Two in two days: DD10 and I were talking in the car:

DD10: I can't believe I can't wait for school to end.
Me: That's usual this time of year. You are usually sick of _____ by this time.
DD10: No but this time its because I am bored with the schoolwork. Oh NO!...I am becoming more like a normal person...AAAAAHHH!
Me: Don't worry. For some reason, I just don't think that will ever happen.

--Why we are homeschooling next year--

DD4.5 asked me three major questions yesterday:
1. What is prison and why are some people sent to prison?
2. What does believing in God really mean?
3. What are fractals (she heard it in the Let it Go song)
I think I did a lousy job on #2 but answered the other two with simple 2-line explanation. This morning, when we are in the car, she looks out and exclaims," Oh, now I get it. Look how the tree outside is just a Y fractal. Each part looks like a Y and joins together to make the whole tree look like a Y." I was super impressed with how she took a basic definition and found a concrete example to understand it on her own. Another quip from her (because it was bitter cold this morning),"Spring is just summer without sun and Fall is just winter without snow."

Trying to put DD2 to sleep last night, this happened:

DD: I need my zombie. (struggles to get up)
Me: What?
DD: I need. My zombie.

I let her get up and she comes back with a naked dollar-store Barbie with no arms and no head.

DD: This my zombie.

LOL!

I read a book on Abraham Lincoln to DD4.5 yesterday. The book mentioned his famous Gettysburg speech and the line "All men are created equal." After we finished the book,DD asked me," Mom, why did he say all men and not all people. Was it back in the time when men believed that women were not equal to them." So we spent another 10 minutes talking about women's right and equality.

PS. We had read a book on Amelia Earhart a few weeks ago so she was aware of the women's rights movement.
PPS. For some reason, she loves biography. She picks them out at the Library. I OTOH have never found biographies interesting so this is all very exciting and new for me as well.

I homeschool DS8 in the morning and he goes to brick-and-mortar school in the afternoon. When I dropped him off today he said,

"Farewell to all, for I am about to enter a dreaded world."

It sounds lugubrious but it was actually pretty comical because of the tone of his voice (think medieval monarchy). It cracked me up.

Ha! You reminded me of how DS6 recently exclaimed, before he did a crazy jump off the high dive, "Painful convulsions!"

Ha ha! DD6, who has been watching too much Pride & Prejudice, walks around the house saying "Insufferable man!," "You delight in vexing me!," and "You have no compassion for my poor nerves!"

Oh, and I should mention, our in-depth discussions of character and motivation alternate with the game of watching for horsie butts.

A few days ago, I was preparing DS2.5 to go to the park with DH when DS began to deliberate out loud how to negotiate sharing his toys with other children. (NB: A few days prior, DH had reiterated to DS the importance of being gentle with other children, as DS is quite a strong and physical child. He has taken to referring to his age-mates as "weak babies"...his cringe-worthy choice of words.)

This is what DS had to say:

Mummy, if a weak baby wants to share my shovel and says ( DS raises his voice to a falsetto ), "DS, may I please use your shovel?" I will say, "Yes, weak baby, you may. I would be delighted to share my shovel with you. Would you like to play with me?"

But if the weak baby doesn't ask nicely, I will say, "No, weak baby, you may not use my shovel. I'm busy using it." If the weak baby tries to snatch it from me, I will say, "Excuse me, weak baby. You're crowding me. Please step back."

If the weak baby still keeps grabbing my shovel, I will get Daddy and he will say ( DS lowers his voice to impersonate DH), "Weak baby, please give that shovel back to DS." And he will look at the weak baby's parent to get them to make the weak baby give it back to me.

Me: It sounds like you have your plan all figured out. So you'll only play with polite children?

DS: Yes.

Me: I think that's a good policy.