The Weird Family
(This is a story by my son Ethan, who is 8 years old.)Chapter 1Once upon a time there was a boy who loved to swing.One day he swung so high that he slipped of and flew though the air! Then a peregrine falcon stuck him down flying the fastest he could! He fell and fell until he fell into a lake! The lake lead to a river. A current swept him into the river. The river carried him from the lake to a swing. He swung on the swing and jumped off! But just as he jumped off he realized that he was just at his house! (He had gone around the Earth in one hour!)Now he was flapping his arms but that just made him faster because his name is Fly, he is four (But very good at swinging.),and he is one pound! Now because he hadn’t got hit he was up in space orbiting the Earth! His Mom was geting worried now. Just as he thought he was going to get dehydrated halley’s comet blasted him back to Earth! (He was saved!) He landed on his swing and it broke. Yahow he yelled! Because ofcorse he didn’t like swinging anymore.Chapter 2Fly’s parents got divorced because Fly broke the swing that his worked hard for. His Mom stayed but his Dad didn’t. Fly’s new Dad had very long arms so he needed to get to work on a weird bike because it was to much work in a car. His new Dad didn’t like to get to work on a bike because he got to tired. So they decided to make a car that he could drive to work but it cost 987′000′000 dolars! But he still bought it anyway! And that’s when they became poor! But he got more money because he got in the guienss book of world records!Chapter 3Fly’s parents had a baby girl that was not ordinary. It was born with teeth, hair and size two feet. Soon in three months the baby had lost a tooth, had long hair and was walking! When it was in preschool she knew what ninetyeight x sevendysix equals! (It equals 7,448.)So she had to skip a grade but she was still to smart so she needed to skip another grade. But she was still too smart so she needed to skip another grade! And another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another until it was time to go to College! But she was still to smart so she had to go to universery and that’s just right for her even though people laugh at her for being so smallTHE END- by Ethan Koetsier
So I can feel like a winner
The kids all got their medals today from the Fraser Valley Regional Library summer reading club challenge.Aidan, when he came home with his, said now he’s got his first medal “so he can feel like a winner.”
How to blow one balloon inside another
Ethan’s instructions:
1. Blow both balloons up first (to stretch the balloons)
2. Let the air out of both
3. Blow up the balloon that’s supposed to be bigger (on the outside)
4. While holding the outside balloon put the other balloon inside it
5. Blow up the inside balloon6. Blow up the outside balloon just a bit more
7. Tie them both
Picture:
Summer Holidays
(a poem by Gabrielle Koetsier, age 10)
Children sitting, solemn, silent.
Bell rings! Screaming, yelling, violent!
Running, rushing, up the stairs.
“Children, wait!” nobody cares.
School’s out! It’s summer! Time to play!
No more teachers! Run away!
We are going to the pool.
Perfect way to keep us cool.
Let’s go buy some lemonade!
We will drink it in the shade.
Our skin is brown, our feet are bare.
And we are free without a care.
Playing, laughing, summer days,
We’re on summer holidays!
(I typed it all out by myself too!)
Easter egg clues …
This past Easter we, naturally, had an easter egg hunt. Each of the kids had a chance to hide the eggs and let the others find them.
And Gabrielle, being the creative girl she is, had to make it more interesting … with clues. Here they are …
Hrm …. in the library?
Outside?!?
This doesn’t sound too good for chocolate ….
OK, this one’s easy:
But I’m not sure I want to eat this egg:
Tags: easter, eggs, hunt, fun, kids, pictures, john koetsier, gabrielle
delicious and nutritious
I love well-constructed and vivid language. Here’s a snippet I ran across today that inspired some memories:
A few years back, I was struggling to liberate a new Barbie doll from the almost invincible packaging that imprisoned her …
(Seen in an email newsletter from Character Counts … written by Michael Josephson.)
Tags: language, john koetsier, character counts, michael josephson
Kids and reality: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Saw this today: His sister in danger, 4-year-old plays hero.
The robber was holding a gun to 5-year-old Mary Long’s head when a 3-foot-tall Mighty Morphin Power Ranger leapt into the room. “Get away from my family,” 4-year-old Stevie Long shouted, punctuating his screams with swipes of his plastic sword and hearty “yah, yahs.”
The robber and his accomplice, who was waiting outside the apartment Friday night, fled with credit cards, jewelry, cash and other items that Stevie’s mother, Jennifer Long, dumped from her purse.
“I scared the bad guys away,” Stevie said Tuesday evening at the apartment at 901 Chalk Level Road in north Durham.
The most interesting part is at the bottom: the 4-year old hero actually believes he morphed into a power ranger. This rings a bell - our kids also have believed, or stated vociferously that they believe, all kinds of interesting things … like being Spiderman.
Tags: kids, reality, mighty morphin power rangers, hero, john koetsier
Snowboy
Tags: aidan, snowboy, snowman, john koetsier
Sunglasses
So Aidan wanted to watch The Lord of the Rings.
I said no, it’s too scary for 3-year olds. He disagreed, saying that he would not be scared. “I’m tough!” he declared. Teresa backed me up, telling Aidan that there were lots of parts in LOTR that she was even scared by.
He thought for a second. “But I could wear sunglasses!”
(Gabrielle forced me to blog this.)
Tags: kids, movies, LOTR, john koetsier
Cats don’t limbo?
So we were at some friends’ place this afternoon and they have a cat.
Gabrielle told Aidan that cats like to play with string, and that he might like to wiggle a string in front of the cat. Aidan took the string, and held it with both hands horizontally in front of the cat.
He waited a second, and then - the cat not moving - said “Hey, it’s not working. This cat doesn’t do the limbo.”
We all cracked up, of course.
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About
Sparkplug 9 is John Koetsier's blog on life, the universe, and everything,
but mostly the stuff you see big in the tags to the left.
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