"Why is the phone ringing?!"

On Saturday, my mum installed a phone in the playroom/TV room/basement so she didn't have to sprint up the stairs every time the phone rang.

I called the house Saturday afternoon. My dad picks up, says hello, and then I hear Jo, my six-year-old sister, on the phone. "Why is the phone ringing?" Jo yells, directly into the receiver.

Okay, I think, it's a learning curve, she'll get over it.

I called the house again the next day. After about half a ring, someone picks up the phone, drops the receiver, picks it up again, and screams, "I got it! I got it!"

It's Jo.

I complain about my eardrums, and Jo finally gives my mum the phone, who assures me she will tell Jo to say 'hello' when answering the phone.

Apparently it worked. My other sister Adelaide phoned about three minutes later. Jo picked up the phone and sweetly said "Hello? Who might this be?" So, Jo did get over that learning curve. Though, it was three minutes too late if you ask me.

Children's Pencil Obsession

My mom wrote me this email today. It's about my six year old sister, Jo. I have made some edits concerning grammar, typos, punctuation, etc.

Todays' Strange Story:

I was doing some spring cleaning on the front porch "after school" today. Jo was hanging out, enjoying the warm sun, stomping in last bits of snow and talking to passing cats.

She seizes upon an object she sees on Allen's (Allen is the house directly next to ours) lawn and brings it to me asking "Do you know who this belongs to?"

It's a pencil.

I admitted I had no clue and semi ignore her as she babbles on about various ways the pencil might have been lost and by whom. "You know what we should do?" she asks me. Because I am concentrating on some glamorous cleaning task, I didn't think before I spoke and said "No, what?"

"We should draw a picture of the pencil. or maybe take a picture. And put it on a poster and......" Fill in about three minutes of goofy drivel in which Jo describes an elaborate scheme to return the pencil to its, no doubt distraught, owner.

I assured her that wasn't necessary and not to worry, just put the pencil back if she was worried and maybe its owner would pass by and notice it.

I finish the clean up. We go in. I start whipping up some supper and Jo watches TV.

About 45 minutes pass. Then the doorbell rings.

An embarrassed looking Olivia (our neighbour, who sometimes babysits the following two children) is with Ivor and Miranda. Now Miranda (age 5) has the pencil and is waving it at me: "Is this yours? Do you know whose pencil this is?"

I resisted the urge to say "I have no f*%$ing clue and I don't care." Ivor (age 1) comes in to visit the dog and Miranda just keeps going on about this orphaned pencil.

As Olivia was dragging them both back down the steps I told her about Jo's earlier pencil issues. We agreed that it could never be said of the children of today failed to really care about pencils.

News for Kids

By the way, I've begun writing for TeachKidsNews.com. It's a website that pairs down news stories that kids might be interested in and makes it easier for children to understand.
My first post was about the "uncontacted" tiribes in Brazil.