High (Five) Holidays

Every month or so, upon receipt of his latest High Five, my son and I stop everything, sit ourselves down and proceed to plunge into the pages of another enriching issue of this marvelous preschool magazine. To be honest, I wasn't exactly atingle with excitement when my mother emailed me a little over a year ago to say she'd purchased a subscription to High Five for Parker. High Five is published by the people behind Highlights, that magazine perennially found dogeared and discarded inside pediatricians' waiting rooms. Am I the only one who, awaiting another annual checkup, found myself turning yet again to an old Highlights issue in a desperate attempt to alleviate the maddening mixture of boredom and anxiety that every kid feels when they know their turn with the doctor looms ahead? And did that old Highlights issue do anything to either pique my interest or calm my nerves? No. I'd inevitably toss it aside in frustration, incredulous that there were adults out there who actually thought kids would enjoy reading such insipid drivel. (OK, so I might have suffered from a slight case of ennui as a child.) Needless to say, I had very low expectations for Highlights magazine's younger sibling. Well, was I ever wrong! It is chock full of educational stories, poems and projects, from counting activities to hidden picture pages to bilingual stories to zoology lessons to kid-friendly recipes, and more! For my son and me, receiving a new issue of High Five is sort of like having a substitute teacher come teach in our homeschool for the day; the magazine becomes a pseudo lesson plan, one which we follow (mostly) to the letter, out of which we get immense enjoyment. I know that part of the reason we derive such pleasure from our "High Five holidays" is that they only come once a month. If we were to try to implement a High Five-like lesson plan in our homeschool everyday, I'm certain that not only would we both chafe at the confines of such a strict schedule of activities, but also that boredom would abound. One magazine a month is just about perfect for us.

One of the fantastic features of High Five is how every feature highlights (pardon the pun) in some way the current season and coming holiday(s). This not only helps Parker learn to recognize the passage of time (after fall comes winter, then comes spring, then summer, then the cycle starts all over again), but also facilitates discussions about special days (e.g., Thanksgiving, New Year's, etc.). My son and I talk about why the day is special, and what people do to celebrate it. This latest issue (February 2011) highlighted (there's that word again) Valentine's Day, with instructions for a making a "heart mobile." Before we got started crafting our heart mobile, Parker and I talked about why a special day exists just to honor love. (And, no, I didn't tell him it's solely to benefit the Hallmark corporation and jewelry and flower vendors everywhere.) Parker said, "It's nice to show people you love them. Like how I gave the Banana Deck man a hug at the bakery yesterday." I agreed, though I'm not sure we should all start spontaneously forcing unsolicited hugs upon our favorite restaurateurs, no matter how scrumptious their banana shakes are.

Cutting up bits of paper to use to decorate the hearts.

Getting ready to glue some pieces of paper on the first heart.

Adding a little blue crayon to the mix.

Brief break while the hearts dry to talk about letters (the sounds they make) and do some coloring. And make loud, raucous music by playing a pretend xylophone, natch.

Heart mobile.