May Playground

So this is a burned wood chip from our school playground. It's a good thing I'm a sometimes observant playground duty guard because a child was using a magnifying glass and the sun to light wood chips on fire...which several other children thought was so fascinating. I watched it myself and saw smoke coming up. In fact, I still have this particular wood chip on my desk because it smells like a wood fire. And it makes me chuckle. Here's the thing...the child was convinced there was no way full on combustion could occur. I made it stop. You know, "not on my watch."

And this took me right back to Lana'i where I served as a Cub Scout Den Leader for the Webelos. As soon as I was off the clock on Wednesdays, I would head over to the church for Scouts. All my boys beat me over there every week of course, and some of them were in my fifth grade class. What do a bunch of boys do while waiting for their activity to begin? They light things on fire, of course. Same tactic--use a magnifying glass to direct the heat of the sun so that you can light your slippers (flip flops) on fire. Just watch that smoke curl upward! Again, fascinating.

Or you could always carve your initials into the green bananas growing on the tree in back of the church. They were impressed I carried my own pocket knife. When the bananas were ripe, we each ate the one with our own initials on it. Delicious. Carving bananas seemed okay to me. Lighting things on fire? Not so much.

We give the children back to their parents in two weeks. I hope they're ready.