4 -Times Everything!

If Jin and Sun learned anything about parenting quad children, it would be everything had to be equal and in supporting this equality, their pocket-book took a severe hit.  If one wanted a tablet, they all had to have a tablet.  If one wanted new clothes the rest had to have new clothes and if one didn’t get what others did, well. you can imagine the eruption it caused.  It’s not that the quads were spoiled or taking advantage of their parents wealth.  Oh no, for they had no concept of money or the ways wealth worked in a world.  No, it was simply that the island gave them very little to do and as such, their parents supplemented that with all their time, and well, their money.  It almost made them long for the toddler days, which they now referred to as, the easy years.

Putting that aside, as much as it was all true, each child had their own distinctive personality with their own individual wants as well, that reflected on none of the others. So while a tablet was a cool toy, a desire that matched their traits was all their own.  Jin and Sun had decided to toss out conventional schooling for their children.  Focusing on each child’s desires or what they seemed drawn to, as well as giving them the opportunity to learn from their parents’ own personal accomplishments.  Only the best equipment was purchased for them to learn these skills, with no expense spared.  They felt they were doing what was right for the children, learning from what they felt were mistakes, in raising Jade.

Jin focused on art, athletics and writing to teach the children.  Sun, added cooking and logic to their education.  The rest, they learn on their own; by reading and by doing.

Here are the quads:

Alexander Bell

Traits: virtuoso, animal lover, athletic
Favourite colour – dark purple

Alex is very much an introvert and prefers to play by himself, and work on his skills by himself.  At times he can be found playing in the same area as one of his sisters, but they are never really playing together.

An animal lover by heart, Alex has many pets and is always asking for more.  He loves to watch his ant colony for long periods of time.

He takes great joy in rescuing animals from outside as well.

His room is getting full!  He does however take very good care of them…so far.

He is currently learning to play two instruments, the piano and the violin.  One he likes and the other he tolerates and gets through each mandatory playing time, by playing very badly on purpose.  If you didn’t guess, the latter is the violin.

He picked up the piano quite quickly and often sits down to play first thing in the morning, no matter how badly his stomach is growling.

With his shyness however, he really hates being watched.

“Go away!” he will say to his sisters.

“Why does it matter if we watch?” Bella argues.  “It’s not like we can’t HEAR you all over the house anyway.”

“Hearing, is not watching!”  Alex will counter, but usually he gives in because he is not the type of child to stand up for himself beyond that.

Alex hates the violin simply because it is too big for his body and he can’t properly hold it.  All he can make it do, is squeal in high pitch tones that hurt his ears.  However Sun insists he learn, saying, “I’ve always wanted a child who knew how to play the violin.  How fun that would be listening to them play at family parties!”

Sun always has this dreamy look on her face as she declares this, and so, Alex tries to play the violin over and over.  For his mother, hating it every time.

 

Bella Bell

Traits: Loves To Swim, disciplined, athletic
Favourite Colour – light purple

Bella is an athletic sim, choosing to be outside as much as possible.   Her favourite time of day is when her father plays some kind of sport with her. Although, she tends to be a sore loser.She is hopeful that someday she will make it to China, where she can study with the masters to learn more about her family’s culture.

She loves her sisters very much, but she prefers to sit somewhere quiet and play with Wiggles.Athletics and Wiggles, are her two main concerns throughout her entire day.

One day she was having a tea party with Wiggles, when she saw her sister running towards the beach.  She jumped up and began yelling, “Bonnie!  Come have a tea party with me.”

“Wiggles?”

Anna Bell

Traits: Bookworm, genius, eccentric
Favourite Colour – pink

When her nose is not in a book learning something new, Anna can always be found with Bonnie.  While the quads are all extremely close in their own way, Anna and Bonnie seem to click the best.

Since Anna has the genius trait, she is more curious about learning than the other three and requires more to do.

“She can’t learn everything from a book,” Jin justified to Sun when he purchased another piece of equipment for their daughter.  “You saw her test scores!  We must nurture her intelligence, not hold her back.”

Anna’s favourite piece of equipment currently, is the inventing table and she loves thinking of new things to create.  The sound of metal being moulded and twisted into shape is like music to her ears. (and way better than that violin) Which is usually what she is escaping from, when she retreats to her little shop area.  Jin has told her many stories of his creating days when he was a child with his own table.

Bonnie Bell

Traits: clumsy, excitable, family oriented
Favourite colour – yellow

Bonnie has a great attachment to her aunt Jade and wants to be just like her.  As the only child in the family who looks apart, she longs to be more Chinese in appearance.  

Unlike her siblings, Bonnie has no discernible traits for her to focus her attentions on.  She watches her sisters and brother being encouraged to increase their skill levels with great sadness, for two reasons.  On one hand she loves all the free time she has to do what she pleases and wishes her siblings had the same.  On the other, there are many hours in a day to keep oneself busy, and it would be good to have something to work towards.  She decided to take up baking for now and seems to be quite good at it.  Nothing burned so far.

Bonnie is quite the clumsy sim, more so than any other sim usually tends to be when they have the trait.

“This is not a criticism Bonnie, not at all.  It’s just you are more than a little clumsy on your feet.  Perhaps it runs in the family, as your auntie Jade is also clumsy.” Sun told her.

“She is?” Bonnie asked excitedly.

Sun looked at Bonnie with a questioning and concerned look on her face.  “Yes,” she said carefully.  “And I know she hates it terribly.  So I was thinking I would help you learn ballet, and perhaps your balance will improve.”

“I guess,” Bonnie responded.  She was secretly delighted she shared this unusual trait with her aunt, yet at the same time, was not the least bit convinced ballet was going to help her at all.

She did however seem to enjoy it once they started, as well as the uninterrupted, individual time she had with her mother.

The Bells have a new family member to introduce.

Caesar – The Cat

The family was greatly saddened by the loss of Biscuit two years ago.  Recently, Jin visited a rescue shelter to bring home this beauty, who is also quite the character!

Traits: quiet, friendly, lazy
Favourite toy – the red dot

Caesar is well-loved by all the family members and he loves them, yet his favourite sim is by far:

Anna laughs!  “Caesar, that tickles my toes!!”

No matter where she is or what she is doing, Caesar will always seek out Anna to find and be with, often interrupting a learning session.

For some reason, Caesar finds the children playing royal court to be extremely upsetting, often hissing at them from different angles until they stop and get down.

Caesar prefers sim food to the stuff that is left in his bowl for him.  Whenever the family leaves food on the counter, up he goes to take his fill.

But at least he never scratches the furniture.

Jin and Sun

There was no doubt, this time around Jin and Sun wanted to do more for their children and most importantly, be better parents.  Which for them meant the quads were their number one priority.

A few hours every day are spent in some form of group activity.

Meals are spent together where conversations are encouraged.

Jin, eating his burnt marshmallow and hating it, but still eating the smoky mess.  Is that really setting a good example…hmmmmmm?  Enjoy your upset tummy Jin.

They like to take turns telling ghost stories.

Yet when all the children are in bed, they are happy to make their relationship a priority.

 

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