Knights and Damsels

The kids are on a Battleship kick today, after bringing the game home with us from my parents' house (we just spent a week there for Thanksgiving). After reading about the Hundred Years' War and then some about Joan of Arc, and letting Ian carry out his idea of drawing a scene from the aforesaid battle while I played Phonics Roadblock with Eliza, I decided to let them count Battleship as math for today. Actually, I kind of negotiated that one with Ian -- he suggested it could be the math lesson ("there are numbers in it, Mom!") so we did five minutes of flashcards, with him taking giant steps around the room every time he got one right, and then got right down to sinking each other's submarines and destroyers.

I've been a bit lax in my child development reading lately, but I could swear that there's some sort of testosterone burst that occurs in seven-year-old boys. Ian is suddenly very interested in knights, Vikings, and battles, and not just because we're studying medieval history, although for once I feel like my "plan" has dovetailed nicely with a passion of his. He loves the armor, the weapons, the idea of tactical battle strategies, etc. In fact, while we were in Boston he was obsessed with playing this game called Legion Arena on the computer. Something about Roman armies and elephant cavalries and Praetorian guards and whatnot. This is all pretty new to us, and rather bemusing, but my sense is that it's all quite normal. It's just odd, really, to have so many days go by with hardly a word breathed about dinosaurs ...

(Oh, and by the way, the reason we were able to have such a studious morning is that Caroline was on her weekly trip to story hour at the library with another friend and the toddler for whom she nannies. Eliza is pretty good about going along with what Ian's doing (then again, she does have those behavioral things, like resistance to getting dressed in the morning, or what I call "trauma-dramas" over -- to my dull senses -- minor things, that make me wonder whether I'm lumping her together with her brother too much) . So, not every day is like this; rarely can I sit down and play 30 minute of Battleship, but it sure is nice when it happens!)