Signs of Readiness

My boys are sending me mixed messages, but thankfully, after 20 years of parenting, I am able to decipher their signals.

Yesterday, my 7 year old made the statement, "I want to do school." Using my keen mothering skills, I have decoded his subtly worded message. He really means, "I want to do school in September." It takes years of motherhood to achieve this level of intuitive understanding.

For instance, when both 10 and 7 year old boys picked up notebooks and pencils yesterday and began writing in their journals, I knew better than to jump to the conclusion that they are desiring some structure and stimulation. I'm not that naive! It's still summer for goodness sakes!!Still, they almost had me today when my 10 year old, after spending some quiet time on the computer, started pulling out pans, mirrors, paper and other items. He was trying to make a rainbow according to the instructions on the Magic School Bus website. Now, this is very tricky, but I know it was just subliminal suggestion causing him to do this. You see, I told him that we would be studying Magic School Bus books in our science curriculum this year, and that I had won a big lot of them on ebay last night. It's really not that he's excited and eager.

Really.