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.

I don't contribute to this forum all that often, but this seemed the right place for the following anecdote. For the past few days, my DD7 has been expressing concern about going to college. I wasn't sure exactly what was underlying this, so I tried to allay any fears she might conceivably have, telling her that it was a long way away, that she'd enjoy it, that she'd still be able to see her family a lot, etc. Finally, it emerged that she had read something in a book in which a character was worrying about the SAT, and my DD was now afraid of taking it. This led to the following exchange:

Me: Don't worry about the SAT. What's on it are things you're good at and like to do, like reading.
DD (incredulous that anyone would dread a test that involved reading): Really? It's all reading?
Me: Well, there is a math section too.
DD: Math? You mean it's just reading and math?
Me: Pretty much.
DD (amazed and relieved): YES!

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.