Sixth grade drop out

When I picked Kate up from school she was (yet, again) grumpy about school and how much homework she had.  She declared, "I'm done with school.  I know enough.  I can make a living with what I know."

She can make a living!?

It cracked me up.  She just turned 12, and part of her "I hate school" rant includes that she's already equipped to make a living.

I talked to her a little about it and she started to tell me about how much she knows in each subject, and I had to concede that she probably did know as much as, probably more than, a good number of adults in every subject she covered.  The kid can honestly write better than Dave, and he's a doctor!  And her math is up to par with what both Dave and I remember.  She absolutely knows more geography than I do...

I guess she can quit school.

I explained that she could possibly make a living with what she knows (if there weren't child labor laws) and she could survive in the real world.  But we want her to do more than survive; we want her thrive.  And going to school has to do with a lot more than learning facts, it's learning to think and learning to get along with others, etc. 

So, maybe we'll have her go another few days.

Slimy putty

Anna cracks me up.

Tonight we were making slime and putty.  Kate decided one of the batches she made was too much firm to be slime, but too runny to be putty.  She decided she'd call it "slutty."  She wanted to start making this new "slutty" because it was an interesting consistency.

I couldn't let it go on.

"Kate," I asked her, "do you know what 'slutty' means?  It's a kind of mean way to say that someone has sex with a lot of people."

"Oh," she said, "Okay.  I'll call it 'pimey,' then."

"Kate," Anna said, "do you know what 'piney' means?"

Kate and I both looked at her, and she kind of smirked.

All the monkeys for Dave's birthday meal last week.

7 1/2, health-kick style

These two turned 7 1/2.  Unfortunately, they didn't get the traditional half-cake, or even the mom-is-being-lazy half donut they got last year.  This year, because their mother is on an extreme-even-for-her no sugar, no grain health-kick for the family, they got a half-stack of paleo almond meal waffles with fresh fruit and whipped coconut cream sweetened only with raw honey.

Poor kids.

Luckily, they loved them.