Knex

Judy started it.

Knex entered our lives quietly....with stealth. Judy gave First a tub of them for his 6th birthday in June. I thought it was curious that when the tub was opened, out came a disproportionately small plastic bag of Knex. 150 pieces of Knex actually take up very little space. What I didn't know was that if you don't watch out, these plastic wonders multiply fast.

Sometime since we moved to Montclair (just over three months ago), Knex fever swept through our home. Kinder took a shine to them and soon he was building, creating and designing with them for a good hour upon waking, every morning. It was discovered that Owen and Lukas have a bunch and soon the kids were feeding each other their enthusiasm, ideas and delight. (Well, not so much for Lukas who is not as into them as the other three.)

Kinder and First started saving up their money and buying small sets. Then, Kinder's birthday came. The kids are blessed with many loving relatives and friends and after the dust settled, we had a lot of Knex.

This morning, I sat down with the kids to provide moral support while they completed a much anticipated Knex project and then without really thinking about it, I started to sort what appeared to be over one thousand pieces of Knex.

Some thoughts crossed my mind:

• "This is something that would be killing me if I had to do it on one of my "weekend" days. (If I was working outside of the home full-time.)"

I was grateful to have the time and space to plunk down and lose myself in sorting piece after piece of colorful hard plastic. I don't often just sit and do with the kids and this issomethingg I am looking forward to doing more of as I make the switch to more conscious homeschooling.

• "Do I need to examine (A) Cap and I passing along our completist tendencies to these innocents, and, (B) how much stuff the kids have?"

First it was Thomas and puzzles, then it was dinosaurs, now it's Cars and Knex. I'm looking forward to going deeper with them with topics and themes instead of continually adding on.

As I organized their stuff yesterday, I was reminded of how many games and books they have (I'm very out of sight, out of mind...or in this case, out of use, out of mind.) We rarely sit down and play these games and when they choose books to read with me, they tend to pick the same books. Good thoughts to have though, since I think with the aforementioned switch I'll be looking to add variety to the games we play and the books we read. Maybe it's not that we have too much stuff, but that we don't use all the stuff that we have (probably because we have too much of it!)

• "This is a living, breathing example of the importance of kids engaged in meaningful activity."

During the couple of hours we spent together on the floor, there was no bickering, no tears, no whining, no talk from First about money (his latest obsession), patience, creativity, cooperation, negotiation and compromise.

So, was my task in sorting those many, many Knex futile? It may very well be that over time the rods will be put away in the rods bin and the joints will be put away in the joints been, the gears with the gears and so on. And, we may discover that keeping the pieces sorted doesn't matter. That it's more fun to have them overflowing the big tub, dumping them out, raking our fingers and arms through them making a racket looking for that little black joint and two of the tiny blue washers.

But, simply being together, having time slow and expand so that when I came out to the kitchen I was surprised that it was almost noon, thinking my thoughts, and being part of a process that feels so good and right and hopeful and exciting---wow, I wouldn't trade this for anything.