What are they doing now? Spring 2013! - Page 2

[pranava]

Just wanted to say how much I enjoy reading about the amazing independent confident teens you all have parented.  I wish my guy could stay litlle forever, but you make me look forward to the amazing adolescent he will become.  Thanks for sharing!

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by moominmamma 

What about the debit card thing? Are kids usually well into their teens before getting one?

Just thought I'd follow up on my own questions, as I recently spent a week and a half in the US. Now I get it: you Americans use cash and credit cards a lot more than we Canadians. In Canada I would say that a significant majority of day-to-day purchases are made with debit cards. Anything more than about $5, especially if made by someone under 40, is likely to be a debit purchase. I think I'm fairly typical as a Canadian consumer: I do a lot of small shopping errands in the course of a week, and yet a $10 bill in my wallet can stay there for several weeks without being needed. People use debit for everything here. Credit cards to an extent too, but mostly debit and much less often cash. That's why the kids get debit cards so young: they really are the default purchasing mode here. In the US we found a lot of places that took CC's but not debit, and saw a lot more people using cash.

Miranda

[TinyMama]

I just want to say a huge THANK YOU to whomever it was who called the Rainbow Fairies a "gateway drug."  I confess, I was a bit nervous about the length of time DD spent reading this stupid series--basically from age 3 to age 4.5--but she is now almost 6 and is voraciously reading Harry Potter.  DH is actually annoyed with her, because they are supposedly reading them together, but every night DD says, "Well, Daddy, I was reading ahead this afternoon..."  :)

She is also very nervous about her upcoming birthday, because she thinks it will now be clear to everyone in her first grade that she is a year younger than the rest of them.  I'm trying to encourage her to be nonchalant about it, but I'm not sure that's going to happen.  She's such an anxious kid already...this is really concerning to her lately.  

Her birthday party has the theme of "States and Caps."  She has spent weeks preparing for it--we have BINGO (caps on the cards, states in the bowl), Twister (state outlines on each spot), Headbands (except with state cards), blank outline maps, and completely blank maps.  It's primarily a family party, so she'll have plenty of adults to play these games with her.  I think she does know that most first graders don't know this stuff, because when I offered to invite a few school friends, she said, "No."  Wish I could tell her that eventually they'll be interested in this stuff, but honestly, I'm not either!

[KaliShanti]

TinyMama, your DD sounds lovely! What a great idea for the party- my DS turned 6 yesterday and he would have LOVED to attend States and Capitals party!

Yesterday was my DS's 6th birthday. :) He celebrated by going to a K-12 USCF chess tournament, winning every game and getting 1st place, lol. He was the youngest by several years in the "advanced" category (over 500 rating). Here he is with his proud siblings.

Playing the highest rated player.