Blue Lights, Rainbows, and Fighting Words

If it’s Thursday evening, it must be Rainbows and, as our daughter and son-in-law don’t get home from work until around six, transporting SW two miles to the village hall for her weekly meeting, falls to me. It’s always entertaining being in the car with SW. Even a short journey can turn up some magic moments. During the recent freeze we stopped along the lane to wonder at a section of hedge that was loaded with icicles. As we reluctantly pulled away, SW’s imagination went into overdrive. We were still competing for the most fantastic explanation of how a hedge can support so many icicles, long after I turned the engine off.

SW’s latest thing is running through the levers, switches, and dashboard lights.

SW: “You see that little blue light?”

Me: “Oh yes.”

SW: “Well, that tells you that your lights are on full-beam.”

Me: “That’s right.”

SW: "But it looks like a blue jellyfish swimming sideways."

You see? I told you about the magic moments.

If you’re intrigued by stories written by kids, you could do much worse than visit Fighting Words, a creative writing project set up by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love. It’s one of my favourite places on the internet. I mean, who could resist a story that features a farmer called Bob with only one eye and three legs, and Bob’s best friend Anto, the purple suit-wearing cow?