February 22 - Poetry For Prizes!

Now this I've been looking forward to / Collecting props that are a bit overdue

-MC Paul Barman (@mcpb)

Today was Poetry for Prizes, our first one since the triumphant performance at the talent show. I've had the kids working on learning how to recite "La Di Da Di" by Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh for the past year, giving them prizes (usually Justice League Unlimited action figures I get off eBay for about $5/figure) every time they were able to memorize a section. It was a process, but the positive motivation of being able to get a toy made them really want to learn, and with practice and repetition they were able to get their parts down. 

This is helping them develop in SO many ways. First of all, it's challenging. The most important lesson I want to teach my kids, the thing we tell them everyday before we drop them off for school, is "If things are hard, what are you going to do? Try harder." There are lots of times when they mess something up and I correct them that they think it's too hard and want to give up. You definitely have to work with them through that. But if they learn that by trying they can improve themselves, that's an invaluable lesson to provide your kids. 

Memorization also expands their vocabularies and gives them the freedom to learn how to express themselves, and from there they can really have fun (which I think you'll see on Lyric's face in today's clip). Okay, party people in the house, here's Slick Lyric and his partner, the grand wizard, MC Zeph E. Fresh. Hit it:

Immediately after stopping, I said "It's 'slammed the child on the hard concrete', but really great otherwise!" But I was so proud of them inside.

Two things to check out: Look at Lyric's fresh delivery, really emoting there at the end. And check how Zephyr is bobbing to the beat... that's some real progress being made, he's starting to feel the rhythm. This is why I'm doing all of this, and where being a dad becomes really fun. Also as a note of explanation: Zephyr is wearing his paint splatter T-shirt because he has art on Mondays, and Lyric is wearing his clothes backwards because he is an extremely silly little boy.

Here's the lyrics I wrote out this morning to help Zephyr learn his lines. I had to modify a few words to make it right, but I figured if Snoop can do it, there's legal precedent. Zephyr was still working on it as we went to school, but he got a fresh new red ukulele (that I picked up at the recent Toy Fair for cheap, but you don't need to know that) for the hard work he put in. Lyric will definitely get a prize too once he gets his new song down.

Next stanza coming soon... the end goal here is to create a video of them doing the whole thing. Stay tuned. Doug E. Fresh, please say you'll work for spec.

February 19 - Filmmaking, Day five

Today was the last day of filmmaking on our Pickle and Peanut project... when last we left, Lazer was humiliating Pickle by standing on his shoulders. I didn't really know where the story was going, but Zephyr had a "eureka moment" when he mistakenly tipped over the Lego figures and they broke apart and Lazer's legs stayed on Pickle's shoulders. Zephyr thought it looked like Pickle was wearing the large "Turkey wrap" headphones rapper D-Stixx was hawking in another episode of Pickle and Peanut ("Gobble gobble! Buy my headphones"). It seemed like we'd found an ending.

Translations below embedded vines for those who can't understand.

PART EIGHT: LAZER: Kneel before me, subjects! / PEANUT: I can't let Pickle be tortured! / DISEMBODIED VOICE: Head butt head butt head butt...

PART NINE: LAZER: Ahhh, my legs! / PICKLE: Check out my sweet new headphones! / PEANUT: Ohhhh, so jealous!

PART TEN: PICKLE AND PEANUT: Bo bo bo bo bo bo! / MCSWEATS: What are you waiting for? It's the end, baller!

For that end "bo bo bo bo bo", Zephyr filmed it while Lyric and I tried manipulating the arms. It sort of worked. Kind of. But I was glad to have Zephyr take a turn behind the camera!

And that brings us to the end of Pickle and Peanut week for filmmaking. I wanted to give a special shout out to Joel Trussell and Noah Z. Jones... thanks for your incredible cartoon, for teaching the world about booty germs and cookie altruism, and for the encouraging tweets. Bo bo bo bo bo bo!

February 18 - Filmmaking, Day four

Today Lyric was in a mood. Vacations throw the kids off their schedule, and that can lead to them not sleeping right which can lead to crankiness which can lead to tantrums. And tantrums stink.

But that's what Lyric was giving me this morning. It started off with a tantrum about not wearing a superhero shirt... As I've mentioned, Lyric is obsessed with superheroes and all he wants to wear are superhero clothes. He sometimes even sleeps with a mask and cape on. To try and curb tantruming, we made a rule that superhero clothes can only be worn if wearer hasn't had a tantrum in a whole day, but now we were in a position where he was throwing a tantrum to wear said superhero clothes. It wasn't a particularly well thought out plan. 

Days like this happen. I have found that sometimes the best way to deal with it is to let them have their tantrum in their room and go on with morning activity without them until they are ready to join the fun. While Lyric fussed, I made some eyes and mouths for our Pickle and Peanut Lego figures. 

From L to R: Pickle, Peanut, Lazer, McSweats

And then we started knocking out some more Vines. Lyric rejoined us pretty close to shooting our first one, and when I asked him if he would help us, he was happy to do so. 

So now I present to you, Zephyr and Lyric present Pickle and Peanut, act II.

PART FOUR: PEANUT: Hey maybe if we ask Lazer he'll let us come to his party! / PICKLE AND PEANUT: Hey Lazer, can we come to your party? LAZER: No, dum dums!

PART FIVE: LAZER: Wait a second! / LAZER: I'll let you into the party... only if Pickle gives me a shoulder ride!

PART SIX: PEANUT: Pickle, you gotta do it! PICKLE: I don't know... / LAZER: Come on, Pickle, do it! / PICKLE: Okay!

PART SEVEN: LAZER: Ha ha ha, look at me, I'm so tall! / PICKLE: Oh, you're so heavy... / DISEMBODIED VOICE: Humiliation... humiliation...

The finale comes tomorrow!

February 17 - Filmmaking, day three (pre-empted)

Today was supposed to be the third day of film making, but we had to pre-empt the filming so that the kids could product test a new jigsaw puzzle my wife Chay is thinking of bringing into the MoMA store. It was a 100 piece puzzle with a map of New York City on it... Could the kids do it all on their own?

The answer was yes! They even worked together pretty well to do it, give or take a few little freak outs here and there about who got to put in a piece. But they were able to put together what was on a piece and what it went with fairly accurately. I tried to give them some problem solving strategies throughout: separate edge pieces, turn everything right side up, look at the picture on the back of the box to see where pieces would go, etc.

The nice thing about a jigsaw puzzle is that the more pieces you get in, the easier it gets (because there's less pieces to choose from). So it kind of pulls you in and makes finishing a lot quicker than starting. There was definitely a few points where the kids complained it was too hard, but I told them that's when they have to try harder.

And soon after they were done! I took a victory photo with them laying on the floor.

Look at them goofytoofs.

Filmmaking continues tomorrow!

February 16 - Filmmaking, day two

Some more Pickle and Peanut films this morning... in today's installment, the boys are set for a rollicking evening of Congruous Five when their friend McSweats tells them about a party Lazer is having that they weren't invited to. I play Peanut, Lyric plays Pickle, and Zephyr plays McSweats. I'll provide translation for those that don't speak kid (Zephyr just lost his two front teeth, so he's especially funny sounding at the moment).

PART ONE: TITLE CARD: Pickle and Peanut / PICKLE: Hey Peanut! PEANUT: Hey Pickle, ready to play some Congruous Five? Oh, it's so fun! / MCSWEATS: What up, Ballers?

PART TWO: PICKLE: Hey McSweats! MCSWEATS: 'Sup fools. You going to Lazer's party? / PEANUT: Lazer's having a party?

PART THREE: PEANUT: Oh man, why didn't we get invited to Lazer's party? Quick, Friendship tunnel! / PEANUT: Aw man, Pickle, we gotta get to that party! / PICKLE: But Lazer's such a butt!

More to come later this week! Stay tuned!

February 15 - Filmmaking, day one

It's winter break for the kids this week, so no school. This means the "no TV in the morning before school" rule is suspended, which normally means morning activity is suspended as well, but this year I wanted to try doing morning activity through the break (mainly for this blog, to be honest). What's more, I wanted to make this week's morning activity a week-long intensive activity of Filmmaking. 

For Filmmaking, I make vines with the boys. I love Vine because at 6 seconds long it forces them to edit themselves: if left alone to make movies, Zephyr will make unwatchable 8 minute long catalogs of his toys with lots of dead space in between. But vines are quick and have edits in them, and need to be planned out a bit beforehand. 

Our vines tend to be about their toys having adventures. Some make more sense than others, many involve crossovers between shows that are wild violations of copyright laws, and most are multi-part stories that we never seem to finish. But I'm really proud of some of them, such as these ones from previous days:

But this week I wanted to do some vines based on one of our favorite new shows, Pickle and Peanut. Pickle and Peanut toys don't exist, so we used Legos to make 8-bit representations of the characters:

From L to R: Peanut, Pickle, Lazer, McSweats

And this morning we made our first vine, a recreation of a section of the (incredible) opening sequence. 

Pickle and Peanut executive producer Joel Trussell saw it, retweeted it, and called it amazing! More coming this week!

Thanks, Joel! Your show RULES SO HARD

February 12 - Valentine's Day Crafting

Valentine's day is THIS WEEKEND, and I still hadn't made my valentine for my wife. Luckily, I reserved today to do a Valentine's day craft with the kids, although I still hadn't fully decided on what to do by the time I fell asleep last night. Some improvisation would be in order.

I woke up kind of early this morning and cut out around 50 small hearts out of white paper. I was thinking of making them into swan feathers somehow (swans are an emblematic animal for love in our family), although I wasn't sure how when I started. By the time the kids got up, I had cut out all the hearts and was outlining them with a sharpie. As I got breakfast for the kids, we ran out of Orange Juice, and then it struck me that the juice container, if collapsed properly, could make an excellent swan body. The game was afoot.

After tracking down a used toilet paper roll and paper towel roll, some white duct tape, and a little glue, we had all the basic components we would need.

Our elf Lyric examines our base materials.

With a few cuts in the paper towel roll, we were able to create a neck, although after consulting a picture I realized it was bending in more of an ostrich style.

A few more cuts on the paper towel tube and some more duct tape got the neck looking better.

Then I started applying the heart feathers with the kids. I'd put on the glue and have them place the feathers after showing them how to do it. Lyric was the one who came up with the idea of making the tail feathers.

I should note here that the kids were not present for the whole creation of the swan... they went in and out of their room, playing with toys, as I worked on it. That's how it goes with projects like these, but I think that's fine. The important thing (at least in my mind) is modelling creativity for them. They might not be able to focus all the way through it yet, but if they can see you focusing, it gives them an idea of how things get done.

When I got home today, I added some orange tape on the beak and decorated the head with a sharpie. This is what I've got so far:

I might fancy it up a bit more in the coming days, but it's pretty sweet! And as Zephyr said "We made a swan for Valentine's Day out of things we were going to throw away!" A poet, I tells you.

February 11 - Subway Treasure Hunt!

Oh boy. Today was the Subway Treasure hunt and it was a doozy. Zephyr and Lyric were too excited to get dressed before starting, so I let them do it in their pajamas.

The first thing was finding the initial note on the table laying out the rules. Note that I printed out the notes using Helvetica, in deference to Massimo Vignelli who chose the font for the whole system:

Zephyr got that the rhyme was "ukulele" pretty quickly... their nanny Lilly plays ukulele in a band called the Stops. So he ran to the bedroom where the ukulele was hanging and looked behind it to reveal... the first clue and a subway map!

Zephyr ran to the living room to start working on the clue, and Lyric kind of fell behind to watch a little (he tends to wait until the end of the hunt to get really involved). Zephyr unfolded the subway map on the floor to see the whole city at once. We looked it over together, noting where Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island were.

If you want to play along, here's what clue number one said.

This was admittedly a pretty tough one for Zephyr. But we looked over the map together, and Zephyr noted that the beginning of train lines were marked with a square around the number rather than a circle. So if he could find a line where both squares were outside Manhattan, then that train didn't go into Manhattan. But then I showed him how the R train starts in Queens, goes through Manhattan, and then goes to Brooklyn to end. But while looking that over, we noted that each train has its own color, so if he could find a color NOT in Manhattan, that should be the line that doesn't go into the borough. Bingo. The light green line didn't go into Manhattan, so first letter was G!

One of the best part about having kids is watching their minds work. By doing this, I got to see Zephyr not just see the map as little bits, but take in the gestalt of the thing and see it as a larger unit. It was fascinating. Zephyr wrote down the letter in red pen and figured out pretty quickly that the next clue was under the glider cushion, just a few feet away.

Again, if you're playing along at home, clue number two.

Zephyr was off to the races with this one. He immediately found that there were two subway lines named after vowels, and found the airports on the map. He saw the A went to one and after confirming the E did not, figured out the next letter in the password. He also got the answer about the Lego head pretty quickly, although when he went to check it took him a few seconds to realize it was in the top part of the head rather than the bottom. It was just sneaky enough to give him a good head scratching but quickly get it... that's right on target for what we're trying to get across.

Once again, for all those playing at home. I kind of petered out with the poetry at the end here, but I figured it was okay.

Zephyr found the final letter by tracing over the orange line trains and finding out which one went over the Williamsburg Bridge. I wasn't sure if he was going to look for the bridges first or the lines, but whatever he did worked, because he found the third letter on his own, while I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day. He got Lyric, ran up to me, and said "the password is GEM!" So I gave them the final riddle, which was:

"I stand by the door but never leave, I have many coats but no body, and I hold many hangers although I'm smaller than an airplane. What am I?"

The "hangers" part worked better spoken than written. Zephyr got it was a closet right away, but didn't quite get it was the coat closet until after looking through his own closet. But then both Zephyr and Lyric descended on the coat closet. In a nice twist, Zephyr looked and looked for the treasure, but it was Lyric who eventually found it. He was really happy that he could help.

And then all that was left to do was open up the treasure chest and collect their booty! Another Treasure Hunt in the books!

February 10 - Hide and Seek Championship

So morning activity for today was supposed to be hide and seek championship, but it just didn't take off. The kids were sleepy, I made a juice, and time just got away from us. That happens some mornings. I was tempted to try and do a make up session this afternoon, but in the spirit of radical honesty I figure I want this blog to be founded on, I've decided to document when this #MorningFunManifesto doesn't work as well as when it does.

Hide and Seek Championship is perhaps the easiest of the morning activities to do. It's just playing hide and seek with your kids. I like hide and seek a lot, I think it implicitly instills a sense of independence (when you're the seeker) and an ability to be silent and contemplative (when you're the hider). But because it takes no prep at all, it's also the easiest activity to drop. However, it's also an easy activity to bring in as a substitution, and I wouldn't be surprised to have it come in again towards the end of the month.

There's still a lot to do today that's #MorningFunManifesto related, because tomorrow is supposed to be Treasure Hunt. Treasure Hunt is the kids' favorite morning activity, and it takes the most prep (about an hour, usually). But it's worth it.

Zephyr is doing a "subway study" in school now, and they have a presentation on Friday. So I decided that this treasure hunt will have a subway component to it. While I was out today, I got a free subway map from a tourist information booth, and when I got home I started writing up some clues.

Here's how treasure hunt works: There's one starting note, three hidden notes, and one hidden treasure chest (filled with 4 small toys). Each note gives a clue to the location of the next note, but to figure it out, the kids need to solve a problem. At first, it was just to complete a rhyme, but as the kids have gotten better at Treasure Hunting, I've changed up the types of problems. There's been riddles, rebusses, and last month we used math problems to come up with digits in a combination lock (in that one, the chest wasn't hidden but instead locked in a terrarium and left in plain sight). A few pictures from that hunt:

So after writing and printing out the clues (which I'll share tomorrow), I load up the treasure chest, and then hide the clues and treasure chest throughout the house. For example, I hid this clue in the top of a large Lego head:

We'll see tomorrow if it works... it should be a good one.

February 09 - Detective Training

Today was another easy activity that doesn't require a lot of setup... Detective Training. It teaches kids perceptiveness, in theory... at least it taught my kids the meaning of the word "perceptiveness". Here's how you play.

First, have your kids look over the room. I find it's better if it's a little messy, for reasons that will become evident soon.

I'd like to take this moment to pre-emptively apologize to my wife for putting an image of our messy living room out on the internet. Sorry, Honey.

Encourage them to look around a little and take in everything in the room. I have them especially notice things that are out of place... like say, pajama bottoms in the middle of the living room floor or couch cushions strewn all about. Then have them go to their room and count to twenty.

While they're in their room, hide three toys (I use action figures, but you can let them choose) somewhere about the room, ideally near something out of place. Once the figures are hidden, call the kids in and have them search for the figures. However, when they move stuff around to look for the figures, have them put them back in the right place (like have them put the couch cushions back in the right place).

And that's it! Your kids get a mini-treasure hunt, and you get to subtly get them to pick up after themselves. Pretty sneaky.

February 08 - Lunar New Year

It being Lunar New Year today, there was no school, so I got to sleep a little late and Zephyr and Lyric got to watch TV in the morning.

But this weekend. Oh boy this weekend.

MC's Zeph E. Fresh and Slick Lyric drop a poetry recitation of La Di Da Di by Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh. Starring Zephyr Sosin and Lyric Sosin Background images by Robert Sosin Camerawork by Andi Sosin and Joel Sosinsky

This was the culmination of a Poetry for Prizes project I started months ago. I'm planning to turn it into a video, but here's the live version. Zephyr did it despite having a slight temperature (and was in three other acts!) but I'm sooooooo proud of him. When things were hard, he tried harder. And Lyric straight up ROCKED it.

More on Poetry for Prizes in about 2 weeks. Back to the Manifesto tomorrow.

February 05 - Juice Crew and Breakdancing

For this activity, usually scheduled right after the Veggie Challenge, the boys and I make a juice (using our Hurom slow juicer)  juicer for their mom while listening to old-school hip-hop, and then we try to learn a breakdancing move once we're filled up with juicy power. I try to make it an "every color of the rainbow" juice, using:

1. a red fruit or vegetable (today it was watermelon)
2. an orange fruit or vegetable (today it was carrots)
3. a yellow fruit or vegetable (today it was half a banana)
4. a green fruit or vegetable (today it was a pear and some kale leaves)
5. a blue fruit or vegetable (normally blueberries, but today we didn't have any)
6. a purple fruit or vegetable (today it was pomegranate seeds)

The kids love making the juice because it's both easy and cathartic: just dump the stuff into the hole and occasionally push it down with the plastic thing.

The juice today came out dark green, but holy crap did it taste delicious. We made about two and a half cups, enough for me and my wife to have a full glass and Zephyr and Lyric to have several shot glasses worth.

Normally we also do a breakdancing lesson, but today we had to rehearse for tomorrow's talent show (more on that soon). I tried to give Zephyr a quick lesson about keeping the beat, but he didn't quite seem to get it.

February 04 - Veggie Challenge

Today I realized it was Veggie Challenge day and I hadn't gotten any vegetables for it. The rules for Veggie Challenge are kind of fluid... we've had veggie challenges where they've needed to eat a fruit (like 10 orange slices) quickly, we've had veggie challenges where they had to identify the veggie blindfolded, we've had veggie challenges where they had to try an exotic fruit (like prickly pears or starfruit).  The winner of the veggie challenge gets bonus "Veggie points", and 350 veggie points can be traded in for a small toy. Essentially it's a sneaky way to get them to eat more vegetables: they'll do it more readily if they think of it as a game, and if there's a prize somewhere in it for them, they have motivation to see it through.

But today I had forgotten to get veggies, and all we had in the house was some leftover broccoli my wife hadn't roasted. So it was going to be a raw broccoli challenge today.

I ripped off two florets and put them on small plates, and then covered the plates with other bowls. When I called them in to start the Veggie Challenge, I insisted they couldn't look under the bowls until the challenge had begun. I didn't want them to psyche themselves out.

When they were seated, I yelled "go" and they revealed the broccoli. I said that they could get 50 veggie points for each floret they ate, plus a 100 bonus Veggie Points if they finished both first. GAME ON. They went at it.

Zephyr started asking me if he possibly could just eat the stalks, and I said I'd give him 25 points for each stalk he ate, but he'd need to eat the whole floret for the big points. Meanwhile Lyric was diligently going at it, chewing with all his might.

It looked neck and neck for a while, but Lyric ended up winning it. This was the first time in a while Lyric had beaten his older brother in something, and he was pretty thrilled about it. And Zephyr ended up getting 50 points for eating both stalks, which was enough to add to his previous winnings to get an action figure. Plus, I got to send them off to school with the knowledge that they had been tricked into eating healthy vegetables. So a win all around.

February 03 - Teddy Bear School

From L to R: Trigon, Paddington, Kuma, Robot, Fluffington J. Bear ESQ, Chickens, Arctos, Arc. Non-Teddy Bears go to Teddy Bear school as well, it gives the program more diversity.

Today's morning activity was one Lyric made up a few months ago: Teddy Bear School. For this, the kids take their teddy bears, sit them up against their dresser, and then act as their teachers (and on occassion, as storyteller Bill Gordh, who comes to their school with his banjo every month to tell stories from around the world. He's amazing.) The great thing about this activity is you get to see from their perspective what actually happens in school... a notoriously hard bit of information to get out of kids ("How was school today?" "Fine, great") At least, I think this is close to what happens in school.

So today Teddy Bear School started out with a PE demonstration. Lyric stretched for a sun salutation, showed off his headstand, and Zephyr did a tree pose.

Then Zephyr came in as Bill Gordh and told a story about everyone in the world being changed into money. During the story Lyric had his Trigon doll (that's the red demon thing from Teen Titans Go) make a commotion, so he had to be led out of the class into the hallway. This is the kind of information I really enjoy hearing about school, and you get to see your kids utilize the lessons they learn in school for conflict resolution. That's why Teddy Bear School is so great: it's adorable and educational. A win / win.