kids

They arrived home again to a most peculiar sight. The small garden at the front of the Banana House had been transformed. A tidal wave of cushions, beanbags, quilts, hearth rugs, and sleeping bags appeared to have swept up the lawn and broken at the wall. From Indigo's window a multicolored rope of knotted bedsheets came snaking out and ended among the cushions. As Micheal and Caddy watched, a mattress emerged and fell to the ground, followed by a rain of pillows."Indigo!" shouted Caddy, jumping out of the car.Indigo's and Rose's heads appeared in the window above."It's all right, Caddy!" Indigo called cheerfully. "We've been doing it all the time you've been gone.""We keep finding more stuff to land on!" added Rose. "Look!

Kid 1: *examining my gorgeous strawberry and blueberry pies*: Wow, Mom, your pies don__ look awful this time.Me (Ilona): ...~A little later~Kid 2: *wandering into the kitchen*Kid 1: Hey, you__e got to see these pies. *opening the stove*Kid 2: Wow. They are not ugly this time.Kid 1: I know, right?

I can only drive slowly.""That's all right.""And I can only do left turns."Rose ran downstairs, grabbed a road atlas, and ran triumphantly back up again. "Wales is left! Look! It's left all the way!

I scoop a clattering cascade of green apple Jelly Bellys into the white paper bag and remember when we were seven. I got stung by a jellyfish. Tim cried because his mother, and mine, wouldn__ let him pee on my leg, which he__ heard was an antidote to the sting.

My parents raised me that you never ask people about their reproductive plans. __ou don__ know their situation,_ my mom would say. I considered it such an impolite question that for years I didn__ even ask myself. Thirty-five turned into forty faster than McDonald__ food turns into cold nonfood.

What if the kid you bullied at school, grew up, and turned out to be the only surgeon who could save your life?

I like eggs and bacon,_ George tells me. __ut___is face clouds___o you know that bacon is___ears leap to his eyes___ilbur?_ Mrs. Garrett sits down next to him immediately. __eorge, we__e been through this. Remember? Wilbur did not get made into bacon._ __hat__ right._ I bend down too as wetness overflows George__ lashes. __harlotte the spider saved him. He lived a long and happy life__ith Charlotte__ daughters, um, Nelly and Urania and__ __oy,_ Mrs. Garrett concludes. __ou, Samantha, are a keeper. I hope you don__ shoplift.__ start to cough. __o. Never._ __hen is bacon Babe, Mom? Is it Babe?___o, no, Babe__ still herding sheep. Bacon is not Babe. Bacon is only made from really mean pigs,George._ Mrs. Garrett strokes his hair, then brushes his tears away.__ad pigs,_ I clarify.__here are bad pigs?_ George looks nervous. Oops.__ell, pigs with, um, no soul._ That doesn__ sound good either. I cast around for a good explanation. __ike the animals that don__ talk in Narnia._ Dumb. George is four. Would he know Narnia yet? He__ still at Curious George.But understanding lights his face. __h. That__ okay then. __ause I really like bacon.

Spend time with your kids and try to answer all their questions, it will make your life challenging.

The children were overwhelmingly morbid. Not a single adult asked me where butterflies go when they die, but this question was more popular than pixie sticks with the under-four-foot set. I cursed parents for not preparing their children. When I was five, my mother and sister sat me up on the kitchen counter and explained the facts of life: the Easter Bunny didn't exist, Elijah was God's invisible friend, with any luck Nana would die soon, and if I ever saw a unicorn, I should kill it or catch it for cash. I turned out okay.

It's hard at times, but it makes a kid strong in ways that most people can't understand. Teaches them that even though people are left behind, new ones will inevitable take their place; that every place has something good - and bad - to offer. It makes a kid grow up fast.

Listen to the arts of kids, their hands when tied have wings.

It is a healthy approach not to expect persons to turn out precisely how you would have wished.

It isn't a coincidence that governments everywhere want to educate children. Government education, in turn, is supposed to be evidence of the state's goodness and its concern for our well-being. The real explanation is less flattering. If the government's propaganda can take root as children grow up, those kids will be no threat to the state apparatus. They'll fasten the chains to their own ankles.

Have faith that your child's brain is an evolving planet that rotates at its own speed. It will naturally be attracted to or repel certain subjects. Be patient. Just as there are ugly ducklings that turn into beautiful swans, there are rebellious kids and slow learners that turn into serious innovators and hardcore intellectuals.

I'm a Prince of Wales Trust ambassador, so I'm all about giving youth an education, a voice and a chance to not take the wrong road.

As adults we choose our own reading material. Depending on our moods and needs we might read the newspaper, a blockbuster novel, an academic article, a women's magazine, a comic, a children's book, or the latest book that just about everyone is reading. No one chastises us for our choice. No one says, 'That's too short for you to read.' No one says, 'That's too easy for you, put it back.' No one says 'You couldn't read that if you tried -- it's much too difficult.'Yet if we take a peek into classrooms, libraries, and bookshops we will notice that children's choices are often mocked, censured, and denied as valid by idiotic, interfering teachers, librarians, and parents. Choice is a personal matter that changes with experience, changes with mood, and changes with need. We should let it be.

Our children are only as brilliant as we allow them to be.

The father who has selflessly poured himself into the life of his children may leave no other monument than that of his children. But as for a life well lived, no other monument is necessary.