I Don't Matter

Seth has "learned" a new phrase. We have had several recent conversations that went something like this:

Me: Seth, get your coat so we can go.
Seth: I don't want to wear a coat.
Me: Yes, put it on, it is chilly and you might get cold without it.
Seth: (Runs to get coat...then returns without it) I don't matter, Mommy. I don't want it.

At first I was rather taken aback...until I realized he actually meant: It doesn't matter to me! How do you explain to a 6 year old the difference between those two statements?!? Hoping he gets it soon - and we don't get a call from his teacher wondering what kind of destructive self-talk we are teaching our son!

And speaking of explaining things to a kid...Katey brought home her spelling words this week and had to look up the meaning of words she didn't know. The 3 she looked up were:
Artifice: Cleverness; sneakiness
Torrent: Turbulent of water
Essence: The intrinsic or indispensable properties of a thing

So, I didn't even know artifice was a word! Then, after Katey looked up essence we had to define the words in the definition! How do you explain to an 8 year old what intrinsic, indispensable and essence actually are? After trying to put it in words she understands, she wrote down: What the thing is.