Older Brothers

Day 12: It is the weekend and we had a very lazy morning, which was good as we all needed some extra rest. Normally Mum get's up very early on Saturdays and Sundays as she teaches English, but this weekend she has got a break. Maybe tomorrow morning we'll surprise her and wash the car, or maybe we wont.

After lunch it was time for reading and relaxing. The afternoon was cool, but then the man came back to finish cutting the trees and propping up the young ones with frames. Mum is still upset they cut their arms off.

I thought and thought about what to write about today. I thought about computers, but mum screwed up her face. Then, it came to me: Older Brothers.

Older Brothers

Sometimes an older brother,

Really causes you to suffer.

They give your door a knock,

To make you jump in shock,

To tell you it's time for supper.

Having an older brother can be lots of fun, but sometimes it's a pain.

Trees

Day 11: Today our rhyme has to be about trees. Not least because they have cut them all down outside where we live. All because Mum mentioned that one of the young trees was bending and bouncing over the road like it was about to fall on someone. So instead of just cutting one down, they cut them all down.

Could this be called a tree massacre?

Trees

tree flopping over outside my house

Outside my house grow lots of trees,

Today cut straight down to their knees.

The branches shrunk,

Right to their trunk,

No more to sway in a gentle breeze.

We could have written about the jungle outside, or the trees in my Granny's Magic garden. We could have made a rhyme about Ents, or Christmas trees, or even the Ash tree that is under threat in the UK from a nasty attacking fungus, but instead we wrote about the trees that used to give us wonderful shade. Now they are gone, all carted away on large trucks.

There are lots of brilliant words that rhyme with trees. We found that we could have written this rhyme very differently with words like sneeze and peas, chickpeas and bumblebees. Max also pointed out that there were three words that sounded the same, but mean very different things: frees (as in freedom) and freeze (as in frozen) and frieze (as in a decoration or screen).

Maybe that can be another project for us to do, to find as many words that sound the same, but do not look the same?

Pizza

Day 10: one third of the way though the month! That means we have composed ten rhymes already, (including this one). 

This evening we got take out pizza as a treat, it also gave Mum a break from cooking. We had discovered a restaurant that offers woodfired pizza at half price, between 6pm and 7pm Monday to Thursday: La Nonna (if you live in Singapore).

So, it goes without saying that our topic or word for today had to be Pizza. 

Pizza

While devouring a cheesy pizza,

I was caught by a sneaky cheetah,

It nicked a slice,

Not once but twice,

So I rolled up the rest as a fajita. 

Luckily there were no cheetahs around this evening, so we all got to finish our pizza in peace. 

Mummies

Day 9: Ha! I got my way. We are writing a rhyme about Egyptian mummies. Or rather I ended up writing most of this, as today was one of those days filled with no spare moments. 

I wanted to write about his brain making his nose runny - well the embalmers would pull the brain out though the nose. They didn't think it was very important - could you imagine having your brain extracted in chunks through your nostrils? Mind you, sometimes when people sneeze, what comes out of their noses could easily be mistaken for brain tissue.

I could not work a runny nose into the rhyme, without making it more than a limerick. We will have to settle for writing a poem about mummies and runny noses some other time.

We did however, manage to include the bits about the inside bits of the mummy being removed. They were kept in giant pickling jars. Could you ever imagine going to the food cupboard and accidently taking out a jar of pickled stomach thinking it was something else? No, I doubt you could, and nor could we. But it was fun thinking about it.

Mummies

We couldn't find a good photo of a mummy,
so here is a black cat with an ear ring instead

I once knew an Egyptian mummy,

Whose demeanour was really quite funny.

All wrapped in a sheet,

From his head to his feet,

He'd no brain, no heart and no tummy.

I still prefer my Mum to one of those strange bandaged up things in painted boxes.

Water

Day 8: we went to look at mummies, but I didn't like any of them. They didn't have a heart and their eyes, well all I can say is that they gave me one of those stone stares.

We had tons of fun doing some of the activities that came in the "activity bags". It was soon obvious that they some of the tasks were really far too young for an eleven year old. But Max still beat me at the memory game.

I was naughty, I got caught taking a photo of a cat with an earring - but that lady was taking photos, was my quick response. (I looked around, but I couldn't find any Don't Take Photos or we will smash your camera, signs).

Now on to rhymes. We are starting week 2, so I am hoping to see some improvements or creativity blossoming.....

I wanted Max to write about Mummies or Egypt, but he has made his mind up that today's word is water. So, water it is. 

Water

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1289650

A huge roomful of water,

Can explode just like a mortar,

It's refreshing to sip,

It's so great for a dip.

And we are 95 percent water. 

There really are not very many "good" words that rhyme with water as we discovered. While daughter was a strong suggestion, it just didn't fit. So, water it was again.

Ice Cream

7th October 2013

Day 7 already! we have made a week of silly rhymes. I am quite impressed at our staying power. 

Max got to choose the word again today, although I reckon that I maneuvered it into his conscious! 

After a morning waiting for the carpenter and some magnet fixers - not the store, but men to replace the rusted magnet catches on the doors in my outside kitchen, (yes, I have to admit, I have an inside and outside one, the outside one is for cooking anything that is rather smelly or sticky), I dragged both boys out for ice cream at Holland Village. Not a village in the Netherlands, but an area in Singapore. In fact it was named after Holland Road, off which it conveniently sits; Holland Road in turn took its name from Mr Hugh Holland, an early Dutch architect. 

There is fairly good site with a little more about the origins of the history of Holland Village.

I digress. In the interests of global warming, or doing our bit to stall it a tad, we walked and took the bus - I was naughty as I did not put my seat belt on as Max pointed out.

And so we arrived at one of those High Definition ice cream shops where you can buy waffles, lava cake and overly aerated milkshakes. It was an obvious choice, our word, or words for today had to be ice cream.

Ice Cream:

Little bowl, big treat: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/664567

Delicious cold ice cream,

Turns into a chocolate stream.

In a cone,

Or in a cup,

It's every school kid's dream.

It was extremely tasty ice cream.

Sausages

6th October 2013.

Well, I stand corrected. I was well and truly wrong. I was convinced that Max would pick the word "pie" for his rhyming word today.

Instead, he chose: sausages. I looked at him, somewhat aghast. How could I have missed that one? Bob, Cats, Milk, Apples, Cheese - it had to be pie. But I overlooked a vital clue... cheese dogs. By association, cheese becomes cheese dogs, dogs become sausages.

There are not many words that rhyme with sausages, unless you want to write about sausages in Ancient Rome, and then you could use auspices.

We needed to think about what sausages do or what words best describe sausages.

They sizzle, they roll around on the ground, you by them by weight, you can put them on the barbecue or in a hot dog bun, they are cooked on automatic grills (I really do not know where that idea came from), Max even has them on home-made pizza (which defeats the purpose of me trying to make it healthy).

So, Max and Mum proudly present a rhyme about sausages:

Sausages

sausages: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/chidsey

Filled with cheese, they roll around,

On barbecues a sizzle sound,

Sitting on automatic grills,

Hot dogs complete with all the frills.

I like my sausages by the pound.

Now, about that pie......