Last week was the birthday of one of my managers (I have a ton of managers). Someone, a better friend to her than I, made cupcakes for her and decorated them, one letter per cupcake. Before I left work, she offered cupcakes to my kids. I stood there, staring down at the cupcakes. I needed three that were identical. Eye-Den-Tih-Cul. Finally, I found three "A" cupcakes. Score.
I present the cupcakes after dinner.
Connor: I got an A.
Emily: I got an A.
Ethan: I got an A!
Yes! Avoiding the annoyance. Now, let me be clear, had I not been able to find matching cupcakes, I'd have told them to just deal. That or they could all lose the cupcakes. Whatever. I don't deal with that crap. But! Why have to even tell them to deal if I can avoid it? So! Thirty seconds later:
Connor: I have a V! (Listen, I'm not going to explain how this happened. You can figure this out and I will not belittle you.)
Emily AND Ethan: What??? I have an A! How did you get a V? I want a V! (What??? You want a V? What the hell for? WHY?!?!) Can I have a V instead? Why does he get a V and we both have A's?
Connor sat there and snickered. I glared at them. I told them I was not explaining it to them, either. If they couldn't figure it out, they deserved the A's.
Emily and Ethan are playing, Emily holding her stuffed monkey Ookie (oo-key).
Ethan: Hi, Oakie!
Emily: I'm OOOHkie!
Ethan (because that kid's quick on his feet): I'm British!
Also? Connor should totally be an architectural engineer, yo.
Kids, at least in our area, are encouraged to write organically. That is to say without pesticides. Or maybe it means that they write out words as they think they should be spelled, concentrating on getting their ideas on paper rather than worrying about spelling and sentence structure. (Those requirements happen, just at a time when it won't squash the creativity.) It certainly leads to interesting reading, and, if nothing else, trains you to read lolcats.
An excerpt from Emily's past writing:
Rabits look for food wen its trneyn n to wintr. rabts breng thet food in to ther borows. You fiynd them sumtiyms. Rabits are sumtiyms hormlis krechrs but rabits arret owes hormlis krechrs. Rabits are fiyn if you be kerfol. Duks. Duks fliy sawth for the wintr thay riley dount like the cold thay hayt the cold it is bad for them.
A question then presents itself. Exactly what must one avoid doing to keep those damn rabbits from going on a rampage?
