This morning within the same five-minute period Claudia told me that:

— I needed to brush up on contemporary slang (her contemporaries’, about whom I had to break it to her were not my focus group for popularity)

— She had promised the gods that she would make a “large sacrifice” on her thirteenth birthday. (Of meat.) I found from numerous sources that even by the time of Homer, Greeks were not making sacrifices of prime cuts of meat to gods, who can’t eat, and were just wrapping fat around bone. I figure if she’s the one making the sacrifice, she should do that part.

Academic work has been schoolish, and Tuck has determined that the math they are doing now is the type of math where you’re expected to work with a calculator as well as your brain. This will be interesting — it will to Béla, anyway. Claudia is still quite good at math but has standard math anxiety. She has been doing some outlining and research for the NJCL Creative Writing Contest, although the idea of the theme she had to stick to (which is very broad indeed, and one she might easily have just met by accident) made our suggestions about how she might (or not!) achieve it sound like this Mitchell and Webb skit:

We also watched The Dig, which is based on the recovery of the Sutton Hoo treasures (which you can see in the virtual gallery of the British Museum). It was very exciting to see the archaeologists realize that they had found Anglo-Saxon items, not Viking, and is just the kind of thing that makes historical moments stick in a kid’s mind (for Quizzo as an adult).

Not surprisingly, science carries on and makes me feel really good about the choices I’ve allowed for my children — and has contributed to how close we have become. There is simply no one like the four of us (well, I can think of one family that’s kinda close) and I’m so happy with our relationships and trust. There is a sense of strength and family I have never experienced before, and to see my kids decide on their own that anger and power struggles aren’t worth hurting relationships for — and really starting to acknowledge their love for each other — is worth everything. I truly feel like I have made significant successes as a mother, and am appreciated and understood.

Now be brave and don’t be an oldster thinker! NO you don’t need to start working before ten in the morning if you don’t wanna — if, of course, you’re confident enough to work the way that works best for you.