Friday: 5-Touch and Children’s Grand Park

Heard him talking at 7:02. He was sitting up and gave me a good grin. Just sat there for a couple minutes, then started spelling words. Then went out to the iPad and Writing Wizard. I had started to make a list of family names, so he was tracing things like ‘Tia Cassie’ and ‘Grampa’. He then remembered the new Korean video from class, so we watched that. We then switched to listening to the Korean music instead. He was dancing on the couch as I made oatmeal for breakfast. We also got out the Korean books to review the words and to see what class would be about this week. He wanted Spanish, so we switched to listening to Basho & Friends. We started playing “Donde esta bottes?” after the Bottes Perdido (lost boots) song. I actually got his (almost never used) snow boots out and we put them places and then searched for them. We then read books, and he wanted Frida. We read a few pages of that (he tolerated my Spanish) until we got to the page with a guitar on it. At that point he kept saying “Zinnie hold…Zinnie do it.” But he didn’t want to hold the book, and if I asked if he wanted a guitar he said “No”. Eventually we drifted from that, and he wanted to do Art Maker on the iPad. Did that for awhile, mainly shapes, then moved to the paper and wanted an actual pen. I let him draw with my pen, then he had the idea of erasing and he grabbed a nearby book and pretended to erase with it. It was the glass crayons (on paper) after that, and he kept saying “White doesn’t work” as he couldn’t see it on the paper.

Finally, we headed to Home Plus for his class. Class was kind of a bust, at least in terms of preparation. We were slowed a little as they were working on the moving walkway, so we had to take the elevator. Still, got up there right at 10:20, but heard them finishing up the opening songs. Got in to see her clock is set 4 minutes fast. So we missed most of the songs that we’ve been learning the words to the last couple days. Then, she went off-script for the main activity. Instead of being about camping (which we were ready for), it was a prince/princess dress-up thing and walking on a runway. August, of course, didn’t participate. We then did a little clapping/chant thing, and I had no idea what they were saying – so when it was our turn to add something I told them to pass. Finally, she got out the parachute and did parachute games. Unfortunately, she has them seen most of the time on top of the parachute, which August refuses to do. When she had them run under the parachute, August did that, but then we were bring down the parachute on their heads a lot so he was done after about 10 second. August was fine though, and in a good mood throughout – he just didn’t participate in much of class. He did, however, get two Pororo hand stanps at the end of class.

We headed to Children’s Grand Park. I realized there was Dais and an Alpha near the back entrance, so we transferred at Gunja and got off at Achasan and did some shopping, as we were almost out of paper for coloring. August did fine with Dais, and picked out a little bucket with 7 colors of play dough in it. Got a bunch of pads of paper as well. He wasn’t fond about looking at Alpha though as he was hungry and getting tired. So we did that quick and headed into the park.

We found a new spot, east of the zoo, for lunch, sitting on a bench. That was a mistake, as later in lunch he saw people sitting on picnic mats and said “Zinnia do it.” He had fun though, watching some big boys play with frisbees for a few minutes. While eating his sandwich he was picking out the seeds and eating them and saying “seeds are yummy from a tree.” He then got out Smokey and wanted “more what do you see.” We played that, and he saw “bird poop right here.” on the ground. We walked over and played with the drinking fountains and refilled his water. Finally, I changed him and got him in the backpack and we got walking. Took 20 minutes or thereabouts and he fell asleep from 1:43 to 2:45. We’ve just been going to the upstairs one as the park is now always busy, so the first floor one is more likely to be busy as well.

After he woke up he played on the iPad for a few minutes and ate all the ice. He then wanted to take Smokey to the zoo. He (August) first wanted to see the lion, he then picked up some garbage to throw it away, and found a map of the zoo on the ground. He saw the seals and penguins on it, and wanted to see them. Penguins first. So we went and saw the penguins, then showed Smokey a crane, then headed outside where we set our stuff down and played with all the water faucets and with our tennis ball. He decided he wanted to go to the upstairs part of the bird building, so up we went. He played at the penguin display, dropping Smokey though the rotating signs, then wanted to go back and climb on the big egg sculpture/photo zone. Took his photo on the top of that. While he was sitting there, a boy’s balloon popped. August really liked that, although the boy didn’t. Another mom and boy then gave August some fry chip things and August did a good job of saying kamsamnida to them.

From there we headed home, changing him by the entrance, then sitting on the floor of the train much of the way. As we walked home he saw a ㅆ (double S) on the back of a bus and pointed it out, then exclaimed “That’s not mama; that’s a double S!” No idea. We were home at 5:10, after Carly.

We listened to a lot of Basho and Friends, had some rice, etc. for dinner, and I prepared his bath and Carly gave him his bath. He got into his Bingo spelling game again: “oango, wango, zango, xango” Then wanted to play in the sink: “Dada Zinnie have fun in the sink.” After that we all went in to the bed and were reading. He read a bunch of Picasso’s Trousers. There is one long page that includes the word ‘beautiful’ and he only needed help with one word. He and Carly went to sleep around 8:30.

New words/phrases: buenos noches, hasta manana, yo soy en Seoul, all sorts of new reading words including ‘beautiful’

Waking up: