Keeping Entertained in a Low-Tech Environment, Part III

One of the benefits of being in Zanzibar with few toys and little recreational space is that our family has experienced a literacy renaissance. Our kids have been avid readers for several years now, but they have both taken recently to writing for pleasure, especially poems and PowerPoint presentations on topics of interest (robots and Egyptian gods and goddesses have been especially popular). Here are a couple of poems Oscar wrote this afternoon before he started his homework. The illustrated poem is one that Calvin wrote at school (for which, a proud mama might note, he received the Most Creative award).

I Wondered. . .

In the middle of school

I thought it’d be cool

If they ran cars on molasses

That were immune to crashes.

Or fantastic false teeth

Sharp enough for the toughest beef.

Could these things be possible, I wondered. . .

“Wake up!” my teacher thundered.

Digging a Hole

Oh, the things you can find in a hole:

You could find a bent-up tool,

Or a million-year-old scroll.

You could find a dirty grub,

Or a pharoah’s old bathtub.

You could find a chest of gold,

Or some cheese covered in mold.

Oh, the things you can find in a hole!

(But don’t try living in one like a mole.)