(This is a story by my son Ethan, who is 8 years old.)
Chapter 1
Once upon a time there was a boy who loved to swing.
One day he swung so high that he slipped of and flew though the air! Then a peregrine falcon stuck him down flying the fastest he could! He fell and […]

The kids all got their medals today from the Fraser Valley Regional Library summer reading club challenge.
Aidan, when he came home with his, said now he’s got his first medal “so he can feel like a winner.”
Tags: family, fun, reading, medal, kids, john koetsier

Ethan’s instructions:
1. Blow both balloons up first (to stretch the balloons)
2. Let the air out of both
3. Blow up the balloon that’s supposed to be bigger (on the outside)
4. While holding the outside balloon put the other balloon inside it
5. Blow up the inside balloon
6. Blow up the outside balloon just a bit more
7. Tie […]

(a poem by Gabrielle Koetsier, age 10)
Children sitting, solemn, silent.
Bell rings! Screaming, yelling, violent!
Running, rushing, up the stairs.
“Children, wait!” nobody cares.
School’s out! It’s summer! Time to play!
No more teachers! Run away!
We are going to the pool.
Perfect way to keep us cool.
Let’s go buy some lemonade!
We will drink it in the shade.
Our skin is brown, our […]

This past Easter we, naturally, had an easter egg hunt. Each of the kids had a chance to hide the eggs and let the others find them.
And Gabrielle, being the creative girl she is, had to make it more interesting … with clues. Here they are …
Hrm …. in the library?

Outside?!?

This doesn’t sound too […]

I love well-constructed and vivid language. Here’s a snippet I ran across today that inspired some memories:

A few years back, I was struggling to liberate a new Barbie doll from the almost invincible packaging that imprisoned her …

(Seen in an email newsletter from Character Counts … written by Michael Josephson.)
Tags: language, john koetsier, […]

Saw this today: His sister in danger, 4-year-old plays hero.

The robber was holding a gun to 5-year-old Mary Long’s head when a 3-foot-tall Mighty Morphin Power Ranger leapt into the room. “Get away from my family,” 4-year-old Stevie Long shouted, punctuating his screams with swipes of his plastic sword and hearty “yah, yahs.”
The robber and […]

Tags: aidan, snowboy, snowman, john koetsier

So Aidan wanted to watch The Lord of the Rings.
I said no, it’s too scary for 3-year olds. He disagreed, saying that he would not be scared. “I’m tough!” he declared. Teresa backed me up, telling Aidan that there were lots of parts in LOTR that she was even scared by.
He thought for a second. […]

So we were at some friends’ place this afternoon and they have a cat.
Gabrielle told Aidan that cats like to play with string, and that he might like to wiggle a string in front of the cat. Aidan took the string, and held it with both hands horizontally in front of the cat.
He waited a […]

Back from trick-or-treating with the kids.
Ethan counted his candy, and he’s got 135 chocolate bars, bags of chips, and assorted other candies. The other kids have about the same.
We didn’t go to that many homes …. many just give out 6 or 7 candies at a time.
Sheesh - when I was a kid we […]

Ethan, this is how you type without looking at the keyboard. You just have to know where all the keys are, and then it is very, very, easy.
(Typed with my eyes closed - mostly - to prove a point to my 7-year-old son, Ethan.)
Tags: typing, kids, son, ethan, john koetsier […]

My 7-year old son Ethan is continually amazing me with his insights, thoughts, and questions. He’s not the most verbal or social of kids, but he is a (young) man of ideas.
Today, entirely unprompted, he came up with the idea of intergenerational starships.
After all, he figured, you can’t get to the nearest stars (he started […]

It’s rather self-explanatory, don’t you think? Here’s Aidan, my 3-year old:

I just saw POV on PBS: Waging a Living, and I am ashamed that I am ever in any way discontent with my life or my job or my salary.
Waging a Living follows the lives of 4 individuals who are “working poor.” (More details about them.)
One’s a security guard in downtown San Francisco, making $9-10/hour. […]

I just put Aidan to bed. His bedtime story was an impromptu one that Gabrielle and Ethan also sat in for … about Frank. It was the first time I’ve made up an entirely new story for the kids for a long time … perhaps since The Wonderful Colorful House.
After the story, and after our […]

Teresa and I recently took the kids to Osoyoos, BC, where we met up with 3 other families of relatives and spent a few days at a hotel. It was a much-needed break for all of us.
Check out the Flick photoset.
Unfortunately, Teresa broke her foot when we went horseback riding. The stablehands didn’t put the […]

OK, this is just horrible: the Fish & Flush toilet.

But my daughter loves it … and you have to admit, it is completely cool in a horrible, nasty, kitschy way.
Tags: fish, toilet, kitsch, fun, john koetsier

In case you didn’t realize it, having to work two jobs in order to pay the rent is now referred to as “portfolio diversification:”

Firefighters who want to live in high-priced cities can work two jobs, said W. Michael Cox, chief economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “I think it’s great,” he said. “It […]