metric measurements

This morning I took the girls to the car dealership for some work on the car, so I figured that school was shot for the day. I told the girls we might be waiting for a long time and to think about what they might want to entertain themselves during the wait. Sparkle immediately grabbed a book and Glitter did likewise. Of course, once we got to the dealership, they completely ignored the books and I ended up carrying the books around.

The dealership has a tiny "kiddie corner" with a few blocks and a tv. (The availability of kid friendly entertainment is one of the main reasons why I go to the dealership whenever my car needs maintenance.) It didn't hold the kids attention for very long. So, we started a new educational game with a folding meter stick that I brought. I showed them how long one centimeter is on the measuring stick. Then I challenged them to find things on their bodies that were one centimeter long. Sparkle found her toe, her eye, and some flowers on her dress. Glitter found some flowers on her dress. Then I showed both of them that their pinky fingernails were about a centimeter wide. Then I told the girls to go on a scavenger hunt for things that are a centimeter big. The room was pretty sparse, yet they were able to find all sorts of things that were a centimeter (the size of a fingernail): a thumbtack, the letters on a poster, a torn corner of a paper, a black thing on a piece of furniture, etc.

Then we saw a car-tent just outside the kiddie corner and the girls were instantly drawn to it. I was pleased and amused to see that the girls kicked their shoes off before entering the tent. I don't know if they have internalized the "no shoes in the tent" policy, or if they just look for any excuse to be barefoot. The "find things a centimeter long" game was momentarily forgotten in the excitement of being in a tent and climbing all over the car. Then the girls started to notice things that were about a centimeter in the tent/car and the game started over again. Occasionally they would find something and I would hold up the ruler to verify the size.ate

Then, the awful thing happened. Sparkle wanted to measure something and I wasn't doing what she wanted fast enough, so she grabbed the ruler out of my hand. Crack! The folding ruler broke right at the central joint. At that moment the associate came up to say that the car was ready. The kids marched silently behind me as I paid the cashier, got the car, and drove home.

After we got home, I told Sparkle that I forgave her but that as a consequence, I had a task for her. She was to use the broken ruler and find 10 things that were one millimeter long, 10 things that were one centimeter long, 10 things that were one decimeter (10 cm) long, and 10 things that were one meter long. After she found ten things in each category, she showed me her list and verified that each item was the appropriate size. The task kept her busy and out of my way for most of the rest of the day. Hopefully Sparkle learned several lessons: (1) don't grab things, (2) how to use a ruler, (3) when making a list of items include enough information so that you can identify the items later, and (3) about how long each of the measurements are.