The lesson was about George Washington, and my friend asked them what they knew about George Washington. Hands shot up in the air and we got these varied responses:
- He chopped down that tree and he didn't even lie about it!
- He did not get a spanking since he told the truth about chopping down that tree.
- He had white hair.
So the tree anecdote stuck with them, apparently, but we pushed more, asking what the most important thing about George was. Ava and Ella's hands were practically touching the ceiling, and after being called on Ava said "He really, really loved horses a lot!"
Um, okay...not really what I was going for. I looked at Ella to see what she had to say, but her hand had fallen to her lap as her shoulders slumped. "That's what I was going to say. The horses thing."
So George Washington's most important achievement was loving horses. Awesome. Finally Angie prompted them and said "He was the president, remember?" Suddenly, they're all animated. Oh yes, he was the president! The first one ever! They couldn't believe they forgot that one! We seemed to be back on track, ready to talk about Presidents and George Washington and who knows what else.
"So guys, what's something we do to honor and remember George Washington?"
Acceptable answers would include: Putting his likeness on the dollar, on the quarter, celebrating President's Day....etc.
But Ava was beyond all of that. According to her, the way we honor George Washington is by "Thinking about him and hoping nothing bad happens even though he's already dead so probably nothing bad could really happen to him. It probably wouldn't hurt to still hope that, though, even if he is dead. He is dead, right?"
Alrighty then. Five year olds are some of the funniest people on the planet.
