happening in the Career Tales of Our Household this week...stay tuned for further developments.