I have been pondering this blog for a few weeks now, and decided that this was the morning to try to put some thoughts down on "paper".
A few weeks ago, Danica had a dentist appointment, so she didn't come to our house to catch the bus that morning. Daddy took her to the appt. and would drop her off at school after. They had to stop by our house on the way to school though, to pick up her snow pants that she had left here the night before. When they arrived, she looked really pale, and she told Daddy she didn't feel well.. He thought she was just looking for a way to get out of going to school and told her to get her pants and let's get going.
She went into the bathroom, and I told Daddy that I thought she genuinely needed a rest as she looked wiped out to me. We assured him that we would give her lunch, allow her to rest for a while, then take her to school if she felt better in a little while. He thought she was just pulling-our-leg a bit, but went on his way to work without her. We made a bed for Dani on the couch, turned on one of her favorite TV programs, and she snuggled down under the blanket for about half an hour.
After lunch, we gave her the option of going to school, or settling down on Buppa's rocking chair for the rest of the afternoon. She gave it some serious thought, and finally said,
"I still have a lot to learn, so I think I'll go to school." We were
surprised that she chose school, but after some thought, weren't. If that makes any sense at all.
On the way to school, out of the blue,she asked what the population of our little town was. I said there was a lot of building going on, and it was growing fast, so I didn't know what the exact number was these days, but she could probably email the Mayor and ask her.
Oh yes, she replied,
I could ask Wendy LeBlanc.
My goodness, I said,
I am impressed that you know the mayor's name.
Yes, she said,
and Rob Ford is the mayor of Toronto.
That's right. I said with more than a tad of amazement in my voice. Trying to carry on the conversation, I asked,
Do you know who the premier of Ontario is?
Yes, it is Kathleen Wynne.
I was flabbergasted at this point.
Do you know who the prime minster of Canada is?
Stephen Harper, came the quick reply.
How can this 6 year old know this? I then asked her if she knew who the president of the US was.
She was silent for a few seconds as she gave it some serious thought. She then said
It is a different sounding name. I gave her a hint and told her it started with a B, and she soon had it
Barack Obama.
By this time we were at the school, so the conversation ended there. We signed her in at the front desk, and continued on our way for the afternoon. We were both shaking our heads in wonder at the conversation that had just transpired with a 6 year old.
It doesn't stop there though, I have an amazing phone conversation to share with you too, but I'll save that for the next blog post. Stay tuned......