Monday, November 16, 2009

Just Say Yes to Broccoli!

Christian's school is having an anti-drug rally on Wednesday. He's in kindergarten. He will have to wear his tye-die T-shirt on Wednesday, and apparently the entire school is going to march around the school yard for fifteen minutes after some sort of presentation is given to the children.

I was wondering how this topic has been handled by his teacher. When I explained to Christian why he will be wearing his colorful shirt, he told me that Mrs. B has been telling them that sometimes kids take too much medicine. That's good, I thought. What a great way to get kindergarteners familiarized with the purpose of this rally. How can a parent possibly discuss an abstract concept of drugs with a child other than by making a comparison to medicine?

So on Saturday I took Christian to a birthday party that one of his classmates was having and I visited with the father of one of his friends who, by the way, has a very good dry sense of humor. The subject of the upcoming rally was brought up and he said, "They're kindergarteners, for gosh sakes! Why are we having them participate in an 'Say No to Drugs' rally when we haven't even gotten to that point yet? They're not going to understand. Why not have a 'Say Yes to Vegetables' rally or a 'Say Yes to Milk' rally?" He made a good point.

And than I began to think about it further and wondered if Christian will refuse medicine next time he's sick after having participated in this anti-drug rally. Nah; he's too much of a drama king to avoid it. Besides, we've had plenty of teachable moments around here about the dangers of drinking medicine without Mommy or Daddy first administering it. We'll move on to bigger topics when the kids are at the right age.


Just Say Yes to Longer Sleep Hours

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