Severed Fingers and Eye of Newt for Dinner

Ed sat down at his computer this morning, looked out the window, and found himself face to face with a large, black snake. Have I mentioned that he is not keen on snakes? The snake was apparently not keen on Eds, either, and slithered back out of the palm tree and away. Ed blames the abundance of wildlife on the neighbors’ compost heap. He wants to see the new Al Gore movie, and is, in theory, in favor of the environment, but I’m afraid his environmentalism is of the NIMBY variety.

For Shakespeare week, we’ve been focusing on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Macbeth.” Actually, no one really cares for “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” but the library had a video featuring an actress Ed likes, and I figured that if we’re going to watch the video, we should read the play (or, really, kids’ versions of the play). “Macbeth,” however, is a hit. Lots of blood and spooky stuff! We read a Bruce Coville adaptation that had wonderfully scary pictures. This afternoon, we made witches’ brew while reading the “double, double, toil and trouble” lines. For wolf teeth, fingers, eye of newt, etc., we substituted candy corns, tootsie rolls, chocolate chips, etc. (as suggested in the WTM activity book), and now no one is interested in dinner.