Everyday after school, Alan comes home and creates cities with Legos/blocks/cars/trains, etc., before he does his homework and practices his instruments. Sometimes he also takes pictures for me so I can share in his fun. 🙂
Category Archives: Creations
Alan’s Forts
Alan’s Favorite Activities
Second grade — Part IV — edition of the Top 10:
-Puzzles with Tata and Jill! The one pictured was 300 pieces.
-Playing with a parachuting lion & tiger picked up at United Skates during De’Onta’s birthday party and a parachute picked up at the Cavs game back in November. Tyler and Carleigh have enjoyed them too!
-Throwing [soft] balls down the long hallway at home.
-Skiing at Alpine on Sunday afternoons, even though lessons are over. Alan’s lessons came with a pass for the whole season, and he often still sees his favorite instructor Jen!
-Making a fort at home.
-Making a fort at Grandma Debbie’s.
-Playing Cribbage — which Alan first learned on the plane to New Orleans in December, then perfected with help from Jill. He plays on my phone regularly now and taught me how to play. Below are the results of his first and largest wins.
-Friday nights and Sunday afternoons at the Wildcat Fitness Center.
-Drawing cars and other forms of transportation during indoor recess. And at home too — especially when making birthday cards for family and friends!
-Learning on the Chromebook at school!
Train Art
Alan has made the most of indoor recess during the winter months by practicing his drawing skills. He loves drawing cars, trucks, planes, and trains and he teaches Brady how to make them too. This week, Alan drew a continuous train on several sheets of paper. Mrs. Harris took note of it and posted it online. Alan said I could have it for my birthday present. 🙂
2nd Annual ‘Guys Only’ Week
For the second October in a row, Alan and I had extra ‘buddy time’ while Veronica went traveling for a week!
Together we had quite a week+, starting on the night of 9/27 and lasting through tonight. There was a lot of math homework (50 problems a day), music (in the car on the way to school), books (it was Millridge Read-a-thon week), and even dad jokes (written on notes placed in Alan’s lunch bag). There was also The Great Coffee Spill of 2018 mixed in, which fortunately we overcame. 🙂
We devoted a day (last Sunday) to board games. Then midweek we went to Party City and bought a new one, Mouse Trap. Alan loved it!
There was also sports (& creations). Alan watched OSU beat Penn State while building the Lego Coast Guard set, then watched OSU beat Indians while building a new Tinker Toy 16-wheeler. We watched the Browns upset the Ravens on a last second field goal in OT(!). And we hit baseballs at the park, two days after Indians day at school in honor of the ALDS.
Fortunately Alan had some meditation time with this classmates after all the excitement at home. 🙂
Tinker Toy Laundry Aid
During Alan’s fun-filled weekend, he found time to make me a laundry cart from Tinker Toys. It’s the new-and-improved model of an earlier version that he created. It’s designed to help me wheel the laundry basket from one end of the apartment to the other.
Rainy Day Fort-Building
Our first Indians game of 2018 got rained out today, but Alan made the best of the situation by making a fort at Tata’s apartment! We had lunch with Tata, Papa, Grandma Debbie, Papa, Robbie, and Jill in place of the game. Even Lulu and Rosie came to the apartment, which Alan loved.
Fun with Blocks
Before and after Chinese class, Alan loved building with blocks in the Children’s area on the 4th floor (conveniently located across the hall from the Foreign Language room).
Here are a couple of his best creations. Above is a tower with a bridge to the entranceway. Below is a pair of houses. The first house even has its own garden in the front yard!
New Designs
Car carrier.
Propeller airplane (left) and moon rover (right).
Passenger airplane. Also pictured: runway and runway crew batons.
Lego Co-Creation
Tonight Alan and I built a new Lego together. Alan designed the truck (without instructions) and I built the trailer – which Alan later enhanced because he knows best. 😉
Alan’s Favorite Activities
First grade edition of the Top 10:
-Anything and everything related to Cars 3!
-Saturday nights with Tyler and Carleigh
-The Haunted Hot Rod episode of Mickey and the Roadster Racers
-Swimming at the MHS pool
-Lulu & Rosie…and Lacey too!
-Learning to read
-Collecting Indians, Cavs, Browns, and Buckeyes cars & trucks
-Building with Legos
-Playing Memory Match Game & Go Fish
-Building with Tinker Toys!
Fun with Family
Family (Tata, Papa, Robbie, Jill, and David) came over to visit today. Alan showed off his Tinker Toy propeller plane that he designed this weekend. And he also got to play his new Cars 3 matching game with Jill! Alan’s getting pretty good at it.
Tinker Toy Creations
All “Alan originals.” He loves to create trucks using his imagination.
Alan’s Favorite Activities
Alan’s current list of favorite things to do:
-Sunday routine of hitting baseballs at the Oakville Park and going to McDonald’s
-Collecting buckeyes from a neighborhood buckeye tree
-Building with Tinker Toys
-Playing in his “hideout” (a card table covered by a sheet) in the living room
-Watching his favorite shows, which include PJ Masks, Miles from Tomorrowland, Blaze and the Monster Machines, and Team Umizoomi
-Reading stories before bed
-Going on “adventures” walking Rosie after dark with Grandma Debbie
-Swimming at the Mayfield Heights indoor pool – with a flotation device, but by himself!
-Spelling words with floating letters in the bathtub
-Learning at school and playing tag at recess!
It’s great to be 5. 🙂