I'm not allowed to pretend anything is real either - even as a joke. sigh

We're lucky that ODS is not a paper/schoolwork/art hoarder, at least. We can barely get him to keep any art he creates. YDS, on the other hand... piles and piles. He's prolific and attached!

His mother may or may not still have notes from high school.

DD10 has been less than impressed with her Common Core-aligned Everyday Math programming thus far. This year we're giving the public school a miss, and she's doing Connections Academy from home.

A box of school books arrived at the house from Connections, and she was excited to open them. She tore into the box like she was opening a Christmas present, looked at the first book on the stack, and said, "Puh. Common Core."

We've been working on self-care with DS3.5 and, when he was running around for a few minutes laughing his head off at having his bum half out of his pants, I began to grow exasperated, as we were planning to go out.

DS noticed my frustration, ran up to me, and said (to himself aloud), "is Mama happy? She looks angry."

To me: It's okay Mama, you're feeling angry. Just breathe out for me, okay? Let the anger go. Now breathe in happiness. One more time: breathe out the anger, breathe in the happiness. Now, how do you feel?

At this point, any memory of impatience had long since disappeared. I told him I felt much better and thanked him for coaching me. We hugged, and then I watched in amazement as he returned to age-typical antics. He is very much a sweet little boy with old soul moments.

LOL, Dude, that is hilarious. It's too bad DD graduated last year-- your DD might have gotten to know her as a math tutor. She used to tear into the big box each fall, too-- and in high school, we got wise and bought books so that she'd always have a physical copy of her own-- her usual trick was to read everything cover-to-cover between when materials showed up and when classes officially started.



finca, I love that story. So funny-- and true! Pop culture really doesn't reflect the world that our kids actually inhabit, does it?

Re: stuffed animals. DS has quite the collection as well.

One notable time when he was really into his stuffed peregrine falcon, he took her along with him on a trip, and, inexplicably, a stuffed rabbit, too. When I asked why he brought the rabbit, he said, "It's her lunch!"

My DD has at least half an Ark load of stuffed animals (she has duplicates of some species that she insists are couples) that she has acquired over the years - even some of my old Steiff animals LOL. Every single one has a name - over the years the names went from only a single gender; female, to some male names as well. Even the unicorn was female according to her and no amount of persuasion was enough to change her mind LOL

She would also insist that they all came alive every night.

So very practical! Love this!

dd 3 1/2 has always created songs complete with her own unique lyrics, but now has started creating her own lyrics to songs in German. Although, I have spoken a little German to her whole life, she only started getting serious about learning it 3 months ago.

DYS DS6 was informed his homework had to be finished before he could play
Minecraft. He replied that he was not going to do homework anymore .He does not want to be gifted anymore as it is entirely too much responsibility . He claims he has changed and he is moving on with his new life.