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Day 4 of Chore Wheel of Fortune: platform switching

Okay, this morning I wasn’t feeling super hot but we still did Chore wheel of Fortune on the kids request. I had some trouble with the instagram yesterday, so trying it today in Clips and then posting that to Facebook. Let’s see if we can get that video here now…

Zephyr got “Make Beds” and Lyric got “Vacuum couches”… again, they didn’t do the most thorough jobs possible, but they’re learning, and clean up time is gradually being incorporated into the morning schedule. Definitely filming it is big for them, hopefully now we can share their exploits over other platforms without being too repetitive…

Day 3 of CHORE WHEEL OF FORTUNE

  EXPERIMENT NOTES 📝 

What I’m seeing: the kids are hyped to spin the wheel in the mornings, so far. They’re really digging the Instagram part of it and being on camera. This could be a very interesting incentive to doing chores...

Lyric got “Clean bathroom” but couldn’t right then because Mommy was getting ready for the day. Zephyr got “Dining room table” and cleaned it pretty good, but then I got OCD distracted cleaning out a stuck drawer in the kitchen.  

Going to try and get Lyric to clean bathroom tonight by dangling “finish the Instagram” tonight...

Day 2 of CHORE WHEEL OF FORTUNE

The Chore Wheel of Fortune experiment continued today…

Today Lyric hit the jackpot and got to relax while Zephyr cleaned the mirrors. I’m hypothesizing that adding in the possibility of NOT doing chores will make them want to do chores more, and okay with doing them when they have to. Plus it adds a performative aspect to the chores that makes it more of an experience. We got clean windows today out of the deal, so so far I’m pretty happy with the way its going…

Behold... the CHORE WHEEL OF FORTUNE!

It’s time for the kids to start doing chores (actually well past time, TBH) but I wanted some way to make it a fun experience... so I crafted this bad boy: 

I call it the CHORE WHEEL OF FORTUNE, with 17 chores to do in the morning that should take less than 15 minutes to do (and 3 oh-so-tempting spaces where they can either relax or read quietly), based on the Showcase Showdown wheel from the Price Is Right and the Wheel of Fortune cars from the major arcana of the Tarot. 

Let’s give it a spin and see if it helps these kids do chores! 

August 23rd - Daddycamp day nineteen

Kind of a low-key day... we had prepping for the shoot scheduled, but we had gotten everything done yesterday, and then our cameraman had to cancel. Ah well. So we played Risk (plants vs. zombies edition) and ran around with the neighbors, and rearranged our kids art hallway into a gallery show for Zephyr and Lyric:

A photo during re-installation  

I'll update with the gallery show when we've finished installing it and made the plaques.  

Oh, and we went swimming today as well! Forgot about that. The kids really improved their water technique this summer.  

August 22nd - Daddycamp day eighteen

Today we spent the day getting ready for shooting our film with special guest star Professor Hotcakes, world's smartest breakfast! We began the day cleaning up the area we'd be shooting in... well, I did most of the work while my two little Teamsters took several breaks to read to each other.

But it was so sweet to see Zephyr reading to Lyric I just allowed it.

And then we started filling in our storyboards with setup shots! Like so:

Lyric was a little hard to work with today... he immediately said our outside shot was "boring" and wanted to drop out of the entire project. Total diva. Hopefully I can talk to his agent and get him more cooperative for the actual shoot...

Stay tuned!

August 21st - MUSEUM MONDAY at Coney Island!

Today was the Great American Eclipse, and I figured that Coney Island would be as good a place as any in NYC for it, so we took our eclipse pinhole projector to the Aquarium and the boardwalk for MUSEUM MONDAY! 

I normally invite you to print it out and try it yourself, but this one might not be especially useful again until 2024. Sorry! 

The New York Aquarium is under construction (and has been since Superstorm Sandy in 2012)  and a bunch of stuff turned out to be closed, but we still managed to see some cool sea creatures and learn a thing or two. 

Found some Blackfoot Penguins gracefully swimming! 

Sand Tiger Shark? Check! 

Lyric greeted the cownose ray by saying "Hi, you are weird", but not in a judgy way. I think he's just delighted by weirdness.  

The green moray eel hides a lot so we never saw one, except the one in this picture. Close enough.  

The pacific walrus was "unavailable" and not on display, so Zephyr posed by this walrus display in the gift shop. Pictured: a sarcastic "wheeee".

We got through the aquarium pretty quickly, but that was fine because we were hungry and the eclipse wasn't starting for another hour and a half. After checking out Rudy's Bar and Grill to have some boardwalk food and find a rumored secret passage (never found it), we still had some time to kill, so we headed to the iconic Wonder Wheel. 

Plus a few other kiddie rides on the way.  

Tip: take the swinging cars on the Wonder Wheel. Way cooler.  

And then, by the time we got off the Wonder Wheel, the eclipse got going! Fortunately with our giant box, we were prepared!

And Zephyr happened to be color coordinated.  

Was it breathtaking? Not really. It was a dot that turned into a crescent - whooo. But we did it and looked fly doing it, so there. Then we had to conquer some rides! 

Conquered the Circus Coaster! #morningfunmanifesto #museummonday #daddycamp

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Going on the hang gliders behind team shiny pants #morningfunmanifesto #museummonday #daddycamp

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Lyric was jusssssst too small (just under 42"!) to get on two rides, the Coney Island Sound and the Coney Tower. So Zephyr bravely conquered them for us!

Zephyr conquering the Coney Island Sound.  

Zephyr conquers the Coney Tower.  

And then it was time to go home. I thought we'd abandon our eclipse viewing box but the kids DESPERATELY wanted to play with it. So it made the long journey home with us as well! 

Lyric could not wait to jump in the box.  

Final museum Monday coming soon! Stay tuned! 

August 17th - Daddycamp day sixteen

Today we took the Ferry ⛴ out to Rockaway Beach with Grandma and Grandpa, and met up with my sister Alexis and her kids Joey and Marilyn! I'd never been before, but I made up a treasure hunt for us to explore it: 

We decided to explore Jacob Riis park rather than the boardwalk.  

And here was the fun facts I hid in envelopes for the kids:

Proud to raise kids that know about Greek goddesses, Art Deco, Muckrakers, and The Ramones.  

I put each clue into an envelope and hid them at spotswhen the kids weren't looking. Fortunately Rockaway Beach is not so crowded, so they managed to stay where I stashed them all day! (I had extras in case they didn't.) 

Beach cool

I had thought we would spend the day exploring and not spend too much time in the water but YOU GUYS. THE WATER WAS SO MUCH FUN. The kids had never been in huge waves like they had at Rockaway, and watching them experience that was incredible.  

First time in waves like this 🌊 #morningfunmanifesto #daddycamp

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Look at all this empty beach! It reminded me of the Little Fugitive.  

We managed to find three of the four clues (never made it out to Fort Tilden), so I just gave them that clue. But we got to see the cool Art Deco architecture of the buildings on the beach, which were just lovely.  

Very DeChirico, no? 

The ferries are cheap, the beach is free and not too packed, the food is excellent, the sights are fantastic, and the water is lovely... definitely highly recommended for summertime in NYC! 

August 16th - Daddycamp day fifteen

Back in it after a day of work, we used today to work on props for our Hotcakes movie (which we're hoping to shoot next week, but might have to bump up to work the scheduling). The kids had lunch with their Nana who was dog sitting for a dachshund named Dodger. Lyric has always been afraid of dogs, even tiny ones, and freaked out a little when he first came over. But by the time I picked him up (thanks to Zephyr demonstrating what a friendly doggo he was) Lyric was straight up hugging Dodger:

Awwwwww

A day where you can overcome a fear, much like a day you learn something,  is a good day. And we went to the dentist and neither of them had any cavities (which was a 2600% improvement from last time, so hooray)!

August 14th - MUSEUM MONDAY at Flushing Meadows!

Today we headed out to Flushing Meadows for a massive scavenger hunt! I gave the kids this double-sided map: one side showing the site today, with the things we had to find, and one side showing the site as reprinted from a map of the 1964 World's Fair...

We took the 7 train up to Willets Point (where we could spy a bunch of the sights on our scavenger hunt list from the train window) and I let the kids lead the way to find the things on our list. First stop: the Unisphere!

On the way the kids found this abandoned pedestal and posed as their own statues.

Next stop SHOULD have been the Queens Museum of Art to see the New York Panorama, but oops, that's closed on Mondays. My bad! We made a quick move over to the New York Hall of Science instead. It was outside there we found the two rockets!

Explaining Zephyr's pained face: he was preparing to jump up into the air for a "blast off" photo that never came out. 

Just a little hug.  

We found the Great Hall, which was surprisingly open and had an amazing exhibit inside where you could effect a virtual ecosystem by moving within it. It was supercool and the kids loved it.  

Plus, as a bonus, you get to experience one of the most striking architectural spaces in NYC.  

But then we hit the science playground to find Archimedes' Screw, and the kids had a blast there. Admission to the playground is extra, but I say it's worth it. 

Watching Archimedes' Screw work justifies the price of admission IMHO.  

I was afraid my blunder about the Queens Museum being closed Monday would prevent us finding cool World's Fair memorabilia, but the Hall of Science had us covered. 

Three pieces of World's Fair memorabilia, check! 

We hit lunch at a Mexican restaurant nearby and the kids DUG it. But first we passed by another item on our list! 

Titans GO! 

Then after lunch we hit the Queens Zoo, where having had some practice at the Brooklyn Zoo, the kids were ready to touch a sheep. Sort of. 

It took a few attempts, admittedly.  

We also got to see an adorable Andean bear cub, who was the child of Nicole and Bouba. An important mystery solved for our hunt! 

My cubs with an actual cub.  

It was a lot of walking (my watch said we walked over 8 miles over the course of the day!) but the kids were having so much fun they didn't even notice. I highly recommend printing out the hunt and trying it yourself! 

August 3rd - Daddycamp day twelve

Today we went to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden with my sister Alexis and her kids Joe and Marilyn, and being Brooklynites, they are EXPERTS on all the fresh spots to hit. After an exciting-yet-serene romp through the Japanese gardens, we hit the "local flora" section:

Very brambly! 

We were pretty much the only ones there, and it was nice and shady on a hot day. We hit the children's learning center after that: 

Pictured: kids ignoring nature in favor of Pokémon cards. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯   

And then we took a quick picnicbreak and headed to the Brooklyn Zoo, right across the street! 

What does a two headed turtle take for a headache? Ex-shell-drine! Ugh, sorry.  

They let peacocks roam around the zoo, which is pretty cute. Also cute: watching kids run in terror from a peacock.  

Why hello.  

It seemed like the animals were more active than normal towards the end of the day. I'm gonna try hitting zoos in the afternoon more often.  

Getting kids to show you their face while crouching reminds one that frogs have no necks. 

Zephyr and Marilyn in a large groundhog tunnel together. Cute! 

And then we finished off the day on the Prospect Park Carousel!  Everything is right next to each other!

Really lovely, and sometimes it plays calliope versions of the hits of the '70s, including the theme song to Welcome Back Kotter

And now I take a week off as we head to the beach to hang with the kids cousins! Back on the 14th with a Museum Monday scavenger hunt in Flushing Meadows! 

August 2nd - Daddycamp day eleven

It was a rainy day today, so we took a bit of time to do some reading... Zephyr is halfway through Ernest Cline's Ready Player One:

He's pretty immersed in it! I figured he'd be into it.

And then we got down to working on storyboards for the upcoming movie we're planning for the end of the month. I had big plans of getting them to work on the composition frames, but that was a bit outside their current artistic skills (it involves a lot more deep skills in figuring out relative size and such). So I did that, but I had them work on the second frame, which is a kid's drawing of a meteor crashing through our kitchen window. Here's where we got:

And then they started building with blocks. Hey, I'm down with that! I think they were playing at being realtors for pokémon, which was weird, but whatever!

And then I took the boys swimming again... it's incredible seeing how much they've picked up after a few weeks of exposure, just going underwater fearlessly now. Here's our list of what we learned for the week!