The Longest Shortest Time

We Can’t Stop: Creative Arithmetic Edition

The first birthday that I was old enough to answer the question, “What do you want for a present?” I am told that I said, “Some string.” I’m not sure what I planned on doing with the string but I remember thinking of all forms of craft supplies—brightly colored tape, rubber bands, glue, shoe boxes—as treasure. My mom likes to tell me how I’d watch TV and if I saw a commercial for something I wanted (one of those wooden peg boards with a hammer comes to mind) I’d say excitedly, “I can make that!” It didn’t occur to me that the ad was supposed make you want to go to the store to buy the thing. Or maybe it did and I thought making it would be way more fun.

So it’s interesting to me that this week Sasha has been obsessing over Kelly DiPuccio’s Crafty Chloe.

Sasha usually loses patience with a book this wordy by page 5 but this one she sticks with all the way through, pointing out Chloe on every page, yelling, “It’s her!” as if spotting a celebrity. (Very similar to what draws her to Swimmy, I think.) Though Sasha likes to paint with watercolors and squish play dough, I don’t think she quite gets what Chloe is doing when she decides to make instead of buy her best friend’s birthday gift. And I’m almost positive she doesn’t get that the villain in the story is a girl who snubs her nose at such a concept. But there seems to be something about the macaroni, the scissors, the googly eyes (especially the googly eyes!) that holds her attention with this book that I would’ve thought would be too long for her. And I can’t help but wonder . . . did she inherit this from me? Has she figured out that I make things? Will she be a maker? Incidentally, Heather Ross, who illustrated Crafty Chloe, also designed the fabric from this crib sheet that I made.

As you’ll see to your right, most of our We Can’t Stop Reading books this week are repeats from last week, but there is one more new one.

This Plus That by Amy Krouse Rosenthal has gone in and out of our rotation but has recently become a book Sasha goes looking for on her shelf consistently. It’s illustrated by one of my favorites, Jen Corace, and is full of clever little equations like “1+1 = us” and “balloon + wind = lost.” It reminds me a little of A Hole is to Dig (aw, Maurice Sendack), which I’ve been trying in vain to get Sasha interested in. The fascinating thing about reading This Plus That with Sasha is that although she usually fills in the last word of a sentence verbatim, the way it is written, with this one she often comes up with her own answers to the equations when I leave them out. Like, instead of “tall + coffee = grown-up,” she’ll make it “tall + coffee = daddy.” And instead of “‘I’m sorry’ + hug = sincere apology,” she’ll say, “‘I’m sorry’ = crying + I need a hug.” It makes me wonder if we will be creating our own equations from scratch soon. (There I go making things again.)

Oh, and more than ever Sasha really, truly can not stop listening to “Romance” by Wild Flag. In fact, she makes me play it so much in the car that it has simply become “The Song.” Upon being put in her car seat she’ll say, “I want the song!” And I’ll know exactly what she means.

What can’t you stop reading this week? And have you noticed your child’s interests mirroring or differing from yours?