Maybe you've guessed it, maybe you've not...too bad.

While my days on campus are very quiet and I am able to get quite a lot of focused reading and writing in, I also tend to feel rather nervous about going to class while also feeling guilty about not being home with my kids. It's complicated, I know.

But, I always leave them with a long list of things to do and they do just fine with Daddy at home. 

My favourite part is when they email me (or text me or send a discord message of) little bits of assignments, to prove to me that they're doing their assigned work. 

Today I asked them to read some Halloween poems (their choice) and then to revisit their Halloween poems from last week to see if they wanted to revise their poem or perhaps write a new poem. 

Inspired by Phoebe's relationship with her pumpkins, Zoë wrote this poem. To give you context, Phoebe has been sleeping with not one but two pumpkins every night for weeks now. She carries them around and plays with them all day, pretends to feed them, takes them outside with her, drags them back inside, brings them in the van when we go out, reads them stories. It's...it's a lot. So read this poem knowing that we tuck in Phoebe and her gourds every night:

My best friend’s suit is bright orange, but has no tie at all

His nose is always yellow, and always set aglow.

His eyes are cozy triangles; but do not bring him in bed—

He’s round and hard and lumpy, as everyone has said.

Maybe you’ve guessed it, maybe you’ve not, but…

My best friend’s a pumpkin, and he’s the only friend I’ve got!

The attention to meter and rhyme is spectacular. There are a few places where the language could be tweaked, but overall I was so impressed that I thought for sure she had pulled out a mentor poem and simply adapted it. But evidently this was all her work.

Now, Alexander was looking around for inspiration and found it while looking over Zoë's shoulder. 

This is the poem he wrote:

My best friends suit is clear with bones painted on 

he has a very pale face and nose he has black eyes

if you guessed skeleton its correct if you didn’t too bad 

And I just...I am astounded. Honestly? Ten out of ten would read again. 

If you ever were wondering what it's like to raise children, it's basically like starting from scratch with each one. They are all so different. 

Zoë loves big words and imagery. She's always spouting off elegant, eloquent metaphors. Alexander is learning to enjoy writing, but when I tell you that Alexander is the most literal child on the face of the planet, I mean...this: "if you guessed skeleton, it's correct; if you didn't, too bad."

(edited to add: There was a large crash just now. Andrew and I raced from our respective offices to see what was the matter. Alexander had fallen out of bed (or so we surmised). He was 100% asleep on the floor though. He didn't even wake up and probably won't even know he fell out of bed at all.)