The Great Brain is another terrific series about a clever boy that yours might enjoy.
Your kids are wonderfully peculiar and decidedly better than normal.
We had the same rule, my son made his first “banger” out of toast. It was a major trauma when the dog ate it.
Your kids sound like they’re wonderfully inquisitive and imaginative. This makes them “weird” in that they are not average kids.
But really, you don’t want to raise an average kid, because the current average is appalling.
Oh, and as for your son’s obsession with crime stories–my youngest sister had an obsession with that stuff from about age 8 to 12. She’d get up at 5 am to read the details of all the latest crime in the newspaper. She eventually outgrew it. It’s not necessarily a sign that he’s planning on a life of crime. 
Tell her that cats with red glowing eyes aren’t all bad. My cat Luna is a Siamese mix, and has blue eyes that seem to glow red when they reflect light. This article, while mostly about blue-eyed non-Siamese white cats and deafness, says this is a common trait for Siamese (search for “oriental” to get to that part). So maybe her beanie baby cats all have some Siamese in them.
Anyway, my point is that Luna, the cat who occasionally has glowing red eyes, is a very sweet cat. The scariest thing she is likely to do to you is lie on your stomach and purr, or meow to be petted at four in the morning.
Your children are very smart and curious. Let them explore and read as much as they want. I would encourage them to write stories or draw pictures.
:ivylass, who would take a volume of the encyclopedia and curl up with it, reading about all sorts of things, and who had an accordion file full of “stories”:
My sister and I went through a morbid phase too, only we checked out every book we could find on the Holocaust (10-12 or 13 years old, IIRC).
I think that kids like scary or disturbing stories because it helps them “rehearse” their fears to think about the worst that can happen and see that life goes on (for most people, anyway). That, and children are uncivilized heathen savages by nature 
OH FERTHELOVEOFPETE!
YES THERE IS SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH THEM!
They are using their im-mag-in-at-ions when they should be playing Xbox or Dress Like A Skanky-ho-slut Girl. Independance and Creativity are not encouraged these days. We must make all our kids alike. Did you miss the memo?
They should be watching hours upon hours of useless violent dreck on television and be bought all of Britney Spears/N’sync music.
You haven’t liquidated your pathetic IRA for your son’s Pokemon/Yu-gi-Oh addiction? Don’t you want him to be popular? You hoser. Isn’t your daughter wearing makeup and a thong yet? Oh, puhleeeze!
They need unfettered access to the internet and their own credit card so they can down load explicit lyrics to songs they don’t understand but bounce on the bed too while holding sharp scissors.
I suppose they do their homework in a timely manner, too.
I’m calling child protective services on you, Shib and the humane society for those poor widdle hamsters who have to suffer through such caterwauling.
Seriously. They sound awesome.
Hey, I was reading obits at a young age. and look how I turned out.:::twitch twitch::::
This kid is going to go far. I mean it.
Why can’t you be my neighbor.
These books are hard to find, at least with the original Alfred Hitchcock - I’ve since seen at least one of them being rereleased with some new rich dude being cast in the role of Hitchcock. Apparantly the problem wasn’t the sales of the books, or interest of the publisher/owner of the rights - was a problem with Hitchcock’s estate.
I’d definately like to second F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Brain” books.
Also, if you can find them in the local library - Edward Rowe Snow wrote a whole mess of books dealing with matters nautical. Each chapter was about 15-20 pages, not much more verbiage than an EB book, and covered a single incident in reasonable detail. One caveat - some of the stories deal with spooky subjects, though, so they may not be completely appropriate for your daughter.
To answer your question - they sound like great kids, and you and your wife are the weird ones - not them. And God bless you for it. 
The “Great Brain” books were not written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but by John D. Fitzgerald. Although it would be cooler your way.
Oh yes, I loved these as a kid. IMHO the first ten or so, by series originator Robert Arthur, were the best, but the others were good too.
Loved these also. But I think you’re mixing your authors up. Great Brain: John D. Fitgerald. Great Gatsby: F. Scott Fitzgerald.
And if an interest in crime is so bad, how come about half of all popular novels, movies, and TV shows are about crime?
:smack: Fitzgerald—that’s a typo, of course. Just in case you try to search on it.
“Chocolate Thundah”
I’m sorry, but that is simply hilarious. I have a weird kid too. They’re fun, and yours sound a little peculiar, but in a good way.
nothing unusual, but you should invest in some sherlock holmes books in a few years.
Doh! :smack:
Hey, I read Encyclopedia Brown and the Great Brain books, and look at me.
…actually, it’s probably best if you don’t look at me.
Yanno, punha – with your clothes on – we can’t see you anyway.
Your kids sound awesome. I want to hang out with them. Just kick back and chill while we talk about crime and hamsters.
I discussed Victorian poetry with my mother when I was about nine or so. And we still do. My brothers and I used to put on rock shows, too. I was the lead singer and the Brothers McKnittington were on keytar and saucepan. Our cats were our roadies. The eldest Brother McKnittington wrote a comic strip for a few years about ladybugs and aphids. The younger brother wrote short stories about radioactive underpants and the man they turned into a superhero. We turned out okay.
If anything, your children are well on their way to becoming inquisitive, well-rounded young adults with a passion for learning.
Ah, I loved those books when I was a kid! I was thinking of them the other day and asking myself what the titles were, who wrote them, and so on, so that I could buy them again and maybe read them, maybe just keep them… because I like books, I guess. Just wanted to say I’m glad you posted that here and I’d definitely recommend tthem, too!
Your children sound delightful - as do you!
My younger boy also passionately wanted a gun, and made one too out of Lego. He too didn’t know what it should be called, and it became his “Pewwww! Thing” (Because on TV when they fire a gun the bullets go “Peww! Pewww! Whizzing by…”
My older boy sounds like your lad - they would get on well. His best, best, BEST present from Santa this year was a real Mosasaur tooth and a real coprolite (dino poo). Those two things thrilled him skinny, and he was a bit taken aback at school when his report of his haul was not recieved in the same way as all the ones who got Gameboy software.
A few weeks ago the two boys put on a play for me; the younger was a chicken and the older was the farmer, and the chicken was laying onyx and marble eggs. The whole thing was hilarious but what made it even funnier was that all the play was conducted in Japanese, but all the stagecraft and orders were hissed in English. The mix of the two languages was bizzarre and wonderful.
I like kids - they are MOST entertaining.
How about reading the Periodic Table to your kids for bedtime reading. That was what I was asked to do shortly before Christmas… Never mind that I had no clue what I was reading, he seemed to be getting something from it! (We have a slightly odd situation in that the 8 year old cannot read English at peer level so I do a HUGE amount of reading for him in that language - in Japanese he’s fine.)
If you were to go to the remotest part of Africa and find a little boy and give him an Oreo, there are two things he would do to it:
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Open it and lick the creamy center.
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Bite the remaining chocolate wafers into the shape of a gun, aim, and fire at you.
It’s coded somewhere on the Y chromosome, I think.