I think it is fair to say America is quite wild about the bumper sticker syndrome.  A brand new expensive car?  Get a sticker on it!  They seem to cover so much - little cartoon characters representing the members of a family, a bragging sticker about how great your kid is doing in school.  Political, social, what type of dog you like . . .all sorts.  And you often see the same ones over and over again. 

But yesterday I saw one which I read and even remembered.  It went something like this:-

'If going to church regularly makes you think you are a Christian, then does going to the garage make you a car?'

WTF?

My eldest two children finish school on Wednesday - then that is it for 10 weeks.  They have obviously been cleaning out their desks by the amount of papers they have been bringing home the last few days.

My daughter Bee (9) has brought home her composition book which as far as I can make out has entries based on titles given out every few days.  It makes quite fascinating reading and it seems the point of the exercise is free expression rather than correct spelling etc.  So here I give you a few of the entries (complete with errors.. . . )

PERFECT PARENT

I would like a parent like mine but just a few ajustments.  First of all a perfect parent would let me have a horse.  Second of all I could go to the stables any time I want to help out.  But apart from that they are perfect!!!

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HURRAY HOMEWORK

I know what would make homeowrk easy.  You should get a robot.  It should be any color you want it to be.  If I had one I would want it to be purple and green.  I would have a instent slot and a printer.  You put in the homework and it comes out done

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MY WORLD

If I were president of the USA lotso f things would be diffrent.  First of all I would say people have to send 1c a week to the nearest animal shelter.  They don't have to it would just be nice if they did.  Second people can't waste good food.  Insted you put them in a box labled poor and leave it on your door step and a truck comes and takes it to the shelter.  Vote Bee!

My children have now finished school for THE WHOLE OF SUMMER well until August 20th anyway.  So maybe I will need to blog more for sanity . . .we'll see.

Funny conversation just now.

Paddy (6) just brought me a cut out coupon to save a whole 2 dollars from some toy car thing.

Me:  But you don't really play with cars, do you?

Paddy:  Yes I do, I wash them in the sink

Me: Yes but that's not really what I meant -

Paddy:  Anyway I have decided I might be a car washer before I am an architect.

Me:  Oh, well there's an idea!!

Bee is writing stories a lot at the moment.  Very girly, usually a horse included and a sibling or two thrown in.  She asked if we had any blank cassettes she could have - to record herself reading her stories into the basic Fisher Price cassette player the younger kids have.  So we had as big search for ANY cassettes.  Plenty of Wiggles ones and nursery rhymes ones and some old (1990s?) Simply Red and George Michael - the sort that were so out of it that they were in a box at the back of a cupboard and not even missed.  We then found one with Bee's name on it.  When we played it it was from 2004 and it was just after we moved here and her Kindergarten assistant teacher was asking her a series of questions - they based her report card on this I seem to recall.  It was very much a blast from the past and it reminded me of the following:

1.  Despite being new to the class she was not at all shy.  When the teacher asked her what 2+8 was, Bee said 'I don't know!  I don't have 8 fingers, what do you think I am, an octopus?  Oh, yes, actually I do...'

2.  Bee didn't know her new address a week after we moved in here.  This didn't bother me in the slightest-  it had not even been a requirement in Georgia but here the teacher made a big song and dance about it - I remembered this as I listened to the tape

3.  I hated this school and we moved her as soon as we could

4.  I should record the kids more often on the 'old cassette' format.  Even in 3 years her voice has changed so much.

I often tell friends with new babies to pick a chair or some place and take regular photos of the child in the spot so you can see how they grow over time.  I must do the same in this sense.  I am going to write down what was asked of Bee and try it with Paddy seeing as he is at the same stage (but a different school thank Goodness).

I mentioned this to a friend the other week - I thought almost everyone knew about it but I dare say I was wrong.

It is updated every Sunday - I have the books too - fascinating social commentary.....

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