Well, school is done for the year and after one day of no lessons, my children have picked up learning on their own.  At the ripe old age of 7.5, Schuyler is expert at bossing around….uh…um…I mean carefully orchestrating the lives of her siblings.  This morning she has taken the book Plays for the Classroom from the shelf and is making her sister’s act out Androcles and the Lion.  In one dramatic line, she has Tabitha (3) ask, “Do you want to be a SLAVE?!?! To be OWNED like a DOG”.  Tabitha faithfully repeats the line, with all the emotion and fire of a soldier to die for his cause, followed by a low, defiant, “I wanna be a dog”.  Schuyler is mortified but manages to sputter, “There is no dog.  There is a lion and a soldier and YOU are the soldier.”  Tabitha just stares at her, dollar store light saber in one hand and pot lid, uh, I mean shield, in the other.

“Okay, let’s do it again for real, and remember, Tabi, there is NO dog.”

“But I have a tail.”

“That is your sword.”

“But it looks like a tail.”

“Okay, I will make you a new sword”.  Schuyler whispers in my ear as she walks past, “Mom, I don’t think Tabi gets this.”