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 13 - I goofed

Well, Friday was supposed to be Juice Crew and Breakdancing but it didn't happen. There was some complications - we needed fruit so Chay could make yogurt parfaits for Lyric's class, we had to be in at 8:15a for a (separate) Family Friday event with Lyric's class, I was just super-tired - but it all just boils down to our morning activity not happening. I thought maybe we could do it this weekend but that didn't happen either. My flub rate seems to be about once a month. I'd call that not perfect but respectable. 

But this weekend, Zephyr and I started playing around with Hopscotch, an app that lets you design video games as you teach kids the fundamentals of coding. My early review is HOLY CRAP THIS THING IS INCREDIBLE, Zephyr loves it and we've made something like 7 games already these past few days (pretty fun ones too... Including both a flappy bird and angry birds clone). I'm definitely going to be doing a lot more with coding the next few months, and I'm going to do my darnedest to teach my kids how to code as I learn myself. So expect some coding tutorials interspersed from now on. 

So, y'know, hopefully that makes up for missing a day.  

May 12 - Veggie Challenge

Today's Veggie Challenge was recorded in glorious 360 Video! Check it out below!

You might need to open it in YouTube if you're on a mobile phone for the full effect (go to the "share" arrow at the top right corner and it should give you the option). I know it works on a desktop in Chrome, but possibly not in Firefox? It's new technology, folks.

The winner got a really cool Darkseid toy, but it was close, so second place got 100 veggie points as well. And the kids got to eat a healthy every-color-of-the-rainbow fruit salad! Everybody is a winner in veggie challenge!

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 10 - Feats of Strength

HYPOTHESIS: Strength training for little kids presents a simple goal they have to try hard to accomplish. 

PROCEDURE: For this month's feats of strength, I brought out an old set of variable weight dumbbells I don't use anymore. The kids were into the idea of playing with a new toy, but I supervised them carefully in lifting the weights. They definitely could get hurt if they dropped them... I recognized this, but I let them do it. At their heaviest the weights were 25 pounds each, and that was enough for Zephyr to be able to lift and press a few times, but just barely. I did get to chant "Feats of Strength! Feats of Strength!" as he lifted the dumbbell.

For Lyric (who was dressing up as a minion, by the by) I was a lot more cautious. I wanted him to get the form first, so he just lifted the 2.5 pound base unit over his head. But I did want to see how much he actually could lift, so I let him try to pick up a 7.5 lb weight.

The kids really got into it, actually. Their form was all wrong, of course, and it's gonna take a few tries to get it to a place where I feel safe having them lift the weights without me hovering over them, but I think they found something fulfilling in the activity.

The look of triumph.

And they were pretty proud when they were able to see some progress.

RESULTS: A tentative success, especially for a first effort.

May 9 - Superhero Adventure

HYPOTHESIS: you can teach cooperative play through running certain scenarios with your kids. 

PROCEDURE: For Superhero adventure this month I was thinking we might have our homemade costumes ready, but the sewing still has to be done. So we just went forward with what we had, and Lyric wanted to be Robin while Zephyr made up the mysterious Mister Y. I wanted to tell Zephyr that Mister E might be a better way to hit that pun, but thought better of it... His using a Y at the end probably signifies some new level of reading understanding, why get in the way of that? 

I constructed 4 "gates" and placed them around my living room.  

Post it notes would've worked too, but tape and paper worked fine.  

The idea here was to give them various gates they'd have to cover as I called them out, and since they wouldn't be able to reach more than one on their own, I could make them work together. It would be kind of like a cooperative game of "ship to shore", where the kids would race to carry out an order but they had to work together. 

Lyric wanted to run a scenario with zombies on balloons, so I indulged him and said I was Brother Blood and I was calling in zombies from dimensional gateways. As I called out two numbers, the boys would indeed direct each other over to the right place. We'd pretend to fight off the zombies for a few seconds, then I would give them another countdaown to get to the right gate. I think 4 gates might have been too few, there were a few times I realized they could just stay at the number they were on rather than leave. Next time I'll try 8 gates. 

RESULTS: the kids did end up working together and seemed to have a great time doing it. I think the format is very promising as a Nuclear Submarine, I'm excited to try building on it.

Superhero Adventure is always popular with Lyric, it's kind of what he wishes he could be doing all the time. In giving him that, I gotta call this a success. 

May 6 - Mother's Day Crafting

I'm writing this a bit late in case my wife read it early... I didn't want to ruin the surprise. But now that Mother's Day has come and gone, let's talk about what we made! 

As you may recall, the past few days we were designing and making our own superhero costumes. Well, part of the reasoning behind that was that I wanted to let my wife know that she's my hero, and all she's doing to keep our family safe and cared for is appreciated. So I wanted to make a hero shirt for her as well. First step was designing the card: 

Longtime readers of the blog know how important swans are to us. I was pretty happy with how the Superman S could become a swan, I haven't seen that before.  

While I did that, the kids worked on their own versions of Mommy as a superhero, Zephyr using markers:​

Zephyr also drew my mom and grandma on cards we made for them. 

And Lyric worked on his with watercolors: 

That's him as Robin with Mommy as a superhero. You might have to squint to see it, but it's there.  

Then I cut out the pattern and sewed it to a shirt I got at American Apparel. 

Okay, I got help with the sewing from my grandmother... Thanks Grandma Noonie! 

I'm not expecting my wife to wear the shirt out so much, but now she can join the club and play with the kids when they put on their own superhero shirts. And isn't reinforcing the bond between a mother and her sons what Mother's Day is all about? 

The correct answer, as it turns out, is "no". Mother's Day is also about getting the moms in your life flowers. Fortunately last weekend, Zephyr found a swan vase at an estate sale he went to with his Mumsie, so we went out and got an orchid for it.  

Smooth dude.  

A fairly successful Mother's Day, I think. Hopefully the creative effort behind it makes it that much more special... 

May 5 - Superhero Costume Design

Continuing yesterday's work today, I got on starting to create the shirts we designed.

Crocodile Man! 

I kind of got caught in a hole doing Lyric's arm scales with a laundry marker... it took a long time and ending up looking a bit too subtle. I decided to switch over to sharpie for the belt. I'll probably have to sharpie the arm scales as well, I just hope that the internet is right about it being laundry-safe. I think the crocodiles came out pretty good, though! Next step is sewing on the felt.

Kind of based on the Flash, but I think it ended up looking more like Doug's friend Skeeter. Which is okay by me.  

I also made a quickie lightning T-shirt design for Lyric, since both Zephyr and I have lightning shirts and Lyric wants to join our club. If this works out I might just make more symbols from felt and apply them to shirts he already has. That may be a quick and easy way to make his wardrobe more superheroic.

I did a little work on Zephyr's design this morning as well, but that's still in development. While I was doing all of this, the kids were playing with the Pokemon stuff they made at the last cardboard toy shop. They would come over and check in on my progress every so often. It wasn't the most involving morning activity for them, but at least a) I was modeling creativity for them, and b) they were involved with something we had made in a previous morning activity. I'll take it.

May 4 - Superhero Drawing Studio

HYPOTHESIS: If we let my youngest son design his own clothes, he'll want to wear them.

Let me explain that a bit further: I have two sons who are both great, but very different from each other. Zephyr, my oldest, is a very snazzy dresser who loves to wear stylish clothes. He likes wearing a tie, for example, and he always has. Lyric, my youngest, not so much. He fights me constantly when we get dressed in the morning, refusing to wear lots of clothes we have for him (many of which are hand-me-downs from Zephyr). Where Zephyr likes fancy things, Lyric likes superhero clothing, and will (as another example) wear a mask and cape for a shockingly long period of time.

The other day as I was getting Lyric dressed in something fancy, he told me "I just don't like wearing fancy things". I asked him why not, and he said, "I don't know... I was just born that way". I'm not sure if he knew how affecting that answer was to me, but it really got me thinking. I want Lyric to be happy being who he thinks he is, and I want him to feel comfortable being the person he feels like he should be. I don't want to impose my own idea of who he should be onto him, I want him to come to be the person he feels like he's meant to be.  As a dad, of course I'm going to shape him in certain ways, but I feel like it's my job as a dad to not just raise kids to be what I want them to be, but to raise kids to be the best possible version of who they actually are. So I decided I'd try to work with him to make some new superhero clothes based on superheroes he makes up.

The first step would be to draw out the designs for the costumes, which is why I scheduled this very special episode of Superhero Drawing Studio.

PROCEDURE: We talked this morning about which made up superheroes we wanted to draw... Zephyr made up an alien named Zemore on the spot, and Lyric said he wanted to make a drawing of Crocodile man, a superhero he's made up before. I took a piece of paper and gave one to Zephyr, and drew an outline for Lyric so we could talk about how the costume would be designed.

Lyric said he wanted two crocodiles in the middle, and we looked up crocodiles on our iPad as a reference. I started sketching based on his instructions, trying to place how he wanted the crocodiles to look. He wanted two crocodiles but also wanted a symbol in the middle like Batman, so I came up with a way to make the interior circle formed by the negative space of the crocodiles:

And then from there it was about figuring out the color patterns. Again, I did the coloring here, letting Lyric act as the foreman... his drawing skill is coming along nicely, but this time I wanted to concentrate on him ideating more than using fine motor skills.

And of course while we were busy doing that, Zephyr was going to town making his drawing:

So that was phase one. Today I went to American Apparel and my local fabric store to get shirts and felt and fabric markers, and tomorrow we'll start constructing some new costumes. 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... 

May 2 - Chess Puzzles

HYPOTHESIS: Having kids teach each other helps lessons stick. 

PROCEDURE: For the start of Chess Puzzles this morning, as we've done the past few months, I quizzed Lyric (my youngest) on the six chess pieces. He got 5 of 6 again (still a little tough to remember the bishop!) - no progress, but no steps back, so I'll take it. For what it's worth, he was calling a knight a knight (instead of "horse") and a rook a rook (instead of a "castle"). 

But then I switched it up a bit by having Zephyr (my oldest) teach Lyric how each piece moves. The responsibility thrilled Zephyr, and Lyric seemed to pay pretty close attention. I think it was a simple trick that reinforced the lesson for both kids. 

Then Zephyr and I set up for a game.  

Zephyr contemplates his first move.  

I was impressed by Zephyr's focus this time... He seemed to pick up how to interpose with pawns since last we played.  

The main lesson I think I end up teaching Zephyr with Chess Puzzles is that a King in check can only do three things:  

1. capture the checking piece
2. interpose another piece between the checking piece and the King, or
3. have the King flee

We go over those three options every time I put his King in check, and I think it's starting to sink in. Today, we ended on this position: 

Was it checkmate? We investigated.  

As I got him in this position, we went over all the flight squares for the King and showed what piece would be covering that square, determining that yes, this was checkmate. Just in time as we had to leave for school.  

RESULTS: as I said, I could see some progress in Zephyr's game this morning, and Lyric paying attention to how the pieces moved was a big step forward for him. More to come, but once again, very happy with what we achieved.  

May 1 - New Monthly Schedule!

Okay, a bit late here, but BOOM! It's May!

A few new things in the works for this month:

• We'll be making superhero costumes on the 5th as part of an extended Superhero riff, which will hopefully give Lyric some more clothing options with which he feels comfortable.
• There's some crafting on the 6th for Mother's Day on the 8th... working on something special for that!
• My kids have been tussling recently (brothers), but I'm going to try an experiment on the 19th: I'm going to try and teach them the basics of wrestling, so they can have a set of rules to tussle with...
• On the 30th, in honor of performance artist Marina Abramovic's half birthday, we're going to try something REALLY WEIRD. You will want to see it.

Stay tuned, Morning Funsters!

May 1 - Trying something new

Well, still traveling and without Wi-Fi, so posting this month's schedule and editing THERE IS A MONSTER IN THE PLAYGROUND didn't come to fruition. But a new schedule exists, and will be posted VERY soon. 

Just downloaded the iPhone Squarespace blogging app and trying it out now. If you're reading this it worked, I guess.  

Trying to add a picture now... Let's see if that works. Here's a drawing of Batman and Robin Lyric did today... 

I know it was an accident, but he kind of nailed Batman's expression, right? 

And Zephyr just gave us a family dance lesson. Here's the sign up: 

Mommy signed up on another sheet. He sort of plastered the house. 

April 28 - Filmmaking Day 4

Today we (finally) did the opening credit sequence for THERE IS A MONSTER IN THE PLAYGROUND. It wasn't easy, and it took us a few tries, but we got there.

Zephyr unveiling part of the credits.

There's almost certainly a way for me to add graphics to these 360 videos, but until I figure it out, it's going to be a very Dogme 95-type affair. I'm hoping at least these credits can take advantage of the form and let viewers read as they turn around.

We're going to be traveling tomorrow, but I'm going to bring along my computer so hopefully we can edit this movie together over the weekend and design a soundtrack. Plus we have to make next month's schedule! I have some big ideas for that as well, stay tuned.