Chunky Monkey Seed Pod

I'll explain in a minute.

Tonight, James had 3 Maths worksheets to do for homework. In total, he had over 100 calculations to do. 80 of them were 'times tables' and the other 20 were writing the values of numbers that had been written in words i.e. three hundred and fifty thousand, five hundred and seventeen. He started at 6pm. He had a break at 6.30 for some tea. He went back to it at 6.45pm. I went out to get stuff that he need for another homework, returned at 7.30pm and he was STILL doing it - not because he was being slow, but just loads to do.

On top of that, he had to make up an imaginary seed pod, create the 'back story' for it about where it came from and how it propagated (his word not mine).

Hence the production of the CHUNKY MONKEY SEED POD and why I had to dash out to hobbycraft this evening to purchase pipe cleaners, foam monkeys and a polystyrene egg. It has subsequently been painted. We should have got an adult to poke the holes through for the pipe cleaners, but Corin was busy, so I had to do it. The paint wasn't completely dry, so I have purple hands. He has written his back story up, and I quite like it. It goes like this....

The chunky monkey seed pod

The chunky monkey seed pod is found in the deepest, darkest parts of the Amazon rainforest.

It is bright purple and quite large. It catches the attention of monkeys and other animals in the rainforest. When they come to have a look at it or brush past it, it sticks onto their fur with the red hooks that stick out of it.

When the monkeys swing from the trees and play, the pod falls off. When it hits the ground it breaks in half.

When it breaks all of the seeds that are inside it spread around. The seeds are shaped liked monkeys and have fluffy stuff on them. The seeds can germinate when they land on the ground or can get moved around by getting stuck to other creatures as they move around the rainforest floor. The fluffy stuff helps the seeds stick to the fur of creatures.


He has quite an imagination once he gets going - of course, it took some intensive, high level questionning skills from teacher mum, whilst we sat at the dinner table, to get his ideas formed into a coherent package.

So with all that, I started my own 'homework' at 9pm. Have only managed half a job, so will have to find an hour (undisturbed) tomorrow to get the rest done ready for another meeting tomorrow afternoon.

My good friend, Fisherking, has taken his revenge (proper) this evening by blipping a picture of my enormous backside. I've been magnanimous. I actually laughed - thought I had got away lightly to be honest (you'll have to see my blip from July 8th to see what the revenge was for, and his blip from yesterday as well!). Truce. Yeah, I think so, because it could get unpleasant otherwise, and he is my super top mate!