May 16 - Mystery Elves

Another day where I didn't really get my act together enough to do a full activity, although I did start cleaning up the kids room on my own... It was actually pretty clean to start with, which was a surprise in itself. I think they cleaned up on their own? No, that can't be right, can it? I was just putting their action figures in the correct boxes.

But we didn't do the obstacle course section, based mainly off my laziness.

I did, however, do some more screening of Brooklyn Bridge Rap, and came up with this prospective album cover:

Now everyone wanna be grrrrrrrimy

Inspiration taken from Onyx's Bacdafucup.

How good was Fredro Starr on The Wire, am I right? RIP Big DS.

May 11 - Karaoke Star Time

Okay, I'll be honest... Karaoke Star Time was kind of a bust today. The kids were very low energy, possibly because I didn't get to hype them up for it last night (date night for my wife and I). We did manage to get a little "Hungry Like The Wolf" in...

Duran Duran Karaoke Star Time on #MorningFunManifesto!

A video posted by Robert Sosin (@chompyduchamp) on May 11, 2016 at 4:50am PDT

BUT. But but but.

Yesterday we DID get a chance to do some filming on our 360 rap video for the Peck Slip Rap Club's "Brooklyn Bridge Rap", and oh man, is it looking awesome. I got a chance to look through the footage today and it is looking FRESH TO DEATH.

A few teaser images:

Daryl rocking the ferry

Ethan bringing the elephant in like BLAOW

Oh SNAP you guys. Jake is so good in this.

Basia kicking it so nice. You can see Zephyr in his "Scoob Lover" role in the back...

Zen dropping the mad knowledge

At one point Jake does this insane dance move? Noiiiiiiiice!

Basia roaring like a dungeon dragon...

Ethan living large

I'm still screening, but I'm VERY happy with what we were able to get. Thanks to the rap club for such a great performance. Stay tuned!

May 3 - Poetry for Prizes

HYPOTHESIS: forced memorization is tough for kids but worth it, since it teaches them discipline 

PROCEDURE: Today we got back on learning La Di Da Di, as I'm looking to get that into a place where we can shoot a video for it pretty soon. It should be noted the kids did not want to do it... Despite the potential prize, Poetry For Prizes is not their favorite activity. I'm not surprised by that though. It's certainly frustrating. They both put up resistance, but the torturous knowledge that a toy was just a few words away got them back trying. 

We're really close to finishing the song... Zephyr asked me to write it out for him and I could almost fit the rest on one page: 

Admittedly a very full page, but still. The green section is Lyric's, the black is all Zephyr. 

The good news is that they can do the first part (which they did at the Talent Show in February) pretty flawlessly. Zephyr kind of knew the rest, but it was clear there were lots of gaps he needed to fill in. He kept asking me if that was good enough for a prize, but today I didn't give him (or his brother) one. we might return to try again later today, but as for now they still have to give me a good take to get the prize. Delay of gratification is in itself gratification. 

Zephyr has said that next Poetry For Prizes he's going to test me on a poem. It's probably "Nothing gold can stay" by Robert Frost, which his mother taught him a few years ago. I'm excited for that, we'll see how it goes. These "Saturnalia experiments" (where students get to become the teacher) seem to be really good for the kids...