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......

No lie in today

6th October 2013

Cats need to learn that humans occasionally throw routine out of the window!

And so it is my turn to write a rhyme, only because the cat woke me up and I didn't get the lie in I thought I would. 

Routinely a cat

Silly cat, thinks he's a bird,

Chirruping just to be heard.

Wake up my belly's empty,

I need food and a'plenty,

And after all that, he purred. 

I really want to sleep but now I'm awake. 

Crunchy Apples

5th October 2013

Our fifth word is Apple. I reckon that tomorrow's word with be Pie. All will be revealed tomorrow, if I am correct.

Max (and I), like apples, we particularly like the huge juicy China Fuji apple variety. So you can imagine Max's delight when we got the chance to go apple picking in an fruit orchard in China, in Hebei, just near where we staying.

The experience of walking the unkempt Great Wall, the day before, had sparked the comments from both Max and his brother Jason that it was "better than XBox. And then, like icing on a cake, and pretty yummy icing if reactions are anything to go by, Max gets to pick real apples!

Having chosen the word, we then searched around for words that rhyme with apple that we could use. We didn't find any we really liked, so I asked Max for words to describe apples. Crunchy seemed like a good one, so off we went in search of "crunchy" rhymes.

And here it is: our rhyme for today:

Crunchy Apples

Fresh apples, straight from the tree

Apples taste best when fresh and crunchy,

I don't eat pears there just too lumpy.

I eat one once a day,

To keep the doctor far away,

And stop me getting sick and grumpy.

Which reminds me, time to cut some apple for a snack.

Cheese

4th October 2013

A wonderfully talented friend, Rose Appleby has been setting crazy rhyming challenges on Twitter. Yesterday, Max sent her a word: cheese, to write into her rhyme for UK National Poetry Day: Graham's Watery Wanderings.

And so, cheese became Max's rhyming challenge for today. With a little cajouling, and some pointing in the right direction, (names of cheeses), here is the rhyme we fermented today:

Oh, How I Love Cheese

I really like Parmesan Cheese,

Way nicer than little green peas.

Emmental comes with holes,

Mozzarella comes in balls,

And Pizza comes covered in cheese.

A Drink of Milk

3rd October 2013

The subject challenge for today, we decided, would be "milk". <br/>

Max has been pondering how we came to start drinking milk. Who discovered that we could drink milk from cows, and then bottle it?

So, milk it was, or it is:

A Drink of Milk

The man who first drank some milk,
Found it tasted as smooth as silk.
He put it in coffee,
He put it in tea,
And now I eat my cereal with milk.


This does not clear up the conundrum of who decided milk from cows would be good to drink, nor does it uncover who was the first person to take a sip.

Well, that will have to be for another day, another challenge, another post.