It's exciting times in our house and I have a feeling we will have much to share as Katherine starts Kindergarten in August. She is beyond excited! We're all in for a lot of adjustment as Kindergarten is a full day nowadays, but we're confident that this will be a good year.
We were not prepared for the number of adult topics we have had to discuss with Katherine over the past few months. All of a sudden it seems that the protective bubble has been burst and now she is exposed to all of the good (and bad) that this world has to offer. It has reminded me how important it is for adults to be a moral compass for children, whether we are parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, etc. If we don't teach them how to be independent, compassionate, and responsible, who will?
I have found myself quoting these tidbits lately:
"Treat other people like you want to be treated."
"If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."
"Wouldn't this world be boring if we all looked, talked, and acted the same?"
On the same note, I am reminded of the following excerpt from Robert Fulghum's "All I Really Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarten". Such wisdom!
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do
and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not
at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the
sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life - learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody
really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even
the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.
So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books
and the first word you learned - the biggest
word of all - LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.
Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any of those items and extrapolate it into
sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your
family life or your work or your government or
your world and it holds true and clear and firm.
Think what a better world it would be if
all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about
three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with
our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments
had a basic policy to always put thing back where
they found them and to clean up their own mess.
These pictures may seem random, but they illustrate the spirit of our soon-to-be Kindergartener.
