One louse and your weekend is shot. Lousy. Full of nit picking, laundry, and the changing of sheets.  Cancelled events.  Phone calls to fellow parents who get it, because they have gotten it, and calls to the uninitiated parents who cancel playdates for the next month.

And so it went this weekend when we found a louse in my daughter’s hair.  Just one.  Not that we were counting.

Luckily, our school district along with the American Academy of Pediatrics is changing its tune on  return-to-school-lice attitudes and policies.  After a treatment and thorough nit removal, our daughter was back in school on Monday.

And along with that change goes the stigma of lice. Lice are not a sign of an unclean house, and they cause “no medical harm” according to the AAP.   But so much has been written on lice, I will refrain from writing an educational blog.   If you are looking for info check out these two AAP links 1, 2.

Instead, I provide you with our family’s lice lessons: ten ways to have family fun with lice.

1. Vocabulary: While you could go with the self esteem route and tell your kids they are not bad or dirty people, or that millions of kids get lice, or that they should hold their head up high even if it itches.  Instead, teach them to say that they have pediculosis. Other parents will think it’s related to bad breath or something.

2. Grammar: While Pediculosis may be the noun form, how might you make it into an adjective? The answer: Pediculous. Which is fun because it has lous in it which is nothing to do with a louse, but its fun to play with words.

3. Rhyming Game: What rhymes with Pediculous? Meticulous, like how meticulous we have to be to insure we got all the nits. Or ridiculous. Like how ridiculous it feels to wash all the clothes in the house when you could just throw them away.

4. Family Game Night: Since you are tending to the new mountain of laundry, your evening plans are shot. Why not crank up a game of scrabble. You can make the word Pediculous in two steps. Start with lou (3 tiles) and then on your next turn surround it with pedicu and s (7 tiles) in the next step.  A three tiled “ped” play is also an option.

5. Math: 5 points for lou, and then 20 points for pediculous makes for a total of 25 points.

6. Science: Save the nits and lice, and get out your microscope. Make a slide out of the lice. If you want you can even take the slide into school for show and tell.

Don’t worry, the slide is made of plastic.

While in this photo the bubble does not look closed, I assure you it is.

Meet the louse.

A nit, for your education.  Tear drop shape.

Enough you say?  Read on.

7. Photography: When the teacher rejects your child’s show and tell, provide her with a picture. Using the macro lens on a point and shoot camera, you can even get a picture of the lice and the nit.

These are actual pictures from our recent infestation. My kids were overcome with excitement to see this, and it was all their parents could do to talk positively about the images.  We would not want them to think science is icky.

Your head will begin itching now.

We noticed that the hair looks like a hollow tube.

8. Art – Draw the lice using the photograph as reference. In a different life I might have been an scientific illustrator. Check here for some inspiration from Gina Mikel. http://www.scientificillustrator.com/insects.html

9. Writing Lesson:

Mom: Are you going to blog about this?

Dad: Yes.

Mom: I’m ok with that. Really.  I mean, you know.  I, I, well I’m ok with that.

Dad:  And I am hoping that our daughter will  write about it this week in writer’s workshop. I hear the teacher will be posting her work on the wall for parents’ night!

10. Jokes: Let the lice jokes fly. Seven year olds seem to go through a developmental stage where they love easy jokes. And lice jokes are ripe for the picking. If you and yours are unable to generate your own, the internet provides: http://headlicecanbefun.blogspot.com/

My favorite: What is a louse’s favorite dessert? Lice Cream.

Finally I leave you with a Dad Labs classic video from the vault -  about lice.