Danya has become the champion of diligence in the Coe household. Every morning, he sets his alarm to wake up first. He feeds the guinea pig her three types of food. Then he unloads the dishwasher. He has to stand on the counter to put away stacks of fragile plates and glasses. [Editors note: Danya: "No, I don't anymore. I put them away from the ground. That's why I do it so fast now!...excuse me, all of these are supposed to be capital letters!"] He heats the electric teapot, pours the boiling water over the oatmeal, and microwaves it. He sets the table with everyone's favorite colors of IKEA bowls and cups. Then he brings his phone into my room to wake me up with my favorite ringtone.
Some mornings, when he is bored, he vaccuums the kitchen and hallway. In fact, I often have to remind him that it's NOT okay to vaccuum at 7am, when everyone else is still asleep. Though he carefully closes the doors, the sound easily reaches to every corner of our 600sq ft! [Editor's note: Danya, "Isn't that a lot?"] ["Argh!!" he says, whenever I type his comments.] ["Arrrgh!"]
So, why all of this hard work? In his own words:
"One, I'm trying to save up for an $120 LEGO ship, that has three Jedi that comes with it. If I do 33 chores in a week, I get about 200 rubles put into my allowance jar. The ship is two-feet long.
"Two, Momma's getting pretty lazy in the mornings, and isn't waking up till about 8:30 some days. And sometimes I get pretty hungry. And so do my brother and sister. [Editor's note: Nobody ever eats before I get up, and I usually have to pressure them to stop playing and get to breakfast. As to the laziness, I do not protest.]
Danya's diligence is also seen in his schoolwork. from the beginning, he has been responsible to keep track of his homework. In fact, I hardly ever look at his books or his homework. He packs his bag, remembers his gym clothes and shoes three days a week, and the different books for different subjects everyday. He has started to take his homeschool books to do during the class' English lessons, and he'll often do a whole weeks work in the forty minute lesson. He has complained much less this year about doing spelling every evening. In fact he commented, "I like doing spelling every day instead of every other day. This way, I just expect it and we do it quickly."
Danya has enjoyed having the freedom to take some photos and even correct the red eye. His favorite thing is to correct all the red in the photo. After discovering this, he started taking pictures of all the red things he could find, to see what happened. Here are some examples.
One last note. As I was talking briefly with the kids about the possibilities of their friends starting to show off 'pictures of naked people,' Danya said that the worst place for that was at the Hermitage. "It's impossible to not look at the statues of naked people. They are just everywhere!"
Tima said, "How about if you close your eyes?"
Danya, "Then you just run into them!"
I found myself cracking up, and was a little helpless to explain the difference between ancient art and modern porn... When he first went there with a class field trip, he returned saying that there were a lot of "inappropriate statues".
Some mornings, when he is bored, he vaccuums the kitchen and hallway. In fact, I often have to remind him that it's NOT okay to vaccuum at 7am, when everyone else is still asleep. Though he carefully closes the doors, the sound easily reaches to every corner of our 600sq ft! [Editor's note: Danya, "Isn't that a lot?"] ["Argh!!" he says, whenever I type his comments.] ["Arrrgh!"]
So, why all of this hard work? In his own words:
"One, I'm trying to save up for an $120 LEGO ship, that has three Jedi that comes with it. If I do 33 chores in a week, I get about 200 rubles put into my allowance jar. The ship is two-feet long.
"Two, Momma's getting pretty lazy in the mornings, and isn't waking up till about 8:30 some days. And sometimes I get pretty hungry. And so do my brother and sister. [Editor's note: Nobody ever eats before I get up, and I usually have to pressure them to stop playing and get to breakfast. As to the laziness, I do not protest.]
Danya's diligence is also seen in his schoolwork. from the beginning, he has been responsible to keep track of his homework. In fact, I hardly ever look at his books or his homework. He packs his bag, remembers his gym clothes and shoes three days a week, and the different books for different subjects everyday. He has started to take his homeschool books to do during the class' English lessons, and he'll often do a whole weeks work in the forty minute lesson. He has complained much less this year about doing spelling every evening. In fact he commented, "I like doing spelling every day instead of every other day. This way, I just expect it and we do it quickly."
Danya has enjoyed having the freedom to take some photos and even correct the red eye. His favorite thing is to correct all the red in the photo. After discovering this, he started taking pictures of all the red things he could find, to see what happened. Here are some examples.
One last note. As I was talking briefly with the kids about the possibilities of their friends starting to show off 'pictures of naked people,' Danya said that the worst place for that was at the Hermitage. "It's impossible to not look at the statues of naked people. They are just everywhere!"
Tima said, "How about if you close your eyes?"
Danya, "Then you just run into them!"
I found myself cracking up, and was a little helpless to explain the difference between ancient art and modern porn... When he first went there with a class field trip, he returned saying that there were a lot of "inappropriate statues".
