Thursday, July 27, 2006

It's A Small World After All

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Here at the House of The Smiling Infidel, we embrace a profound love of learning. We also hold steadfast to and liberally apply the wisdom of Aristotle's guidance to our everyday lives. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit".

So, in the spirit of gaining knowledge through repetition and learning new things wherever one may happen to find themselves, we elected to purchase and hoist up a new shower curtain in the kid's bathroom featuring a detailed map of the World. I mean, what better place to increase your geography skills than when you're toilet bound? Based on the amount of time our kids spend using the restroom facilities, I'd say that we could potentially be churning out young National Geography Bee champions as soon as next year.

10 comments:

wendela said...

Hey, this could work! When mine were very young, we had maps on their walls near their beds and they each had a place to find every night before going to bed. Older one did make it up the ladder for the National Geo Bee, winning out over much older kids. They've remained geography lovers, even at the old ages of 17 and 19. :)

Elizabeth-W said...

We're big on maps at our house, too. I like the shower idea--trying to think of what decor matches a map curtain. Maybe ocean-colored towels? (This is a joke because if you really knew me you would know that I have zero interior decorating skills and/or interest.)

Lana said...

thanks for stopping by my blog, I love your shower curtain!

White Man Retarded said...

Hey. I just remembered you home-taught (teach) your children. One of your peers is getting a lot of press right now. Her initials are Andrea Yates. I heard she had maps for wallpaper in the shower.

jams o donnell said...

Excellent idea,... You already know my views on maps and the various projections used by cartographers...

You realise that you will now have to purchase lots of different curtains to cover other subjects... by doing so you will of course maximise the time spent on homeschooling!

omar said...

The toilet lid is up? Is your child actually urinating/pooping while this photo is being taken?

Anyway, good idea. Everyone should know where Djibouti is while they're on the can.

elasticwaistbandlady said...

wendela and lianne, They've already picked out a small parcel of geography named, Surreyland. They asked me if Tom Cruise named his daughter, Suri, after that place. We're raising new candidates for the Future Cartographers Of America Club.

elizabeth, nothing in that bathroom goes with the shower curtain. We used a cat theme a few years ago, but alas, the kitty shower curtain lost the good fight to mold and had to be thrown out. To be honest with you, I like maps because I'm bedazzled by all the pretty colors.

Thanks txmommy, I bought it at the evil monolithic corporation known as Wal-Mart.

carrot, this is the kids bathroom. You really don't want to know what else is on the walls, do you?

Yes, Andrea Yates. Well, I'm nothing like her because even on my worst day, I've never been as homely as her, my hair isn't stringy, and anyone who's ever looked at me can tell that I've never been on a hunger strike in my life either. I think she had things "mapped" out before chasing down and killing her kids. Stupid Houston jury.

Jams, I'm way ahead of you on that. We purchased learning tools for the other place where they like to congregate for large portions of their day, the kitchen. We have a variety of educational table mats. Sadly though, they prefer to read the back of the Coco Puffs cereal box. It's not a complete loss, they have learned the marketing catchphrase, "I'm CUCKOO for COCO PUFFS"!!! Unfortunately, they also now think that cocoa is spelled coco.

No comment Omar, but I dread the day when we discover new brown islands cropping up in the middle of the oceans. It likely won't be a National Geographic moment.

elasticwaistbandlady said...

I was wrong. The country that my girls saw on the map is SURINAME. Which is why they thought Tom Cruise lifted his kids name from there.

Get it? SURI NAME. Maybe they have a secret Scientology lair there, or something.

Dan M. said...

No, the new scientology lai is in Talledega, to help their new reacecar sponsor. The saddest thing is, if he gets in a crash, he's not allowed to scream.

Bill C said...

Suriname. Wow. Tom and Katie's little geography pun. Please convey my 'nicely spotted' congratulations to your FCA Club members in-training.

Rats! Now my brain is spinning out of control (okay, make that *more* out of control) trying to come up with a jaguar / leopard / salamander pun for 'nicely spotted.' I hate when that happens!