Ripping Yarns

Anyone who home schools knows that learning is happening all the time. That's the way it is at my house anyway. Let me give you an example. It is a tale of cruelty and horror, and of Ripping Electrons.....

Before most of us were even out of bed today, Ben took it upon himself to try some experiments in static electricity.

The morning began with Ben shuffling slowly down the hall in his fuzzy monkey slippers. I thought our busy day yesterday led to this deliberate scuffing of his feet on the carpet as he made his way, bleary-eyed, to the bathroom. But no. He wasn't going to the bathroom. He wasn't bleary-eyed either. He was wide awake and full of intention.

He took a detour right into his brothers' bedroom. What happened next was unspeakable! (But since that would be no fun I shall speak it.) He proceeded to touch Will ever-so-gently as he lay in bed and made him the conductor of some extra electrons he was holding on to. Zap! "Ow!" Will yelped. Then he laughed. Whew. I didn't have a fight on my hands already. He must have see the value in Ben's experimentation. Then began the shuffling again as he went after his little brother Charlie. "Shoof shoof shoof. Zap! Ow!" Then laughter. This went on for quite some time with Will and Charlie being willing recipients of static shock. Then Will got up and joined in. Pretty soon all three were up and shuffling and shocking each other.

Then it was quiet. Never a good sign. Then the shuffling. Like Night of the Living Dead zombies they shuffled into my room, made a few circles in the plush carpet and proceeded to shock me. All of them. Don't they know where their meals come from?!?

So thanks, Steve, for your dinnertime lecture to the boys on atoms, electrons and static electricity. They really took the learning to heart and are applying it in the real world.