Creativity Gone Wild...

I always promised myself that Nooze would be allowed to flex her creative muscle whenever needed. So I was ok when the teacher (Mrs. School, appropriately) took up residence in her closet. We barely pay our teachers in this state; the least I can do is allow one to live in my house. Mrs. School also worked with Nooze on her math. Since I am less than exemplary in that subject, I was pleased to have the extra help.

I was also fine when T'ealc moved in. I was told he liked to shop. At the mall. One less outing for me, I figured. Appearances are deceiving; he doesn't eat much.

Then came the siblings: the 20 year old girl, the 17 year old boy and the 16 year old boy. Never mind that I would have barely been a teen myself when they were born; I grew up in Northern Maine. These things happen when kids get bored. [I DID veto 'daughter 1' being named Britney Spears. Where did she get that name?!]

Now Nooze has 'learned to read'. Unfortunately, she is a Lazy Reader, eager to get to what she perceives as the 'meat' of the story. She skims, assumes, makes up words. I have tried to work with her on this, but to no avail. It all came to a head this morning, when she decided to read me a Bible Story. I learned the following:

Ninevites prosecuted people, and liked to torture them a lot. Since Jonah thought that prosecuting people was wrong, he ran away and got eaten by a big whale. Three days later the whale had the flu and threw him up.

Then...Moses and Jesus were talking about dying. Moses offered to be crucified instead of Jesus, because Jesus was holy and should just go live in heaven. Jesus said no, he'd had a bath and all - because he wanted to be shiny on the cross. Then it rained and they found Noah and got on a boat with him.

I had to stop her there. Between laughter and fear of lightning, I told her 'that is NOT what happened. Jesus and Moses weren't even alive at the same time!'

She looked at me pointedly and said, 'The Bible said that God was with Moses. Aren't Jesus and God the same?'

We were riding the line, there, between creativity and blasphemy. So I looked at her and said, "Where's T'ealc been? Isn't it time to go school shopping?!"