Adventures in preschool

Did you know...

Noah built an ark?

there is only one god?

that Jesus died on the cross?

That last one Zach asked as we were playing basketball, apropos of nothing. He said it in the most somber, grave voice - I had to do my very best not to laugh, and just went with my typical response of "yes, I did know that."

These are just a few examples of the things we are hearing from Zach since he started preschool. He is learning plenty of secular things too; he can sing both the days of the week song and the months of the year. He's getting better at writing his name as well as many other letters, constantly wants to know what the date is, and likes to classify the weather. He keeps asking when we can go to see the capitol building, which is funny to us since we've been pointing it out to him for years and he's shown no interest until now! And he shares all sorts of the social-type things he's learning, like following directions, listening to the teacher, following the rules, etc.

But, by far the most interesting to me is what a sponge he is when it comes to the bible stories. We have never discussed or read any bible stories with Zach, and have not had any real religious conversations with him (no, we don't go to church.) So it is a very new experience for us to hear Zach talking about all these new things he's learned - completely from someone else.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have any concerns about him learning about the bible and Christianity in general. But what makes me laugh a little is that while he can probably regurgitate the story of Adam and Eve to you, he doesn't really get what a sin is, what paradise is... any and all of the things that make the bible stories meaningful. And he certainly doesn't have any idea what he's saying when he talks about Jesus dying on the cross!! (Although apparently he realizes it's very serious, judging from the tone he used). To him they are just stories - nothing more, nothing less, and I assume that's what is appropriate for kids his age. And he does love a good story!

The pictures are from Zach's pajama day at school. He got a kick out of that, picked out his "super hero" pjs to wear that day. But what he's really looking forward to is when it's his turn for show and tell. It's been fun to hear what the other kids have been bringing so far; he was very impressed with someone's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle truck, although he had to ask me what a TMNT was. He was less enthused about the Tinkerbell doll another classmate brought. While I don't want to make any sexist assumptions, I have the feeling since his class is extremely girl-dominated, he may be learning quite a bit about Tinkerbell in the future.

Sunday we had a new adventure - Zach's preschool class and the kindergartners got to sing in the church associated with the school. I was so focused on getting him there on time (we were close), and making sure I remembered the video camera (I did!), that I didn't really think through the fact that after the kids sang to kick off the service, they would then have to sit through the hour-long mass until it was time for their second song at the end. So I didn't have anything to entertain Zach with - no food, books, nothing. Not my best mom moment. So he spent a lot of the time asking me when we could go home, especially when he remembered his dad was there (with Charlie as he napped). To occupy Zach, we (quietly) played a few games of I Spy and looked for words he knew in the bulletin. But several times I had to tell him what would happen before we could go - the sermon, the offering, a prayer, then he would sing and THEN we could go home.

The video is just of the first song the kids sang. While I remembered the camera, and had even remembered to charge the battery, I did not check the length of the remaining tape, so of course it ran out at the beginning of the second song (another bad mom moment). You'll see several minutes of tape before they kids actually sing, but I had to include those... if you're wondering why Zach keeps looking down and moving his feet, it's because he's making sure he is standing EXACTLY on top of the piece of tape with his name on it. :)

The second song was cute, since it involved some hand gestures and parts where the kids had to get louder. But that isn't why I'm kicking myself for not catching it on tape. What I'm mad I missed is when the entire congregation got a laugh at the end of the song, in the quiet lull as the kids' voices faded, when Zach announced "NOW we get to go home!"