Lily Wise's Blog Posts
As someone in Somerville I notice that there are quite high prices regarding childcare. The average family in Somerville pays $1,100 to $3,500 for daycare per month, and I want to make the costs more affordable. I have also noticed that housing is quite expensive in Somerville, and I have come up with a solution to fix both of these, and, as some people might know, to fix the ongoing problem of…
There are lots of different things in Frozen that are new-ish, but my dad and I were wondering: what is the actual newest thing in Frozen? This led me to watch Frozen a lot while taking notes. Some of the things I found included: Elastic hair-ties A safety bicycle Sunscreen Bottle of aloe Lacquer Pompoms, the kind you get at a store and not the kind with yarn Off the shoulder Paper straws…
Unlike many families my family celebrates Christmas with really really a lot of our family. This past year there were about 29 people at my Grandfather's house in the week around Christmas. I know what you're thinking: how does that work? It's actually pretty simple. First, we have a spreadsheet so we know who's coming and who's not, and who's cooking dinner each…
I am one of the students who goes to the Somerville Public Schools. I just graduated from the Brown School, and have been hearing about how there are some plans about how the Brown School might be combined with the Winter Hill School. I really don't like this because I think the Brown School is a really great place and it would be really sad to have it gone. I am the oldest of three sisters,…
On May 18th, the contra dance band Elixir had their last gig ever. The dance was packed: there were three hundred people. It was the only dance BIDA has ever done where they sold tickets. People flew from across the country just to hear Elixir play one last time. Elixir has been playing for twenty years, and is a very well-known band among contra dancers. But if you asked someone who wasn't a…
When I thought about this question it was really hard to figure out because the way it's phrased it's essentially either a chicken just pops into existence, or an egg just pops into existence, without any parent animals involved. I thought about this and decided that because of evolution it would be the egg that came first. The reason I think this is because two birds that were a tiny…
A couple days ago Ms. Davis assigned a really big math packet. I was having some chocolate for a snack. Ms. Davis has a thing where when we take the MCAS, at school, she gives us some Hershey's Kisses and mints to help us focus, and also for motivation. I thought I could try using the same system for homework. Every time, after I finished a math problem, I'd take a bite of chocolate.…
If you're a kid like me, most kids have probably never heard of contra dancing before. You're probably wondering: contra dance -- what's that? Contra dancing is in some ways similar to square dancing. It's a group dance with a caller and a live band. When you think of dancing you probably think of rock and roll or pop or something, but no. It's folk music. If you are…
I'm lying in bed, pleasantly sleeping when it's supposed to be 6am. Then my alarm goes off. Later, at school, I am very tired. Why do you think this is? This is all the fault of daylight savings time. Daylight savings time is a thing the government does so that in the summer we have daylight in the evenings but in the winter it's light out when kids are walking to school. They think…
When the nurse comes to give you the flu shot, they say it won't hurt at all, right? And you trust them. Then they give you the shot, and it hurts! They lied to you. A lot of nurses lie to children about shots and blood draws. Part of it is they probably don't remember what it's like to be a kid about to get a shot. But also they kind of have to do whatever they can to convince the…
One day my dad was reading this book called the "Going to Bed Book" to my sister Nora . The book is basically about a bunch of animals who are getting ready for bed on a boat. They go down the stairs, take a bath, hang their towels on the wall, find their pajamas, brush their teeth, go up and exercise , then go down again and fall asleep. But I noticed there was a big problem: my whole life…
I first started playing fiddle when I was five, just around my birthday. I had really wanted a fiddle because I wanted to learn how to play it and my parents got me one for my birthday so I started taking lessons. Though after a couple of lessons I started to find it more and more boring and at the time I wasn't really prepared for my fingers to hurt when I did it, so I didn't really…
I noticed that there was a hole in one of the park toys at the park near my house, Lexington Park, specifically. It was one of those toy cars that babies scootch around in, and one of the front wheels was broken. It had a big hole in it, and there was a crack running almost all around it. I decided to go home and get my toolbelt to fix it. I decided that probably tape and cardboard would be the…
I have several reasons I think why neighborhoods should have speed bumps. First, speed bumps are very useful to stop cars from hitting people in the streets. Second, when construction workers installed speed bumps on the street in front of our house it was very useful to me because my parents decided to let me cross that street, and now I can go to the park and my friends house and a bunch of…
I think that once a kid is in third grade they should be able to get a phone. I think that while sometimes parents might want kids not to have them at certain ages, phones can be quite useful at times. Tablets don't have GPS, they don't have WiFi when you're out of the house, but a phone does have all that stuff. Have you ever tried putting a tablet in your pocket? I don't…
When I got my loft bed it was just so annoying every morning to have to get out of bed, climb down the ladder, turn the light on, and climb back up, just so I could see stuff. I decided to make a string for my light switch because I really wanted to be able to turn on the light from just my bed. I got to work and got some string and some tape and taped the string to my light switch. Now I can just…
I was walking around in London when I saw this gigantic building shaped like an egg. Then I walked around it a little and I saw these pillars that had glass on one side, but one side didn't have glass. There was kind of a hole so it was kind of like a case, and I wanted to try and climb in. So I walked over and started to climb in, but I was having trouble. I got my ankle in, but when I tried…
I love Nora. She is a really fun sister. I give her a hug and a kiss each night. Nora is pretty much always nearby so I can go and cuddle her. Unless she's nursing. Or sleeping. Or having her diaper changed. Which is a lot of the time. But, overall, Nora is a really really fun sister. She's also very silly, and she makes silly faces.
Today I made valentines. I made fruit valentines. There were orange fruit valentines, and grape fruit valentines, watermelon fruit valentines, and pineapple too. I made them for my classmates and teacher. They had a little jokes or puns on the back. The jokes or puns were on a sticker that we could stick on the back. I stuck on googly eyes, and I drew a mouth. I added hearts and a sticker.…
I mixed milk with some colored pigment. First, the color spread a little tiny bit. And then when we added we added some dish soap the colors spread and a big colorful wave.
I came up with this game. In the game one person thinks of something and then gives the other person a clue. And the other person writes a guess down on a blackboard or a piece of paper. Or really anything you have that's laying around that's available for writing on. The other person says whether it's right or wrong. And then when they get it right the other person takes a turn.…
This is jewelry I made, but I didn't really make all of them. My au pair Erika made a few of them but I made most of them. I made at least six of them. Erika made two. Free delivery within a half hour bike ride of West Somerville. Otherwise I will send it to you in the mail. You pay for shipping. Email my dad, Jeff ( jeff@jefftk.com ) if you want to buy something. Butterfly Bracelet It costs…
For kids one to ten. I might add some other episodes later. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Today I trimmed lots of milkweed with my daddy. I trimmed it because it was taking over the sidewalk and I thought that it was taking over too much of the sidwalk. So did my dad, so we went home, asked my mom for some garden shears, came back, and then I cut all of the milkweed down. Or, at least all that was blocking the path.
Yesterday night I cooked dinner. My dad helped a bit but I mostly made it. The things I made were: Avocado sauce Rice Spinach Cheese Beans with onions and spices Tomatoes with garlic The people in my house liked it very much.
I have a problem where me and my sister want to sleep in the same bed but the only way we can do that is to sleep in a trundle. But the problem is my bed has drawers in it and would fall apart if we made it a trundle. Do you have any ideas? Send them to Jeff if you have any ideas.
There's ants in my house and I don't really like it. It's upsetting because also I'm afraid of ants. Plus, yesterday there were tons and tons of ants crawling around while my dad, Jeff , and my housemate, Ruthie , were doing music together.
I didn't like today, and also it was super bad.
I used to play violin. It was fun, but I had to hold down strings which really hurt my fingers. So I quit violin.
Today Erika made me a pinata, or at least the start of it. It's a balloon that we glued lots of little pieces of paper to. Tissues, crumpled drawings, any waste paper we could find. We just glued it on. Then we set it to dry. Tomorrow we're going to decorate it. When it's done it's going to be part of my birthday, since I asked for a pinata. Because my Au Pair isn't going…
I tried mixing glitter glue, water, baking soda, and citric acid all together. It made a very fun glittery explosion.
We were trying to make the water go near a comb. We tried a comb, didn't work. Then we tried a brush, didn't work. Then we tried a balloon. That did work. The water, it just wiggled, and it was pulled towards the balloon. We had to rub it over our hair fast to get it all full of 'lectricity.
I'm feeling sad since I'm getting my birthday gift later than everyone else at school, and since school has been cancelled, and I'm missing my friends a lot. Also, that means I have to stop having play dates with my classmate Kalina every Tuesday. The reason it's getting cancelled is coronavirus is just coming really soon. I'm also worried that it might infect some of the…
I loved Barbara's birthday. It was so fun. I thought it was great. I loved a lot of things about it. I was even ok with wearing my snowpants the whole time.
The last time I went to an amusement park I remember going down a slide tube and it was filled with water and there were, like, these little raft thingies and I want on that, like, ten times! It was really awesome. I even got ice cream. And there was this ride where we could sit in little cars and would go round and round, and when you went around the corner it was like "whoo!!" It was just great.
Today I noticed that my sister had cut off the hair of four ponies that I like to play with a lot, and now their manes are almost gone.
This is a list of the podcasts I listen to: Story Pirates Chompers Circle Round
Today I had library. That was really fun. And we had centers. And we even had, like, these books where you would put on special glasses and the glasses they would help the pictures look like they were coming out of the book. Actually. And also I got a sticker and a pear eraser. It's an eraser that looks like a pear. It's not like a "pair" pair, it's an eraser. And there was a…
Use the potty Go downstairs and eat breakfast Have my sweet if I haven't already had it Brush teeth Get on coat Get on shoes Go to school
Today I picked up a cigar dropped on the ground by someone. Then an old lady saw what I'd done and she gave me a unicorn toy for special. I brought it home and for some reason it can talk to the toys that I'm borrowing or that I own, and stuffies.
I had bridge week and it was good. I learned about suspension bridges, the Golden Gate bridge, and other kinds of bridges. And my parents and my little sister Anna got to come over for bridge day.