Forgiveness, and Everything's Fine

Yesterday, Nicole and Allison were being rotten to each other, so I separated them and put them into time-out for a while.  I later had them apologize to each other and say something nice to each other.  Allison, with a big smile, squeezed Nicole in a giant hug.  Nicole, however, remained a cold statue, so I sent her back to time-out.  Allison asked why I had sent Nicole back to time-out.  I told her it's because Nicole hadn't forgiven her.  Allison said, "I don't care if she forgives me."

"What do you care about?" I asked.

"I care about Nicole," she said.

At the butterfly world

Tonight, I read the children's book, Chrysanthemum, to Allison.  In the book, Chrysanthemum loves her name...until she goes to school.  At school, everyone has short names, like Jo, Pat, Max, Eve, Sue, and Rita.  The other children think Chrysanthemum's name is too long, and it doesn't even fit on her name tag.  I asked Allison how she thinks Chrysanthemum should feel.  "Fine," she said.  I asked her how she would feel if she were Chrysanthemum and all the children thought her name was too long.  She said, "Fine."  I asked her what she thinks Chrysanthemum should do.  She said, "Maybe she should make her name 'Chrys.'"

Guess which uncle the one in black pencil is

We like to call this "the sad ghost."

Sewing by Allison, under Grandma's supervision

Paintings by Allison

 

 

I made graham crackers in the shape of hearts.  This one was a triple heart.  I split it in half for Nicole and Allie, and naturally, Allie discovered it looked like an ear.

 

She's learning a lot this year

Yesterday, Nicole told me that they visited another class where they ate mealworms.  In her straightforward, no-nonsense, sincere way, she said, "I ate five of them.  They were really good."  She told the other students right afterward, at lunch, that she liked the mealworms, and they just sat there and stared at her.  Finally Janie said, "I don't believe you."  Apparently, a bunch of the kids who ate the mealworms felt sick afterward (because they had lunch right after), and one boy felt so badly that he was going to throw up that he wore an N95 mask.

Another doozy - Nicole's teacher told the class that her older brother was chopping wood once and wasn't paying attention and chopped his thumb off, and then she showed a slide of his severed thumb to the class.  Nicole said that a bunch of the students closed their eyes or felt sick, but, in her own words, "I was perfectly fine.  I was like, 'Huh, interesting.'"  Hahaha

One more to showcase the unique value of Nicole's teacher - The teacher was teaching them about the human body, and they were studying the stomach that day.  So they filled plastic bags with a whole bunch of food and stuff and squeezed it around to look like the inside of a stomach, and then Nicole's teacher reported that Conrad had thrown up.  I can only approve of this science lesson.