Ocular Athletic Thursday II

The twins had their first OA assignment yesterday. I have to say, I was surprised by their writing. In preparation I read GKC's essay, A Piece of Chalk (the one where GK takes to the hills to draw on brown paper with colored chalk) from Tremendous Trifles, outloud to them last week. I chose this one to demonstrate what I had in mind because I thought they would "get it" as they are little Anglophiles in the making and know that a large chunk of England is made of chalk. They seemed a little confused but still game so we plunged in. I was expecting something report like. You know, my guinea pig is brown and furry with big brown eyes and long brown nails and did I mention he is brown with some brownish spots? What I got was two eleven year olds doing their best to sound like GKC. Joe even signed his with initials. Here they are:

A Common Wood Screw by J.C. M.
A screw, a common, straight, grooved, phillips head wood screw, lying on the table. Screws are useful for building houses, stables and many other things. A screw has a spiral on it that makes it dig into wood, metal, and plastic. A screw is one of the carpenter's best friends along with the drill and the screw driver. A screw, a common wood screw with a plus sign or a minus sign.+.-. for the drill or screw driver bit is the carpenter's best friend because it holds things together better than nails. Screws are grooved which will catch and hold when drilled into a board, nails however, slip because they are smooth, but are easier to use.

Spoons by Adam
I have never really thought about spoons much but as my train of thought is limited to one thing at a time I really do not blame myself so I hope you don't either. So to my point, as I said, I had not thought about spoons until I was told to write an ocular exercise. After due consideration I have picked a very ordinary household object. Oh, you may think it very boring but I am one who is, now that I look closely, very interested in spoons. I mean, spoons can be intersting, you just have to look at them in the right way. This particular spoon is a very peculiar one. It has an odd white mark on it that looks like Mary kneeling before the manger with stars all around her head. My little brother so wisely calls it the Mary spoon. I was given this spoon idea in a very ordinary way. I was playing absently with my spoon in my split pea soup when I suddenly thougth about the spoon in my hand. We could not eat soup without spoons. The spoon's shovel-like bowl on the end of its handle is the perfect tool for eating liquid food.