Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Cuckoo for Alephs!

Ariella has computers every week in school. Talk about feeling dinosaur-ish. I didn't have a computer class till I was in 10th grade. And when Ariella asked me if I played on the computer when I was little, I had to break it to her that when Mommy was little, we didn't have a computer at home. That's right. We were too busy grunting at each other and fashioning skirts out of mammoth carcasses.


I do remember, when I was just a wee lassie, that my mother had some sort of work project that required a computer, and for a few weeks, we had a computer in the house. This was the height of cool. We got to play this nifty Winnie the Pooh computer game - on a floppy disk, of course, back when they were actually floppy. But then the project ended and the computer had to leave. Oh well, we grunted.


Anyway, Ariella is learning Microsoft "Words" (as she calls it). And yesterday, the principal (who teaches the class), taught the kids how to "duh-buhl cleeek." So naturally, Ariella came home and wanted to try out her newfound tricks - typing (in Hebrew) highlighting, changing the font, color, and size. Because let's face it, with all the computer know-how and doo-dads out there, still, the most important thing we ever learned was how to change the font to Comic Sans. So Ariella decided to have an aleph page. "What words start with aleph?" she asked me. We thought of a few, but she was insatiable. So she took out the dictionary, and is now up to over 100 aleph words in Hebrew. In blue, though unfortunately Hebrew cannot be written in Comic Sans.

After an hour and a half, I made her get off. (Baila - we may have to institute your policy.) "But I just want to finish the alephs!" she wailed, with a slightly manic look in her eyes. "Sweetie," I explained, there are many, many, many words that begin with an aleph. You could be here all night."

"Just 'efes'! It will be my last word! Pleeeeease!"

So I let her type it, though a few minutes later when she came back and begged, "I just thought of 'auto.' Please can I type it before I forget???" I put my foot down, seeing clearly where this was heading.

Anyway, it was time for Ariella to get off the computer because Mommy needed it to give a very special shout-out.....
to my sister-in-law, Leezy "Alisa" Bensky and her family on the birth of a new baby boy!

8 comments:

momzwifeofdadz said...

Mazal tov to the OTHER Leezy! yay for all of the Leezies and all of their kids!

Also, in the pure interest of seeing my granddaughter have the best possible education,I think it's time for Gila to give her laptop to Ariella and for GILA TO GET A NEW FANCY LAPTOP.

Baila said...

Ohmomzwifeofdadz: much as you would like your granddaughter to have the best possible education and for GILA TO GET A NEW FANCY LAPTOP,you are enabling your progeny to begin a long, steady, decline into the dark world of computer addiction. My advice would be for Gila to start enforcing the policy now, while said granddaughter is still young and not yet rolling her eyes at her and saying things like, "Ima! Terageeeeeee!" (If you think it's bad when a kid talks back to you, you should hear it when they do it another language).

Trust me on this one.

Anonymous said...

I don't have any children, so I should stay out of the debate but... It may not be comic sans but it's close:
http://oketz.com/fonts/all.html
and I have to say (as an aunt) She's asking to type words that start with Aleph, she isn't asking to play games or surf the web (yet)

OneTiredEma said...

I think not as many words start with ה

Start with that, perhaps.

Leah Goodman said...

be a cruel mom. Open a dictionary. Show her that someone wrote a whole book of words that start with aleph, followed by words that start with bet, gimmel... etc. kill her thirst for learning now while she's young...

(sorry, I'm a cynic)

But I honestly can't share my computer with the kids. And they're only 3 and 1 and a half. Then again, the other computer is also our "tv" in the sense of it being the only place where they can watch videos.

Gila Rose said...

Well, so far I'm just amused by the whole thing. We'll see what happens. She also has a natural talent for solitaire and jigzone.

And Baila they already do the shoulder shrug at me, which drives me insane.

momzwifeofdadz said...

See, Baila, the problem is that (run and get the nearest therapist) I am totally addicted to the computer - moreso than any of my children. There, I've said it. My name is Momzwifeofdadz and I am addicted to computers. Next I probably should apologize to all the people I've ignored while computering, then make restitution, then...

Kathleen said...

I am sad that Momz and Dadz have left before doing a guest post. But I guess it's understandable that they wanted to visit while they were there. I did laugh at Momz last comment! That is too funny!
Yes, I try and keep sharing my computer with kids to a minimum. Because otherwise they would be on it a long time. Leaving me less time to do my job of blogging and emailing all day as my kids put it.