Deborah Halverson's Blog

Me to Six-year-old Son #1: What are you drawing? Is that a ship?

Him: It’s a sailing ship like the Flying Cloud that was so fast it sailed around Cape Horn faster than any ship ever.

Me: It’s fantastic!

Me to Six-year-old Son #2: What are you drawing? Is that a ship?

Him: It’s a steamer like the Britannic that was turned into a hospital ship during the war to ferry wounded soldiers. It was sunk by a u-boat but people lived. It would have been worse but there weren’t any soldiers on it when it sank.

Me: It’s amazing!

Me to Six-year-old Son #3: And look at your ship. You’ve even drawn another ship in the distance, a small one. That’s called perspective. Impressive.

Him: It’s a table.

Me: And it’s the most beautiful table I’ve ever seen.

If you give a six-year-old boy a pen, he will give you “luv,” he will give you “seriul”, and he will give you “zookene.” Above all, he will give you his heart.

Living with three kindergarten boys who’ve discovered the wonder of writing is a true gift. My sons are, right now, sleeping through the eve of their last day of kindergarten. They’ve come a long way since their first week of learning the sound of every letter. Now, they write us notes at the drop of a hat. If they’re sent to time out, they slide notes under the door pleading their case for release. If they’re feeling mushy, t Read More…

Memorial Day Weekend is over, and that Halversons are embarking on our first ‘Last Week of School’ ever. My first-graders-to-be are hugely excited. Me? I’m weepy. What can I say . . . I’m a mom.икони

When I finally figured out that the theme for our extra room, which had remained themeless these many years, would be Music, my husband had one request: paint it purple. And so, purple it is.

Check out our new Music Room, complete with a pink drum kit (so generously given to our three boys by friend Alana), a keyboard, a freshly spray-painted gold filing cabinet, a disco ball, a lava lamp, a framed Madonna album that I won on the radio when I was 14 Read More…

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week at my sons’ school. Today, the boys gathered flowers as they walked to school and then bundled up the flowers, attached hand-made tags, and gave them to their kindergarten teacher.

Tomorrow: Gardener Appreciation Day.

UPDATE: BTW, that last comment was no joke. I brought the whole gardening crew Gater-Ades the next day. And I talked to them about the boys’ flower-collecting. The gardeners were not only okay with the picking, they said they appreciated the compliment. Phew!

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99 years ago yesterday, the “unsinkable” Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the middle of the North Atlantic. Because of the claims that Titanic was virtually unsinkable, because of the ship’s state-of-the-art grandeur, because of the big names of its passengers and the many, many decisions that contributed to the sinking, the tragedy has fascinated people since. But until November of last year, I had no idea those fascinated people included young children. Now I know better. Read More…

I saved a drowning six-year-old today. No, not one of my own. One of their friends. Sam, I’ll call him.

Sam and my son ventured into the deep end of the pool this afternoon with a boogie board and a swim noodle. My son can swim and is often in the deep end under my watchful eye. Sam can’t swim. His mom and I watched the two and spent a few milli-moments debating the finer points of 6-yr-old boys’ limit-testing and this particular move’s score in risk management spectrum and decided that this limit was not one to be breached. We ordered both boys back to the shallow end.

They didn’t listen.

You can imagine how well that went over with the moms. She and I sprang to our feet, hustled to the side of the pool, and were snapping into “Do it NOW!” mode when Sam lost hold of his swim noodle. Read More…

So I’m writing the very last words of my revision for Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies (yes, it’s DONE!!!!) when one of my 6-year-olds sits down beside me and starts reading what I’m typing.

Out loud.

I love their kindergarten teacher.

Having small children can be good for a gal’s ego. My 6-year-old sons think Mom knows everything. They think Mom can do anything. They think Mom can solve everything. To them, Mom is the Ideal Woman in every way.

I understand that this will flip-flop completely when these same children reach teenhood. It’s a usual part of the maturing process. I’m hoping they’ll come back around shortly after (very shortly after) to the most realistic view of me , that Mom knows a lot, that Mom can do a lot of things, and that Mom can solve a lot of stuff. Because I’m a practical lady, I’m okay with all three of those scenarios. I know how the game works.  But I’m even more okay with the fact that right now, today, I am firmly in the first phase with my sons, because in that scenario, they have a really cool nickname for me:

Mrs. Beautiful.

The weather has been a big topic of conversation among three six-year-olds of late. First massive rain storms, then snowfall in the nearby mountains, then tsunamis that rocked Japan hard and even caused damage to boats and marinas way over here on the western US coast.

It’s been difficult to talk about tsunamis without touching on the human devastation that comes with them. But the snow has been a different matter. Snow can wreak havoc, certainly, but it’s also a cause for jubilation. Snowmen! Snow angels! Snowball fights!  The Halversons couldn’t resist the call of a great white playground, Read More…

The inevitable has finally occurred: One of my three kindergarteners had to stay home sick from school this morning. It’s nothing serious, but he does have a temperature, runny nose, and sore throat, which according to the school rules I looked up this morning means “Stay away!” So he’s staying away.

Only, there seemed to be something wrong with that call. Read More…

It may be cold and it may be dark outside, but Daddy promised Little Man a walk while his brothers go to bed and Daddy does not renege.

Mommy’s job? Hot chocolate and warm blankets for the return!

(And yes, ALL three of these triplet brothers get turns to prowl post-bedtime. Safety first, equal distribution of Father/Son time second.)

While I’m not prone to public displays of dancing, when it comes to my sons and the school Valentine’s Day dance,  I say “Break out my dancing shoes!”  I spent a couple of hours Friday night dancing with somewhere between 10 and 15 kindergartners. There was even a short stint where a small child of about 4 was attached to my arm, swinging and swaying and dancing with abandon. I have no idea who this child was or who she belonged to.  Read More…

So how do triplet boys, two of whom are identical, dress on Twin Day at school?

Like twins, of course. Only, with unrelated kids.

My third fella isn’t pictured here because his “twin” forgot to wear the agreed-upon blue outfit. That’s kindergarten for you. Being the clever mom that I am, I was ready for this possibility with a spare set of matching green shirts. My son wanted no part of it. He chose to stick with what he’d worn — he would be a singleton for the day. For a triplet, that’s probably just as exciting.

My trio’s kindergarten teacher has started giving the students independent time on a set of class computers each day, with their little bodies lined up in a row, their little heads covered by headphones, their little fingers clicking mouse buttons, and their little faces fixed in expressions of concentration and joy as they work with Starfall.com, a wonderful site that I and my boys discovered a few years back. The kindergarteners love it. They feel empowered. They are entertained. They are learning letters and counting and spelling and having a great time doing it.

And now my sons have requested independent Starfall time at home. Who am I to say no to letters and counting and spelling and having a great time? So this was the scene in my house tonight… Read More…