I was showing a neighbor a pen (it happens a lot these days!) and mentioned the reason I use a subtle grid paper is because I like writing in different orientations, so lines are limiting, while a blank page doesn’t guide me enough and my writing becomes inconsistent and difficult to transcribe later.
Okay, next morning, Clover is sitting, um, “next” to me on the couch. Sometimes on me, sometimes on the couch, sometimes over there, sometimes just a single foot on the couch.
m: Clover, do you need this pillow to help you sit on the couch.
C: No, I need room. I’m like how you write on paper, but on couches.
I immediately knew what e meant, it’s so funny! Our minds map reality in interesting ways.
Wow, Clover is going through a phase that I really love! Ran out here and said:
C: maiki, I know what my destiny is! I’m going to be a cancer researcher! m’s jaw goes slack due to rapid heart swelling.
m: That’s awesome!
C: They say it’s hard, but I’m like, ‘I can do hard work!’
We are searching for stuff in a book. Clover is reading the lists, and sometimes words are new or in a weird typeface. So, while reading a list of items to me…
Clover: “…and a cow holding a ball.”
maiki:
m: A cow holding a ball? That says a clown.
C: Oh, ha! That makes so much more sense!
m: Does it though?
C: Yeah, why would a cow have a ball, maiki?
Clover: Are teenagers allowed to cross the street by themselves?
maiki: Yes.
C: But they’re kids!
m: Mmm-hmmm.
C: What is a teenager?
m:
m: Someone whose age ends in, “teen”.
C:
C: What about the, “-ager”?
Clover: That car is like Cindy’s, but blue! You know how I can tell?
maiki: How?
C: The belly button dash is the same!
m: …
C: You know… the belly button dash…
m: I’m afraid I don’t understand. Do you have an example? C begins squinting at cars.
C: Not there, not there… that one!
Clover pointed at the Toyota emblem on the grill of a car. Its belly button dash.
Yesterday our friend was explaining how e pierced eir own nose, with a nail, a clamp, and a phone receiver as a hammer. The accompanying pantomime included reaching over and “picking up” a phone from a hook. It was a gnarly story, one which we promptly discussed:
Clover: Wow, I didn’t think a phone could hammer in a nail like that! It was a good thing they didn’t crack it.
maiki: Oh, I don’t think it was a mobile device. It was a bigger phone like…
maiki thinks of examples of pay phones or any heavy phone handset, and apparently comes up blank.
Clover: Like a only-makes-phones-calls-phone? Like our home phone, but bigger?
maiki laughs too hard to respond for several seconds, though eventually does so in the affirmative.
Our charter school gave Clover the cool dice! I discovered a variant while trying to teach C strategy: we try for the highest points possible, with C making all the rolls and me advising and explaining my logic. Our 6*6 tables are gonna be off the hook!
