I am not talking about worshipping nature like a druid...I am talking about hail!! On Saturday we had a storm catch us by surprize. The day was beautiful and then five or six loud claps of thunder, a little lightning, and it was hailing. My Daughter, who is 2 years old was helping me sweep the floor. This means I am sweeping the floor and she is moving the dirt around with a little hand broom. She is able to sweep some into her little dust pan and take it to the trash can.

Well the thunder was loud and startled her. She looked a bit paniced and I told her 'I heard that thunder,too; it was loud, it may rain soon.' Mainly I did this because I do not want to further advance any fear of storms that anyone (like my mother) may have started for her. She calmed down a little and I told her that it was unexpected and startled me too. I like to use the word startled instead of scared because I don't want to teach my children fear. We continued sweeping and I saw a bright flash of lightning, it was rather close because the thunder boomed before I could prepare her for it.

She shook in excitement and then looked at me. 'I Don't want to do this anymore!' She yelled and then dumped her dust pan onto the floor. It was as if she thought that her sweeping had something to do with the thunder. She ran across the kitchen and while she was opening the door to put her broom and dustpan away, another loud crack of thunder boomed. 'I'm done!!' she yelled while picking up the dustpan that she tried to throw so hard it bounced back out of the under the sink cabinet. I was able to distract her by saying that sweeping had nothing to do with the thunder, the lightning did and that I need her to tell me when she hears it raining so that I could close the windows.

My Son said it is going to rain and wanted to close them preventatively. I advised that it was hot and the nice breeze was cooling the house tremendously. My wife and I explained thunder and lightning to them and then it started to rain. 'It is raining,' both kids yelled in unison. 'It is hailing I added while closing the window in the kitchen. After helping my wife close the rest of the windows, both children came in to see what this hail that I was talking about was. It only lasted a minute, but hail stones the size of nickles fell and bounced from the yard and the sidwalk alike.

We had an interesting discussion about how it could be raining ice while the temperature outside was well over 80 degrees. My Son got the point but I did not think my daughter did. She talked about how it was hotter outside than it is in the freezer, and I figured that she had a good idea of what we were talking about. The rain only lasted three of four minutes after the hail stopped, so I ran out and gathered some of the ice. Melting a bit in the heat, the hail stones from the yard were perfectly round and about the size of small marbles.

I took eight or so back inside and let the kids feel how cold they were. the outside temperature had dropped five degrees according to my new clock thermometer deal that I just received as a gift. I joked that the ice must have cooled the world down. It is fun to spend time talking about nature nad its power to my children, and it makes me proud when I see that they are learning and understand more about the world that we live in. I wondered just how many of my neighbors were talking to their children about the storm and the hail, and how many of them were not talking at all while their children watched Spongebob.