Friday, June 28, 2019

Toys at Churches

Today Miranda and I drove to the thrift store to bring home a ratan bar cart that I purchased there yesterday.  Wyona reminded me tonight that rattan always cracks and breaks, but for a while it will br fun.  The kids came along as well to do some shopping in the children's toys section of the thrift store.  I told them I would pay for whatever they could carry in their arms.

Michael came away with 4 items, all of which can be held in the palm of his hand.  Apparently that is all that a 7 year boy can find that interests him in those bins of toys.

Betty kept asking me to hold things for her.  I just didn't have it in me to facilitate her that way, but I did show her how to telescope one toy into another again and again.  I also showed her how to carefully make her way to the check out without spilling anything.  One of her top items was a bow and arrow set that she played with all afternoon.

Alice is gifted at buying second-hand.  She came out with a number of stuffed animals, and a dog that is really a purse, if we can judge by the zipper along its back and its carrying handles.  The zipper gets caught in the lining, so I am going to tack that back so that the purse will work for her.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Then we whiled away the rainy afternoon with the toys and with a book Michael found in the bookshelves at home:  Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: Collected from American Folklore by Alvin Schwartz.

Michael read the first story to us last night as we were eating supper.

I could see he was going to starve to death for the evening if someone else didn't do some reading while he ate, so I picked up the book and read for a while.

A grandmother knows she is reading the story right when she can feel three little bodies pressed close to hers and knows it is out of fear and not for comfort.

Today we learned one of the poems in the book, "The Slithery Dee".

The slithery-dee,
He came out of the sea;
He ate all the others,
But he didn't eat me.

The slithery-dee,
He came out of the sea,
He ate all the others,
But he didn't eat --
SL-U-R-P . . .

We worked a long time at getting just the right sound in the slurp.

Arta

4 comments:

  1. I can't wait to hear the poem being recited!

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  2. Is the slithery-dee a relative of the shuswaggi? Or another name for lake thermal stratification turn over?

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  3. What are you reading to come up with terms like "lake thermal stratification turn over"?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was reading about possible scientific explanations for Lochness-Monster-type sightings.

    ReplyDelete

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