Evil Genius

I suppose it could be worse, that my husband use his evil genius for evil and not for good, but sometimes I wonder...

Sunday I was sitting in the glider, the sun was streaming through the window, and the kids were playing nicely together on the floor (Eric was home teaching). Aidan noticed a circle of light on the opposite wall, and all were intrigued. When I told him that it was my watch reflecting the sunlight, he went and got his watch to try it too. Davin needed something, so I got him a small plastic mirror. Eme was happy to continue playing her dolls while the boys and I played with optics. Then I decided to step the game up a bit, I brought out a prism (hey, when you have a degree in physics, you have odd toys) and we then proceeded to make and chase rainbows and sun spots throughout the room, the rainbows got Eme's attention. Aidan even discovered that if he aimed the light from the mirror at the ceiling light fixture, he got lots of refracted light on the walls-I was so proud! While we were thus playing, Eric had come home, changed, and was playing with us.

Then, the evil genius in Eric took over. He went and got his big maginfying glass, and smiled. At least I didn't have to tell him to take it outside. He brought all the kids out with him, set them on the bench and told them to watch what he could do. As he began burning paper (at least it wasn't ants, right?), I explained focal points (hey, I had to put something redeeming in this, okay.) Aidan, after seeing the smoke from the paper, asked Eric if this was safe. Eric said that he was being very safe. Aidan then turned to me and asked if this was safe, when I told him that no, it wasn't safe, he said "I thought so."