in the mundane...

I was just thinking that it has been a really long time since my last post, and the reason for that is that life is absurdly normal. How do you blog when there is nothing funny or unusual happening to you? Last week I had parent teacher conferences. All of the parents were very complimentary... i think that they are just happy that their children are enjoying school. Today was Valentine's Day, and here, there are no parties and no hoopla... only a small valentine's day card for their mums and dads... which a lot of the children put Christmas themed things on the cards. Partially my fault...we have a craft box in the classroom that has old wrapping paper and cards that the children can use when they are making collage art -- cards, pictures etc. Some of the children cut out characters from the cards... not a single child cut out a construction paper heart...so strange. Anyway, i was circling the room checking in on the kids progress and I got to my first Christmas Valentine's day card and i said the little boy in a joking manner... Christmas... christmas... it is valentine's day it is all about hearts and flowers and love, and he looked at his little card that had santa with his arm around rudolph and he said to me, well santa loves rudolph... of course.. clearly i missed the deeper meaning.. it wasn't at all about Christmas.... mostly about love. Ahhh, there little brains are so interesting. This little boy is known for rationalizing work so that it is acceptable to his vision. He was working with a group of children to create a painting of spring... it was all going well, the children were painting blueberry bushes, and rainbows, and bees, (giant killer bees if you ask me) flowers, all the good spring things, and everyone seemed to be heading in the same direction until another little girl pulled out the purple paintbrush and started making purple rain (clearly her mom listened to Prince while she was in the womb). It was clear as C. grabbed his hair and let out an ughhh.. that she had deviated from the plan... or at least his plan. A look of horror came over her face, and C. immediately felt bad. You could see he was trying to satisfy his vision for this painting... clearly no purple rain, and poor j's feelings. So he stammered for a few seconds and the proudly announced that perhaps the rain was splashing off the blueberries and that was why it was purple. He was satisfied and so was she.. so the painting was finished and now hangs in the classroom. If only all conflicts in the world could be handled so eloquently.