What a GREAT story, NotherBen!

I know! The CompSci teacher is also DS' APCalc teacher, and I think that's where the idea came from to change to CompSci in the first place.

DD11 was telling me about the IQ test she took last fall. She said the tester asked her about racism. DD gave some kind of definition, and I guess tester prompted her for elaboration, something like "is racism good or bad?" Not sure exactly.

DD said she asked tester, "Are you from the South?"
Tester said, "No."
DD said, "Well, then...you *know*."

(Thank goodness she qualified. Many of her answers were equally strange. She also, evidently, described circles, triangles, and squares in terms of their emotional characteristics. Circles are lonely, for example.)

DD6 was finishing her math homework this morning.
There was a simple word problem and it said, "Explain how you can solve this problem."
DD6: "I thought it in my brain."
I let her turn this in.

Not sure where else I can tell this story without it sounding weird, so I'll tell it here...

At my DS7's gifted school, they have broken into ability groups for math this week. Math fluency isn't his strong suit, so I suspect it's a slightly less advanced ability group than the other one.

The kids in the group get to agree on a name, and apparently they chose DS's proposal... which was to call the group "The IQ 60s." He explained to me that "60 was just a random number," but that didn't really stop me from chuckling uncontrollably.

The "PPVT (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test)" post reminded me of a humorous anecdote showing DD's vocabulary was way ahead of reading ability.

Long before she was reading, we were going through letter flashcards - the type that have a letter and a picture of an animal that starts with that letter. So the "M" card will have a monkey on it. Since DD(now 14, so this was a long time ago) was just learning her letters, she would look at the picture and to figure out the letter on the card, she'd name the letter making the sound that started the animal's name. So, using the "M" card, she'd say, "Monkey...(pause)...M."

When we got to the "B" card, she said, "Rabbit...R."

I replied, "Not rabbit, what's another word for rabbit?"

"Hare...H."

Chuckling, I then ask, "OK, what's yet another word for rabbit?"

Can't name her letters yet, but already has synonyms (and the definition of the word synonym) down. Yep, we should have suspected things about her much earlier than kindergarten...

--S.F.

I recently had an epiphany.

I am raising a real-life version of Anne Shirley (of Green Gables, not the actress) plus a touch or two of Calvin (of C & H).

On the plus side, I used to suffer from low blood pressure just about all my life but it is completely within the normal range these days, especially in the morning when I have to get her ready for school.

Mana,

Ha! This post made my morning. We've got a budding Anne with an e at our house too. We took a family vacation to PEI this summer. The other day DD6 said, "You know mom, you're kinda like Marilla. Sometimes she's tough but really she's nice."

And here I was thinking my whole life that I was Anne. At least she didn't call me Mrs. Lind.

DS not-quite-4 has given me quite a bit of fodder lately. Here are a few that have stood out:

1. At a funeral last week, he worked the room at the reception by shaking hands with other attendees, making introductions, and offering condolences. At one point, he approached a group of elderly ladies who looked sad, introduced himself, and said, "I'm so sorry for your loss. How did you and [deceased friend] know each other?" He also referred to the armed guard at the interment as, "appropriate and tasteful". LOL!

2. We are a political family and have been campaigning for a local candidate for the upcoming federal election. DS has helped install lawn signs and will personally go up to homeowners and shake their hand to thank them for supporting [candidate's] campaign. He keeps track of our opponents' lawn sign count near us and has made some insightful comments about different neighborhoods' political leanings.

3. This morning, DS was enacting a military training and defense mission with his toys. I asked which sides were fighting and he replied, "it's a Canadian anti-terrorist mission in Syria." He seems to understand some of the dynamics among Russia, Syria, and Iran.

4. While painting some Halloween sun catchers yesterday, DS decided to paint his vampire's tie with a "marbled effect" and he sprinkled red paint over the vampire's face to represent arterial blood spatter.

I have not been to PEI and it's on my bucket list. Did your family enjoy the trip?

I'm afraid on DD thinks of me as her Diana on good days and Mrs. Lind on bad days.