A Missed Opportunity

From the moment he walked out his bedroom door this morning, he was full of joy and had a story to tell.  A tale that he quickly rattled off the whole time Daddy fed brother.  A story that continue for the next hour and a half with only pauses for breaths.  There was no conversation, just a storyteller and his audience.  Sweet and perky and full of spirit.  Joy exuded from all his pores. 

And what did this mama do?

I caught myself tuning him out.  His ramblings were wearing me out.

Of course, he kept talking.  Sharing specific traits about all his characters. Breaking down the events into the smallest of  details.  

Desperate for a moment.  Just a moment to get my thoughts straight without an interruption.  A moment free of distractions from what I was trying to accomplish.  I couldn’t handle it any more.

So, what did I do?

Asked him to turn on the music.

Peace.

But only for a moment.  He continued his monologue the rest of the day.

Talking, chatting, gabbing, babbling, ranting, blah-blah-blahing.

My only breaks…snack, lunch and quiet time.  By the end of the day, my patience was gone. 

But a lot more was gone too…

I missed a big opportunity.  An opportunity to create with my son.

He so desperately wanted to create a good story, but his lack of a storyline and a point of conflict made me grow tiresome of his chatter.  I should have stopped.  With a little help and direction, we could have created a tale like no other. 

Lord, help me do better tomorrow.

Monster University {Review}

Mike and Sulley weren't always best buds and Disney's Monsters University tells the story of how their friendship came to be so strong. It's a classic weak-unite-to-beat-the-strong storyline loaded with laughs and a few heartfelt moments.

Similar to the first movie, Monsters University had a message that friends can accomplish more together than alone. Mike and Sulley find themselves relying on each other and a group of misfits for a chance to stay in the scare program. The movie also teaches kids to look past the exterior and see that some of the people we are prone to overlook are capable of the unexpected. You'll also find a message about honesty and resisting the urge to win at all costs.

Storyline
Ever since college-bound Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) was a little monster, he has dreamed of becoming a professional Scarer—and he knows better than anyone that the best Scarers come from Monsters University (MU). But during his first semester at MU, Mike’s plans are derailed when he crosses paths with hotshot MU legacy James P. Sullivan, “Sulley” (voice of John Goodman), a natural-born Scarer. The pair’s out-of-control competitive spirit gets them both kicked out of the University’s elite Scare Program. To make matters worse, they realize they will have to work together, along with an odd bunch of misfit monsters, if they ever hope to make things right.

Overall
If you liked Monsters Inc. you will enjoy this follow up. While Cars 2 seemed to diverge from the tone set in Cars (i.e., cars shooting at each other, impossible-for-kids-to-solve mystery element), Monster's University stays true to the spirit of Monsters Inc. I will say I was a bit nervous though when Mike and Sulley found themselves walking into a party at a fat house, but the scene didn't feature any of the college shenanigans that you might expect. Monsters walked around with the “red cups” and I recall seeing one monster taking a fall from too much to drink but that was about it.

Lil' Man loved Monsters University. It's practically all he's talked about since we saw it. He's been developing his own movie with some of the characters from MU and a few of his own creations. We are, however, having a hard time explaining to him why we won't be able to get the same people to do the voices for Mike and Sulley. (We don't have those kinds of connections...yet alone that much money.)

  

This was a great family movie and one we recommend.  Have you seen it?  What did you think?



Some extras
Looking for some fun family activities to go along with this movie?  Check out the free monster resources from 2 Teaching Mommies.  Plus, make sure and grab the family kit from Disney below.

MU Family Kit

A Mommy Talks Review Disclosure: I  received passes to attend the featured movie for this review, at no cost, from Disney for my honest review. I do not accept monetary compensation for reviewing or writing about products. All opinions expressed are my own.

Schooling Through the Summer

Last Fall I started doing Kindergarten with Lil’Man 2 days a week. He was 4.5. My goal was to provide a bit of a challenge for him, while giving myself some grace.   I was 6 months pregnant at the time and didn’t know how everything would go if I waited to start after Lil’Bro arrived.  This gave me 2 years to finish Kindergarten and learn to adjust to having a little babe running around, while homeschooling.

Unfortunately, things changed a little more than expected when Lil’Bro arrived.  Needless to say, school was put on hold.  I decided last month to jump back in, but with a limited focus.  We are only doing bible, math, handwriting and scissors skills.  We are also reading lots of books for our library Summer reading program and if the boy requests, some theme activity packs.

For math we are using Saxon K, which is a pretty easy for Lil’Man.  I wish I would have seen this placement test prior to purchasing it.  Saxon 1 would have been a better fit, but he still enjoys doing the activities.

Here’s a look at what we did this week in math.

	Saxon K Les 39: Identify/Count Pennies One area in math that is new to him is coins.  This week we learned all about pennies.  He knew its name, but didn’t know its value.  However, the other coins were a little more difficult for him.  I plan to make a Coin Observation printable to help him retain the info a little bit better.
	Saxon K Les 40: Naming Attributes This activity had Lil’Man laying the pieces out into a matrix based on attributes. When he finished I pointed and said this is a matrix. In which he quickly asked “What’s a matrix?” “This.” Yeah, didn’t work the second time either. I searched the term to find an easy way to explain it to him. Does anyone else find it hard to simplify things?
	Saxon K Les 41: Making a Pictograph Lil’Man has been working with graphs for quite a while.  We had to call our cousins and Meme to get a few more eye colors for our graph.  I think that was his favorite part.  Instead of creating the graph out of construction paper I went ahead and created a printable.  It took a lot less prep time.

Overall, our summer set up is pretty laid back and we can get it done before Lil’Bro wakes up from his morning nap.  Hopefully, it will stay that way.

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