"It Made the Children Laugh and Play . . . "

Luke and Jaz are in two separate kindergarten classrooms at a local independent school. Both classrooms follow the same general curriculum, and the main focus of study for the spring semester is animals. They've studied zoo animals and farm animals, pets, and wild animals. They know all about what types of animals live in what types of habitats and what the word "diurnal" means (hint: humans are diurnal). And during these last few weeks of school, their studies are culminating in children bringing in their pets from home for show-and-tell. Luke and Jaz decided that they'd like to bring in the baby goats.

When Lena and I arrived at the school yesterday morning, with Lou Lou Unicorn and Harvey Milk in our arms, I noticed that both kindergarten teachers had decided to focus the day's "morning message," the main literacy component of the curriculum--in this case also a bit of a math lesson--on our visit. The messages said:

Dear Kindergarteners,

Lukas and Jaz's
goat had 2 babies.
How many "kids"
do they have in their family?

I loved it! The teachers decided that, providing it was a nice day, it would probably be best if this particular "sharing" session could take place outside. So each class made a circle in a grassy spot on the playground right next to the school building, and Luke and Jaz took turns showing each of the baby goats to their classmates. I was in the circle with Lukas and his class.


We all had a great time and I was so glad for Luke and Jaz to be able to share the goaty part of their lives with their peers. And, luckily, their teachers were way more welcoming of these "ungulates" than Mary's teacher was of her lamb when he came to school. Luke's teacher even wants to buy a couple of kids from us at the end of the summer! And depending on how the summer goes, we may very well be offering to sell her a couple of each type of kid, if she's interested.

Just kidding, of course.