Friday 25 June 2010

Kids, Summer 2026

Round 27: Summer 2026

Principal Tatiana Lachance is 43, Pamela Gray is 41 and Finn Romilly is 25.
Students: Chris Draper, Lucy Gray and Edward Lachance are all 11, Oliver and Sebastian Gentry are both 10, Anthony and Veronica Moretti are both 9, Noah Gottlieb and Adelaide Sitko are both 8, Mitchell Carmody is 7, Eddie and Louisa Gentry, Jessica Royce-Nihill, Emma Gottlieb and Timothy Lane are all 6 and Austin and Lauren Carmody, Justin and Xavier Moretti and Declan Romilly are all 5.

This update is going to be a little bit more commentary-style than usual. The game was not co-operating for this and I ended up playing the school over 3 or 4 sessions. So it all got a little disjointed but hopefully, you can still enjoy some cute pictures!

As there are no pre-schoolers this year, Pamela Gray will be teaching kindergarten, while Tatiana keeps the Grade 1s and 2s.

Luckily, they're a nice bunch of kids. Seriously, Pamela is the only teacher who doesn't have any complete brats in her class!

Declan often sits by himself in class but he doesn't mind.

Kindergarten is serious business and Declan has work to do!

None of his classmates are quite so serious. Austin and Justin are forging a fast friendship.

Xavier seems quite taken with Lauren. Signs of future romance? I guess we'll have to wait about ten years to find out!

Serious or not, all the kindergartners enjoy story time!

Tatiana has a few firecrackers in her class but thankfully, they're all busy at their easels.

The hard work is paying off because for once, the students actually finish their work in the allotted time. There's definitely a difference in ability among these kids.

But Tatiana is sure to praise all the children for their creations, not just the prodigies.

The most important thing to Tatiana is that the kids enjoy their classes and get along with their classmates.

Finn's Grade 3-6 class is hard at work on their creative writing assignment.

Not that they're all happy about it.

It figures Veronica and Adelaide would be the ones who actually seem incensed at the idea of doing work at school.

Finn's onto them though and both girls make sure they're on task when their teacher passes by.

At lunch time, Xavier spends most of his time talking to his new favourite person, Lauren, while his omelette gets cold on his plate in front of him.

Lauren is a very sweet girl (10 nice points!), so it's not surprising Xavier is so enchanted with her. Apparently, not everyone is though!

In general though, Lauren is quite popular with her classmates.

Never a moment's peace, even at lunch time!

Mitchell and Austin should probably fill up now, especially if their dad is cooking dinner tonight!

Jessica is going off on some sort of tangent about bugs.

Or maybe birds. Louisa's not really listening, not that's preventing Jessica from talking.

After lunch, it's time for kindergarten to participate in their first PE class in the gym. With Pamela's help, Declan gives boxing a go.

The other kids are more into basketball.

Austin and Lauren are finding it's a slightly frustrating game, when the hoop is so far above your head!
Austin isn't the persistent type and he gives up on the game pretty quickly.

Unfortunately for Austin, Justin takes this as a sign that Austin is terribly interested in hearing him talk about the sumo wrestling match he saw on TV.

He's not, but 5 year-olds aren't generally great at picking up on these sorts of social cues.

Lauren is still plugging away at basketball, despite Xavier attempting to throw her off with some taunts. Light-hearted taunts, because Xavier's a nice boy!

Lauren's still not having much luck though. Maybe she just needs a couple of extra inches before she can finally sink that ball through the net.

Yep, sorry, you guys are all going to have to walk home in that now. Blame the evil witch. I just figured out that she is the culprit of the constant rain I get every time I play the primary school (she doesn't show up much on my high school lot, for some reason).

Notes:
  • Way back when I downloaded Inge's school stuff set, I'd read that a serious Sim would be better at classroom control (ie. keeping the kids on task!) than a more playful Sim. I don't have many serious Sims, so I haven't got to try it out until now. Game play wise, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference though. The kids were still climbing out of their seats every 5 seconds in Finn's class, just as they do in Tatiana's. Has anyone ever got a kid to finish one of those booklets at their playable schools?
  • Finn kept rolling wants for Victoria while he was at work. So cute. I had put some family pictures up on Finn's desk but with the crashing, I lost them. I'll have to go in and put them in again. I like the teachers to have some personal effects in their classrooms.
  • Timothy was disgusted by Lauren's eating habits. He's a neat freak like his dad Eliot.
  • The kids were too cute playing basketball. They all sucked at it, even though Declan and Justin have both maxed out their body points (they had the want to study Physiology). It's kind of realistic that 5 year-olds wouldn't be any good at basketball though, so I was amused.

15 comments:

  1. Where to begin! Your grade schoolers are super adorable and so unique from one another. Declan was way too cute studying in his chair.

    The stick figures to the firefly jar was great! haha, where did you get that download that kids paint appropriate pictures? After that, I think I want to download it.

    Veronica and Adelaide were definitely wearing some sour faces about schoolwork, and I LOVED the basketball shots! A few more inches, they should have better luck with that.

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  2. Haha, Declan is soooo a future Finn! He's adorable! Gosh, all of the Gentry kids are super cute!

    Heehee, Xavier's first love! How cute!

    And ditto to Maisie's comment, I like how you have different paintings, the regular ones get so boring!

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  3. Aww, I loved this update. Yes, Declan has Finn written all over him and the different paintings were a nice touch, as was Finn's cute little sportswear. I might have to download that...especially if there is a matching adult one.

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  4. Thanks for your comments everyone!

    Maisie, they are a pretty cute bunch, aren't they?

    The easel is by AnoeskaB at TSR. You can get it here. Children have a special option to paint child paintings. Timothy and Emma's are both child paintings but I'm not positive about Eddie's - that might be a more advanced child painting, as I've never seen my adults paint it.

    Veronica and Adelaide are sourpusses in general. Finn just got rid of Elspeth and then he gets these two charmers in his class!

    Tessa, Declan is very much like Finn, in looks and apparently personality too!

    I shall be watching Xavier and Lauren very closely now. ;)

    You know that you can add your own images into the Paintings folder for more variety, right? They can't paint the extra ones until they have enough creativity for the Custom... option but it's fun to have a bunch of different ones in there.

    Apple Valley, glad you liked it!

    I thought Declan's gym wear was by yagami-sama at TSR (link is in the child CC clothing post) but I'm looking through her stuff now and I can't see it any more. :\

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  5. Could Declan be any cuter?! I don't think so :)

    I've never seen any kid finish their grade work booklet. They jump up from their seats all the time. Even when their fun bar is full which is pretty stupid.

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  6. Declan is so adorable! He's already a little Finn. :)

    My students never finish those books either. They always get up and wander around the room until Zane puts them back to work. I just torture them into working until the classtime is over and don't worry about whether they ever finish anymore.

    Thanks for the link to that easel! I was getting tired of all my kids painting the exact same picture during art class because their skills were too low to paint anything else.

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  7. Aww what a cute update! And I love all their active wear. I'll have to check out your cc post to see if I can go snag those. I know I'm seriously lacking in active wear for kids. I see Declan is all business when it comes to school. He's such a cutie pie, but so is everyone else. And so cute that Xavier is taken with Lauren. It seems like so long to wait until any romancing will be happening with them. But maybe that's a good thing as some sims go a little nuts LOL.

    I have those easels and I forgot they had that option for the kids paintings. I'll have to remember that. The few sim kids I have paint autonomously and they don't choose the kids painting, I don't think.

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  8. So many cute kids! i have to snag that easel, those pictures were so cute! And I agree with everyone else, Declan is Finn in the making!

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  9. So many kids! I keep wondering how you do it!! But they are all so sweet.
    I LOVE Declan!! He's such a cute boy!

    I have the evil witch!! She come to almost all of my community lots, especially when it's summer and I need some nice summer shots, without rain!!

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  10. Oh, haha, I just remembered that, thanks! I've gotten students to finish it before, it just takes a couple of hours, in which the teacher has to "help with work" a little for each student... after that, they get about 200% done and such, it's insane!

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  11. Sari, I don't think so either! I think Declan is one of the cutest kids I've ever had in my game.

    I'm glad it's not just me with those grade work booklets. That's why I hardly ever use them! Making them skill is more useful anyway.

    Shana, I can't wait to see how Declan turns out as he gets older but at the same time, I think I'll miss him as a child. He's so damn adorable!

    You're more patient than I am! I just make them do it long enough for me to get some good pictures and then give up!

    And you're welcome.

    Danielle, I'm pretty short on kids' active wear myself, honestly. Creators don't seem very interested in filling this enormous gap, for some reason.

    Yeah, I guess it'll be about 10 years before we see Xavier and Lauren as teens. I don't think they're even friends yet, so their relationship has a way to go!

    I'd never seen my Sims choose the child painting option autonomously but one of the Gentry boys did it at lunch time during this session. So they can choose it but for some reason, they often don't.

    Mizzgin03, a few too many kids, I think! I keep checking my enrollment list to see if I'm getting any relief soon. Answer: no. No, I am not. ;)

    Tanja, I mostly ignore the kids I'm not focusing on, which lets me hold on to the last shreds of my sanity. ;)

    Yes, you see, I can cope with the good witch but the evil witch brings roaches and rain. I do not want roaches and rain.

    Tessa, oh, crazy! I don't think the "help with work" option ever does anything in my game. It seems to just fall out of queue.

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  12. I played a lot with Inge's School stuff and if I remember right, it depends on the teacher's fun if the kids behave or not. If teacher's fun is red = bad mood, then the students know that they better behave.

    Astrid

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  13. Astrid, ah, that's another interesting theory! It would make sense too because my Sims' fun is rarely red at school.

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  14. I asked Inge once about the school books over at Simlogical when I was figuring it out and putting together my little tutorial.

    It depends on quite a few factors. First off, the relationship of the teacher to the students-- it a teacher is friends with the students, they're less likely to work. If the teacher is in too good a mood, the students are less likely to listen to them and will get up. AND of course the personality of the sim.

    I only put the classwork books in my high school, and the only student I didn't have trouble with was Ily who worked and worked until I told her she could stop, lol. Little over achiever! But she's ultra serious, and had no relationship with Sam, the teacher.

    I found out from Ily that the books never end. Students can actually get, like, extra credit or something. Ily got to 103% complete before I gave her the okay to move on.


    Ah, this makes me miss my TS2 schools!

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  15. Lunar, ah, thank you! So it's a combination of things. The relationship thing explains why Elspeth was such a little brat with Finn. Most of my siblings in the game are 100/100, at least by the time they get to late childhood.

    I miss your TS2 school as well! When you mentioned Ily, it all came flooding back to me and I started thinking about Gabe and Alberta! :)

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