Daniel: You’re much older than me.
Me: Yes I am, much.
Daniel: So you will die a long time before me.
Me: Yes.
Daniel (pensively): I’ll miss you when you die. But it won’t be for a long, long time. Unless you were shot. Then it would be soon.
Daniel
Can I run?
Every day, we park around the corner from the school. The boys tumble out of the car and say, “Can I run?” and then hare off up the road. I remember vaguely, the joy of running quickly, of feeling your feet flying over the ground almost like bouncing on air. I wonder, when does that go away?
O Frabjous Day!
Michael can finally read properly. He and Daniel spent the evening reading and then swapping comics. Oh the blissful peace.
If Only it Were in a Galaxy Far Far Away
My son Daniel is obsessed with Star Wars although he has never seen it. I may have seen it once but I can’t really say that, despite my interest in sci-fi in general, it really held my interest. I think that’s because it was really bad. Daniel has never seen the film but, perhaps, over Christmas, that pleasure will be granted to him.
In the interim, he brought this tome home from the library. It’s a list of all of the Star Wars plastic figurines ever made. He showed it to me proudly and said, “I brought this home for you, Mummy.” “Why?” I asked warily. “Because you love Star Wars,” he said happily. We spent quite a while going through it. What can I say, if you love “Star Wars”, then the plastic figurines are endlessly fascinating. In other news, my daughter compared me to Jabba the Hut. You can see a figurine of him on page 146 along along with a piece of dialogue from the film which shows why it makes the heart sing: “There will be no bargain, young Jedi I shall enjoy watching you die.”
Utter Failure (Almost)
Me (to children): What’s my job?
Them: To mind the house and be a housewife.
Me: And what’s Daddy’s job?
Them: To go out to work and make money.
Pause.
Micheal: And to do the laundry.
Need I say that we both work outside the home and split work around the house equally?
Ancient Rome
Herself is doing a project on ancient Rome at school. She’s really enjoying it and has already stripped our local library of its books on Rome and cost us a fortune in printer ink. So you can imagine that I was very pleased when this popped into my inbox last week:
My Museum: A Roman Invasion!
This Sunday, Legion Ireland-the Roman Military History Society of Ireland, will rally their troops and invade the first floor of the National Museum of Ireland-Archaeology! The R.M.S.I. are a society dedicated to portraying the Roman Army and it’s Celtic allies and foes in the first century AD. They use highly accurate reproductions of the equipment and dress of the first century Imperial Army and drill and display, through the use of Latin.
Drop-in to speak with them, try their swords and helmets on for size, explore our Life and Death in Ancient Rome exhibition or have a go at hand-to-hand combat and drill formations!
All ages welcome.
Free of charge!
www.museum.ie
www.romanarmy.ieKind regards,
Education and Outreach Department
National Museum of Ireland-Archaeology
Kildare Street
Dublin 2
We took ourselves off on Sunday. It was a qualified success with the target audience. She talked to the lads in their Roman gear and looked at their extensive kit. She played “Nine Men’s Morris” with a nice legionary and had a go rolling his bones. However, she didn’t have half as much fun as her brothers who spent a good three quarters of an hour in gladiatorial combat directed by a man in a tunic.
