The Snugget Farm

Jack and I had a great day today. We played in the living room and dug in the dirt pile. We went to the park where Jack made a new friend, Brannen, a three-year-old boy who is as articulate as Jack. The two boys played very nicely together, carrying on quite a discussion, sharing tools, and working on digging a hole. When Brannen wandered away to listen to a mother reading to her child, Jack called after him "Brannen, come back to the job site"!

The photos show 1. Jack's new construction site office with the workingmen riding in and on top as it is moved to a new site on two flatbed trucks and 2. Jack outside on this sunny day.

I wrote down Jack's narrative in the morning as he played with his working guys. Don't know what a Snugget Farm is? You will find out. As he talks, Jack is doing things, like moving his new little construction site office on a flatbed truck, building a wall with blocks, putting construction cones in place.

Jack: "The workingmen are driving away. He's going to make his own little Snugget Farm. His own little Snugget Farm. He's sitting on a Snugget Farm. A Snugget Farm is like a little chair. There's usually a little table. [Jack has built a structure out of blocks and put two little guys on it.] There's two big round things to balance it. There's usually a yard around it because they don't want anyone to come around the Snugget Farm. They also store things in Snugget Farms. They put signs in Snugget Farms. They are throwing things into the Snugget Farm. They put construction cones in there. They store other things in the Snugget Farm. They're stacking the construction cones up. They're going to drive away now. They are putting Snugget things inside the office.

It's time to go, guys. You know what? They need another truck to go with. They need to bring a trailor behind. They need to bring a steam roller. They're going to make a road. They found out there's a lot of blocks to make a road. Call the road planners. They're scooting the office now. The trucks are rumbling up the road. They're going to make a road over here. They're going to have compactors over here. It's going to go to a town. They're tearing up blocks and putting them over there. Do they use offices to make a road?

They're going to a road. It's time to make the new road. They're so happy to go to the new job. Now there's a guy pile! There's danger cones up. [Jack puts all his little people into a pile.]

What Do You Want to Be When You Get Even Bigger?

Jack built this tower all by himself. I was somewhere else in the house while he worked and was surprised by this edifice. I asked him how he got the top blocks positioned and he said he stood on tippy-toes. We build towers every day. Thursday Jack told me that there was an earthquake the previous night that shook down our tower. Then he confessed that it was a "Jack earthquake." This tower got more turrets and some little people sitting in the various levels.

Thursday Jack asked me "what are you going to be, Nana, when you get even bigger"? I said I didn't know, and asked him what he thought I should do. "Fly airplanes, Nana. You should fly airplanes. I'm going to be a fireman when I get bigger."

When Greg came home, Jack asked him what he is going to do when he gets even bigger. Then Jack asked what Ripley is going to do when he gets bigger. When Greg asked Jack what he thought, Jack said, "He's going to be a dog teacher." "Is he going to teach dogs or people"? "He's going to teach dogs. He will teach them how to eat and how to rip up a sippy cup."

We have a library book about Frank the Firefighter. In it, Frank rescues a child and the dog Sparky rescues a kitten. On the next page, Sparky and the kitten are on a bed in the firehouse. Jack wants to know what happened to the child. We look through the book until I find a earlier page showing a family standing in their pajamas on the sidewalk. Ignoring the question why they are wearing pajamas in the daytime, I suggest that Frank gave the child back to his mother. Then Jack wants to know why they didn't give the kitten back too. The author of this book needed Jack to help with continuity and logic. Nearly every book that we read has issues like this. Machines are depicted without steps to climb up into the cabs. Is Jack just too observant or do authors underestimate kids?