Today Elliot said, “The Schnaka man stopped coming. I hate the Schnaka man.” Indeed, I have stopped filling the Schnaka box after about 14 months. Elliot knows his job chart well. The Schnaka box is not needed anymore. Maybe when I change the job chart? Anyway, it is bittersweet. He loved it so much.
UPDATE Dec 2, 2022: We emptied the remaining toys from the Schnaka Box. We brought them to Pre-K and gave them to Miss April for her “treasure box”. The kids in the class get a treasure for little things like “listening well.” I am proud that Elliot was not attached to the toys enough to give them up. I made the suggestion, but he quickly agreed. When we got to the school, he even asked about the toys proactively to make sure I didn’t forget. Miss April was happy.
Today we spent 4 hours at O’Fallon Park and then Lair Of the Bear park, where Elliot showed me where he had two days of fishing camp with Maxi this summer.
At O’Fallon Park we explored them Rock Island. We played in the river the whole time. Elliot made two aquariums from empty glass containers that held our lunch. They had sand and a few tiny snails. He pretended there were other creatures in it, though. It was wonderful to play and watch him play. He truly loves the water. He called these “tide pools” because we watched Coyote Peterson and Nick Bingo make tide pool aquariums on YouTube. I corrected him a couple of times, but he still liked to call them tide pools.
