God Bless Mary Pope Osborne!

Nick was one of those odd kids who one day, with very little warning, just started to read. We thought he had just memorized his favorite books like most kids do, until he started reading bill boards, the back of his dad's shirts and road signs. But it isn't easy to keep a kid like that interested in reading. He was only 3, so his attention span couldn't take chapter books, but he was way beyond board books, and most picture books - adorable though they may be - are meant for grown-ups to read to kids. So we began with the "Easy Readers," which bored him. It got to the point where reading was a forced activity just to calm him down before bed.

I started searching - - after he turned 4 I thought I could get him interested in elemetary chapter books. He did like all the Roald Dahl books, and we read books that had movies also. We read Willy Wonka, then watched the movie (the Gene Wilder version - -Johnny Depp creeped me out - but I digress). We read James and the Giant Peach, then watched the movie. Peter Pan, Treasure Island, Robin Hood, Jungle Book... but I was running out of age appropriate materials (as you can tell by the Treasure Island judgement error).

Then The Magic Tree House began. I can't remember where we got the first two books - if you are the person who gave them to me, allow me to give you a cyber-kiss (smooooch) right now! We are on book #9 Dolphins at Daybreak with no end to the enthusiasm in sight.

Nick can talk your ear off about these books if you ask him too. Jack, Annie, Morgan leFay, Peanut the mouse... Ninjas, cro-magnons, mummies... what he has learned is amazing. AND - because the stories tie into one another, he can remember - and is constantly having reinforced - the ties between the books.

Last Saturday night we had people over... built a campfire, made s'mores and stayed up late. At 9pm (an hour past bedtime) I told him he had two choices: Stay up even later at the party, eating more candy and marshmallows, OR if we went to bed right then, we could read an extra chapter... he picked reading. That's right, Nick chose Magic Tree House over S'mores.... can't get a bigger 'thumbs up' than that from a 4 year old!!!!

Art is in the eye of the beholder.

People laugh when I tell them my 4 year old son L-O-V-E-S going to The Art Institute. Honestly, he likes it more than I do. Until February of this year, I hadn't been there since about 1995. Bunch of paintings that I could see in pictures, and stuff I didn't understand. Not now though.

Thanks to "The Little Einsteins" (and if you have a preschooler, you've seen it), Nick is fully enthralled with (in no particular order) Monet, Cassatt, Seurat, Munch, Warhol, O'Keeffe, Van Gogh, Manet, Kandinsky, Klimt... and - unlike his mommy, he can tell the pictures apart. His favorite, by far, is a piece titled "The Great Wave off Kanigowa." Unfortunately, it an ancient Japanese print on paper, so it is rarely displayed. Too fragile. We've been to the AI twice, and so far, no luck.

We missed the huge Edvard Munch exhibit that just closed, and The Modern Wing isn't open yet. So what's a mom to do? Well, we just let the art take us where it would. Nick saw a sarcophagus, ancient mosaic, Grecian urns, Frank Lloyd Wright furniture and of course, his old favorites - the impressionists. We wandered through the Asian art and he was impressed with the Japanese prints on paper. After turning his head this way and that to view One Chinese monochromatic print (by Wong) he declared "It looks like thunder."

One well-meaning AI employee was trying to entice him into the African Tribal Gallery by telling him about a wooden figure of a man with nails stinking out of him. I thought he'd like the tribal masks, but as we began down the hall, I could feel the drag of a reluctant hand-holder. Looking back, I saw that the hand that wasn't holding mine was covering his eyes. When I asked what was up, he said he didn't WANT to see the man with nails in him. So we didn't. She meant well. I'm sure most 4 year old boys would want to see that. Nick just isn't most 4 year old boys.

After being perfectly well behaved (I told him we could never come to the Art Institute again if he didn't act nicely) in the Garden Restaurant - white table cloths and all - we stopped by one more set of rooms on the way out. It was there that he saw the piece that he now obsesses over. It's called "Spectrum" by an artist named Kelly.

When we came home, he instantly wanted to "make art." And if you ask me, art is precisely what was created in our house last night!

Fine art and the 4 year old

I can't stop giggling. I am eavesdropping on the educational tester asking Nick about Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh. He was able to explain how Monet did the haystacks in different light, and that Degas did all the ballerinas, and that The Bedroom is his favorite Van Gogh. However (thankfully) he has no idea who Shakespeare is, what a Capella means, or about the word 'impressionism.' I am giggling because she seemed generally surprised that he didn't.

Last Sunday: Park Ridge Civic Orchestra. We were very near the front, and Nick was pretty excited about the Brahms concert. What I didn't know was that we'd be listening to "A German Requiem" - yup, it was all in German. Didn't seem to bother Nick at all.

Observations of a preschooler during the concert:
- from a certain angle, a harp very much resembles a tree.
- there are so many string instruments you can't see the woodwinds or brass
- apparently, it is NOT ok to watch the adorable 4 year old in his tie transfixed by the show - I was admonished to watch the conductor
- A 7 movement requiem "is even shorter" than Vivaldi's the Four Seasons (he believes it has to do with the lack of an intermission)

After the concert we went for ice cream at the Picwick Restaurant. Because, if you're from this area, you know: where else would you go? While we were there several of the musicians came in to eat. One was carrying a violin case, and he immediately had to tell her he liked the concert. After that he asked nearly everyone who walked in if they were a musician. Of course, we had the table right by the door, so that made it rather difficult to actually EAT the ice cream. He ended up drinking it instead.

But, we had one last surprise for the day. After paying the bill I took him up the stairs to the closing reception... most everyone was gone already, and they were starting to clean up, but there was one person left. You'd have thought it was Jimi Hendrix - - but no - -it was.... (wait for it)... the conductor!

For the first time in his short life, Nick was speechless. Absolutely flabberghasted! When he did find his voice however, the poor guy couldn't get away! Nick asked if they could please play Peer Gynt next time. He started to hum it, and I couldn't tell who was more impressed at that point.

So - for the past week - he's been conducting. He announces the piece, conducts the crescendos, then takes a bow when he's done. Guess we'll be starting music lessons this summer. This morning he conducted Peer Gynt, Morning Mood by Greig, A Brahms Concerto, and the Nutcracker Suite.

Quite a morning in my house!