The first Summer Mom School discussion podcast is posted over at the Summer Mom School blog for those of you interested. It was great to meet and chat with Carol and Kate. How Children Learn was a book I loved revisiting.
Jonah has been wanting to make an invention for quite some time. After rummaging through the garage and basement he knew just what he wanted to make.
The kids rigged up a pulley off the deck down to the lawn, complete with a bell to ring when things were ready to come down. Then one day the whole contraption mysteriously disappeared. I figured they were just ready for something new, but then I noticed a big scrape on Brenna’s shoulder blade. “What happened there?” I asked.
“Um,” she said sheepishly, “I was standing in the pulley bucket and pulling myself up with the rope. Then I got so high I didn’t know what to do. I was totally stuck. I held on for a long time, then the bucket tipped backward and I still held on, but finally my arms gave out so I went crashing down on the rocks.”
“Oh, so is that why you guys took the pulley down?”
“Yeah, it was just too tempting!”
I guess it was a first hand experiment in gravity and that sometimes self control entails getting the temptation totally out of sight.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Wow! I’m so glad that Brenna is okay. That looked like a high place to drop from. But, as nothing serious happened it was a great lesson learned. Reminds me of the time I built a fire in my parent’s storage room…
July 1st, 2009 at 6:58 pm
The things we do as kids are so crazy sometimes.
We did something similar to this as kids. Our contraption was set up to get the dog (a toy poodle) from the upstairs window to the back yard, and then back up the fastest way possible. It ended up simply being a bucket attached to a rope that was let down from my bedroom window. On our first attempt the dog jumped out of the bucket as soon as it started to lower. The dog was fine but it sure gave us a scare. I don’t think mom ever found out about that one.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:27 pm
OH MY GOSH! Wow. Thank goodness that you were not witness to this!
July 1st, 2009 at 8:21 pm
That story was awesome.
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:43 am
Just like something Barry would do when he was a boy.
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:39 am
I’ve been meaning to write and thank you for the book discussion. I’d love to join in for the rest of them too!
July 4th, 2009 at 7:06 am
awesome pulley – and how wonderful that she told you the whole story! :^)
this reminds me of the time i thought i would step off from the hayloft and slide down to the ground on the old rope.
the skin on my palms took a couple weeks to grow back…
July 4th, 2009 at 7:08 am
btw – wish i’d known about the holt book discussion earlier!!!
what a great idea!!!