Quinn's Creative writing

Previously we posted Quinn's creative writing... well her current job is an author. The requirements for this job were:

1. To create a first draft (which she already did on paper).
2. Transcribe it into a word processor
3. Respond to an editor (daddy) and make corrections
4. Post it to this blog

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Yellowstone’s story

I was sitting on a bench waiting for someone to need a hero. Suddenly, Yellowstone heard a car crash. BOOM! A baby cry, WAA! Then she was there, yes, Red Scarlet and her crew: Mia Moonstone, Sophie Sapphire, Strawberry Ruby, and the one and only boy Ethan Emerald.  “Come on,” Red Scarlet demanded, “she’s right there.” You see Red Scarlet needed Yellowstone because she needed one more person on her team. But Yellowstone said “NO!” Red Scarlet was furious! Then Red Scarlet said, “If you’re not with us you’re against us.” Then the fight began.  Yellowstone shot a lighting bolt; Red Scarlet shot fire. Red Scarlet’s crew said, “Why are we fighting?” Red Scarlet said to join in, but they went with Yellowstone. “With me!” she wailed. Then they ran over to Red Scarlet’s side, but it was to late. She was defeated.  Do you think that Red Scarlet learned her lesson? NO! In fact, she still robbed banks and took jewels. Meanwhile, Yellowstone was earning medals and trying to find a way to keep Red Scarlet in jail for good.  Finally, Red Scarlet was caught and was permanently in jail. Yellowstone earned her 155^th medal and, as for Red Scarlet’s crew, they became Yellowstone’s crew. And This All Happened At The Park!

Thinking about what you are thinking about

Profoundly deep thoughts from a 7-yr old: (context she is reading a book about magic, and the next chapter is about "reading minds". I tell her she could always ask me what I'm thinking, and I'll tell her). Quinn then tells me that whatever I'd say next, I'd be lying.... because I'd be thinking about what I was thinking about, so any response other than "I'm thinking about what I was thinking about" is untrue... and because of that I couldn't actually tell her what I was thinking about  originally, therefore my original statement , about just ask me , was also a lie.

*face palm*, oye vay.

Start of the Landmark Forum for Young People

So today was the start of Landmark Forum for Young People for Quinn.

Because she is only 7, and the usual age limit is 8, they have an entrance interview. The forum leader asked Quinn is she felt like she was able to fail.

"Sometimes" replied Quinn.

"When do you feel like you can fail, and when do you feel like you can't fail?"

"I can fail when I'm taking a test or something. I can't fail when I'm climbing a 12 foot pole."

The leader hands her her nametag, clearly ready for the day :)

Then she asks "Are you sure that you are 7"

Quinn's creative writing: Yellowstone's storty

On her own, without prompt, direction or assignment; Here is a story from Quinn.  I'm (Daddy) retyping this leaving the spelling and punctuation as she wrote it. She also wants it to be known that this is her first draft.

/////// Yellowstone's story ///////
I was sitting on a bench watting (waiting) for someone to need a hero. Suddenly Yellowstone herd (heard) a car crash. BOOM! A baby cry. WAA! Then she was there. There was Red Scarlet and her crew. Mia Moonstone, Sophie Sapphire, Strawberry, Ruby, and the one and only boy Ethan Emerald. Come on she demandid (demanded). She's rite (right) there said Red Scarlet. You see Red Scarlet needed Yellowstone becuase (because) she needed one more person on her team. But Yellowstone said NO! Red Scarlet was furious! She said if you are not with me you are against me and then the fight began. Yellowstone shot a lighting (lightning)  bolt. Red Scarlet shot a fire ball. Red Scarlet's crew said why are we fighting. Red Scarlet said join in and the crew joined in with Yellowstone. With me she screamed! Then they ran over to Red Scarlets side. But it was to (too) late. She was defeated. Do you think that Red Scarlet leaned (learned) her lesson? NO! In fact she still robed (robbed) banks and took jews (jewels). Mean while Yellowstone was erning (earning) melals (medals) and tiring (trying) to find a way to keep her in jail for good. Fialy (Finally) got her in jail for good and Yellowstone earned her 155 (155th) mela (medal) and as for her crew they became Yellowstone's crew.

Quinn's Quick thinking

So we had a playdate with Kiernan and Layla. Layla is about 20 month old. We were out by the pool eating dinner, and Quinn happened to swing the pool gate open really quickly, nearly hitting Layla. So we cautioned Quinn to be careful and close the door slowly.

Later that evening, Quinn was really excited to head to the pool, but the parents weren't ready. She had opened the gate, ready to run out, and we told her to close it. She wasn't listening, so we started the countdown from 5 for her to close the gate. We got all the way to zero and the gate wasn't all the way closed.

As I went up to her to extract her from the activities and send her to bed, she said, in the softest voice, that she was closing the door slowly like we had asked. She's got some quick thinking skills going on.

Swimming at Popo's

Quinn and Brock came swimming at my complex. I explained that you had to be 16 to be able to go to the pool without an adult.  Quinn says, ” If you have a one year old and a six year old, would that work?”  Always thinking outside the box.  What a kid!

Turning 7

Lots going on around Quinn's Birthday. First the cool parts. We had a Pippi Longstocking themed double party. It included the show at Main Street Theatre, a backstage tour, and meet Pippi. We created Pippi cookies with vanilla wafers and red shoe string licorice. Then, the same day, we had a pool party with Pippi brownies. We were able to use the new water slide that Popo got Quinn for her birthday. You can tell that Quinn is growing. She has been eating an incredible amount. Like we would go to dinner, she would eat a normal amount of pizza, then 2 hrs later would be famished and eat 4 waffles. (2 is her usual breakfast amount). But with this growth, I don't think her hormones are able to keep up. She has incredible mood swings, with the smallest of triggers. Not getting her waffles made fast enough leads to a response of "You hate me". The slightest provocation from Brock leads to a screaming fit. I really hope she balances out soon.

Camping

Quinn's first time tent camping was today at the Kolter campout.

We (Q and Daddy) slept in the Kolter Elementary prairie in a 4 person tent we borrowed from friend Lisa Livingston.

We slept adjacent to her "best buddy" Lucy, whose dad happens to snore. Next time we will leave much more space between our neighbors.

Q loved that the tent had a ceiling window and we were literally sleeping under the stars. The look she gave me before falling asleep, makes it all worth it!

She had no prob falling asleep, even though the temp dropped to 53 degrees by 1 am.

We were decently prepared, though I should have opted for the full air mattress, instead of just the camping pads. I'm glad that there was pizza, goldfish, ice cream, water and lemonade provided.

I even saw a wild animal :-). Apparently there is a stray cat that lives on our near campus. :-)

Quinn Loves Math

So we went to the HISD Career Fair this weekend (Quinn was a Career Consultant for her job, but that is a different story). One of the tables was a Math table. It wasn't really a career, just a "Math is cool" table.

At this table there was a wide range of math problems. Quinn impressed the facilitator.  Totally on her own and without prodding she spent about 30 minutes doing math brain teasers, most of which were "above her grade."

Some of the problems that she solved, with minimal coaching really about what the problem was asking, not the math part of it.... were

• A 3x3 grid of squares, where you count the number of squares (14 is the answer)
• Drawing a single continuous line without backtracking to draw a shape
• Solving the algebra problem for "A":   8-A = A
• There a 3 frogs. Frog A takes 7 hops. Frog B takes 5 hops less then Frog A. Frog C takes the same same number of hops as Frog A and Frog B together. How many hops did all of the frogs take. (18 is the answer)

The final problem was "on a computer game, Harry got 378 points and Devon got 1020 points. Harry got how many fewer points than Devon? 

Brock was ready to move on, but Quinn was pretty close to getting this using the math tricks that she had been learning.... 

And just for reference, she is still in the first grade. 

I'm responsible

Today was slightly chilly. I recommended to Quinn, who gets cold easily, that she might want to take her jacket. She refused. Later she said that she was cold. I offered her my sweater, but she said no, "I'm responsible". Proud parenting moment for me.

Officially sharing a room

Today starts the official sharing of Quinn's room for the kids. It was their choice. I'm expecting it to last at least a year or more. We'll see.

Outside the Box Thinker

I was teaching Quinn to play the solitaire game, Pyramid, where you lay the cards out in pyramid style: 1 at the top, 2in the next row, etc. till you have 7 cards along the bottom row. The goal is to disappear the pyramid by making 2 cards add up to 13. 5+8, 4+9, etc. I played once to show her how. She laid out the cards and played by herself (with some coaching from me) for the second game. On the third game she asked, "Can I use 3 cards?" There was a 7+5+1=13. In the many years I have played this game it never occurred to me to use more than the 2 cards to reach 13. I don't know if the rules say to use just 2 cards but I'm going to try it Quinn's way. It will add a whole new depth to the game! Oh, and she now knows immediately the numbers that add up to 13. :-)