Tag: Legoland

Of indigenous peoples day and allowances

And visits to Legoland. So Monday was a public holiday here in the old US of A.

Apparently good old Christopher Columbus has been co-opted into a celebration of indigenous peoples day. so we’ve gone from celebrating the person who did the murdering to celebrating the people he murdered.

I guess that’s progress of a sort?

Anyway it meant that #1 Son did not have school.

We had rented a car, with the intention of going to the zoo. However the rain was appalling, so instead off we went to Legoland.

#1 Son had a whale of a time on the (two) rides, and built many things.

TT made a friend:

And woe betide any other child who dared to seat him or herself on this Friend.

😂🤣😂🤣🤣😂

We also discovered what rain does to her hair:

Daddy threatened to chop it off when she wouldn’t let us brush it over the weekend. I threatened to chop off various parts of his anatomy.

We called it even.

We have also started introducing the concept of budgeting to #1 Son.

He gets a weekly allowance with two options:

  • $5 cash in hand which he could spend on anything he wants within reason.
  • $10 in his bank account to allow him to save for a big item. (Well, in reality it’s notarised in a spreadsheet until he tells us what he wants to buy).

He has never asked for cash in hand. So, up until Monday he had $75 dollars earned (he had $5 docked one week for reasons).

He has been saving up for a big Lego model. The specifics of the model in question change a bit but they have always stayed within the $80-90 mark.

Well, we couldn’t visit Legoland without visiting the gift shop.

We bought TT some Duplo as she’s really into it right now, which was $30.

So we explained to #1 Son that he could have a set worth $30 which we would pay for or he could use some of his allowance in addition and buy a bigger model of his own choosing.

Well, he has $15 dollars left of his savings, and a huge Lego model that he and his daddy are building together and is only halfway done.

They are having brilliant quality building time and daddy isn’t needed per se, so it’s really nice.

The remainder of our week

So, it didn’t start out very well. But, #1 son improved tremendously by the end.

This was his journal entry from his teacher I was ecstatic.

He has actively engaged with school work which is a miracle!!!

Today is a public holiday (Columbus/Indigenous People’s Day) and we were going to go to the zoo, but the weather is awful for that, so after TT wakes up from her nap, we will head off to Lego Land instead.

It’s a fun couple of hours for both kids.

TT? Meh, not so good. She managed to destroy a treasured memory from our very first trip to Paris, but the hus-creature believes he can arrange for a restoration.

She also trapped her foot in a tight metal space, is hitting a lot, and just generally working my last nerves.

Her speech has come on amazingly, and she can get her own trousers on, so it’s probably a leap, coupled with boundary pushing Terrible Two-ness.

Butter wouldn’t melt right?

I have signed up for a two-day class on learning magic loop and sock knitting which I am so looking forward to.

$65 bucks for 4 hours 1:1 with other local yarny folks? Bargain!