Benjamin with Grandma

karate show class

Playing on the McGuffy Statues

our favorite post office

I apparently haven't unloaded the photos on my iPhone since July.

Here's Benjamin enjoying a candy from the post-office counter while standing on his favorite rock (just outside the PO):

catching minnows in the creek

4yo boy visits waterfall

chasing butterflies

Little Gym

dragons fighting in the clouds

summit

Benjamin's second composition

Dragon: give a big swing of your tail.
Dragon with the burning horn: kick.
Dragon: breathe fire.
Little dragon: crawl.
Baby dragon: break out of your egg and say, "Boo!"

Little Calf Mountain

Benjamin's first poem

The Dragon

When the stars go down, all twinkly in the sky
And the roses go up, all happy, all treasury
The frog jumps up on his green house filled with leaves
And then the something goes out, all scary, all spitting fire

Benjamin Tucker Marcus, age 3¾
(transcribed by his father)

another poetic moment

We got this note in email this morning:

Dear Parents,

The city of Charlottesville is conducting smoke testing in our area. Some smoke entered the school building this morning and we have evacuated all the children. They are all currently in the playground while we are waiting for the smoke to clear.…

They then asked us to retrieve our kids early, so I went in to pick up the boy while he was in the middle of his playground-picnic lunch.

As we were walking to the car, Benjamin was telling me about the smoke. He said, "It twisted the sinews of my heart!"

On the way to school that morning, we had been reciting William Blake:

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

puzzling development

Nathalie bought Benjamin a puzzle for 50¢ at the "Used Resource Sale" at the homeschooling conference. When we got back to the room, he dumped it out and started putting it together. Nathalie asked, "Have you done this puzzle before?"

No, apparently not. He's just suddenly super fast at puzzles — after showing no particular skill with them before. (He wanted to play with puzzles when he got home from school today, so I had already seen his new interest in action. He was fast earlier today, too, but not as fast as he was tonight.) Here's his puzzle, completed: