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| ... I had to buy 12, not 2 .. |
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| ... Michael extinguishing match with a wet finger ... |
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| ... Alice wondering if it would really work ... |
Long ago I purchased some purple tea lights that match the pastel hellow and purples of Easter ornaments.
I bought them at a grand sale – 90% off, so I overbought.
One day as Michael walked by them in my kitchen, I thought, here is a chance for him to learn to light matches. So I took down a box of matches and let him go to work.
I should have thought, if Michael comes in the back door, won’t Alice and Betty be far behind.
I hadn’t thought that far ahead.
He had just got the knack of striking the match on the side of the package and keeping it level so that it wouldn’t burn his fingers, when in came Alice and Betty.
So I split the kids onto 3 different sides of the free standing counter and then I supervised, either getting a lit match into Betty’s hand or showing Alice how to hold the package firm enough that she could strike the match along it’s flint side and get a flame to occur.
I don’t think I taught my own kids to light matches, for it took me a while to get my own rhythm at having 3 children at different levels of expertise holding matches.
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| ... my German tea light ... |
One of the skills I hadn’t thought about teaching was how to blow the candles out so that there isn’t wax all over the counter from the power of their breath.
Betty didn’t get to practice the skill of lighting the back matches first and working forward.
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| ... Alice with a successful strike ... |
She got the same thrill with that, that the others got with having more fire to work with.
I thought I had everything contained but at one point I looked over and Alice had gone to the china cabinet and taken out a small German wooden tea light, one with a house and small wooden people standing around it.
I have never put a candle to the wick of the tea light it holds – but Alice had it out and into use in the split second that I was distracted by something Betty was doing.
All I could think of was, “it just goes to prove that they know where more things are in my house than I do”.
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| ... a place for used matches ... |
Arta
this makes me want to go buy a pack of matches!
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing about the matches. So I bought two packs and just let the kids scratch and light, scratch and light. It took Alice a bit of time. I had to hold her hands on the back and her hand with the match and show her how much force she had to put into the scratch. The look on her face when she first got it to work was priceless. That look of wonder when someone does something that is far outside of their expectations of what will work.
ReplyDeleteWell worth the price of the matches.
You are so hilarious!!! Great photos. Will the next lesson be how to call 911? Sorry, I had to ask.
ReplyDeleteI have been looking at new fire extinguishers, wondering if mine are out of date now. I have also been looking at candles that I have had for years. Too beautiful to burn, but thinking, some day someone is going to see my collection of things as junk and throw them out. So the next time Alice comes over to read, perhaps I will light one of those candles while we work on the hard works. Perhaps I will. Perhaps I won't. It will all depend on if she can concentrate when a wick is burning somewhere close to her.
ReplyDeleteI have no words for how much I loved these photos, the post and the comments.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of words, and of having them or not having them, I didn't have the words to describe the following experience. Of course when Michael was learning to light the matches he became bolder and bolder. I would say about every set of 30 matches that he lit, he would go up a step -- either letting the flame burn down closer to his fingers or blowing the flame out with so much gusto that even the charred top of the match blew away. When he began lighting them and then turning in a full circle, 380 degrees, to see if the speed of that turn would extinguish the flame on the match? That is when I began the lesson on fire and the safety of others, like his sisters who were nearby. Now a grandmother can have the patience to do all of this, but I should also work with a little bit of wisdom. I don't want to send the girls home with charred hair.
ReplyDelete