Playing with Matches

This morning Joey took the kids to their P.E. class at the park.  Afterward I took them to a pot luck lunch at a friends house.  Usually Luke is bored or reading a book during these lunches because he is the oldest kid there, but today he made a few friends and was sword fighting out in the backyard the whole time. This afternoon I was reading Little House on the Prairie and Pa would lower a candle in the well he was digging to see if it was safe.  Then Mr. Scott passed out in the well because of lack of oxygen and Pa saved him.  Okay maybe that is too confusing if you are not reading the book, but point is, I then got to explain to Luke and Isabel that sometimes deep in the ground there is methane gas and not enough oxygen.  Also that fire (like the candle) needs oxygen or it will go out.  We then did a mini science experiment.  I lit a match and set it on the table and put a glass over it.  They saw that it went out.  I then encouraged Luke and Isabel to play with matches.  Well, I taught them how to light a match.  Also I let Sylvia sing Happy Birthday and blow out a match a few times.  It was really funny watching Safety Nerd try to light the match as far away from his body as possible, but he did it and hopefully that will give him confidence and loosen him up.

Random gloomy comment from Safety Nerd today, "Mom, two children die every minute."

Profound Poetry

So as I was saying last entry, Isabel likes to say, "I'm tired" when really she wants to quit. This morning I was helping her clean her room when surprise, she was tired. I told her to get in bed and take a nap and that I sure hope that she is able to finish cleaning her room and doing her schoolwork today so that she can go to her P.E. class tomorrow morning. Yeah I'm a cruel task master. About forty five minutes later Isabel came out of her room and told me that she finished cleaning her room. Wow, it worked. Today we wrote poems. I first read a few poems out of the book, Shape Me a Rhyme by Jane Yolen. We then brainstormed. You know, subject bubble in the middle with the descriptions and ideas shooting out. Rough draft and then final drafts. Here are our profound deep poetic thoughts...

LOVE by Isabel Love makes me happy, Love makes me think of my family, There's love in my home, Love is love I say it looks like hearts.

ROCKS ARE LIKE DIRT by Luke Rocks are like blocks, They are hard and are soft, They are round and are heavy, They really taste like dirt! How do you know?

RAISINS by Sabrina A sweet and sticky treat, Little brown rat poo, So soft and wrinkly, Yum.

Captain Cries A Lot

I finally got up the nerve to go to the library this morning and pay for the two missing paperbacks. They didn't yell at me....phew. I got a few picture books, Magic School Bus DVDs (Isabel's request) and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, for Luke. I really think that book will be way too old for him, just that he wont get it, but who knows, he is enjoying Inkheart by Cornelia Funke right now and I didn't think he would get that. As you can tell by both those books, he loves Science Fiction and Fantasy. When we got home they made Mother's Day cards for their grandmothers while I read Little House on the Prairie out loud. Oh, here is another Safety Nerd moment:  In the book, Pa holds his nails in his mouth while hammering the roof.  It sure took a while to get back on track reading the book because Luke had to point out all of the reasons why holding nails in your mouth is, yes, once again, VERY DANGEROUS.  Afterward, Luke made new Xtreme Boy books with a new character, Captain Cries A Lot. Isabel did a Math worksheet while Luke had his piano class.

Isabel and I are learning food signs now in ASL. A friend suggested a PBS program called Signing Time. I checked out our library website and requested a few of them. We shall see! With Isabel, any opportunity for someone other than me teaching her (like these DVDs) is great. She is less likely to say, "I can't do this." or "I'm tired."