Happiness is...

John's kindergarten class recently made a really cute book. Each child in the class created a page for the book by completing the following sentence: "Happiness is ___________ ." and then drawing a picture of the thing or activity that makes them happy. The teacher bound the pages to form a book, which each child was allowed to check out and bring home to share with their families one evening. John told me that the privilege of taking the book home was based on good behavior in class, so I am pretty proud that John was the sixth student (and only the second boy!) to have a turn to bring home the book according to the check out sheet included in the package.

John was proud to share the book with me, so we sat down to read it together and discuss what each of his friends had written. Actually, the teacher completed most of the blanks since 98% of the kids in the class aren't spelling well yet, but that's a minor detail as you could tell the sentiments came directly from the children. Before we reached John's page we read that happiness is:

• swimming



• playing with my dog and my sister



• ice cream



• a hug from my mom

All really cute statements that seem appropriate for a kindergartener. I was filled with warm fuzzy feelings of innocent children finding joy in life's simple pleasures. The drawings were cute too.

And then we got to John's page. And I couldn't help but bust out with a huge laugh before I could catch myself.

John's sentence read "Happiness is staying at hotels".

Huh? Staying at hotels??? Not hugs, or playing with Amelia? Nothing about mom or dad, or even sports? Not even Star Wars? (though I am glad it was not Star Wars!)

After I got the bit of laughter out of my system, I inquired as to why his answer was hotels. John's explanation was simple and sweet: "Because we stay at a hotel when we are on vacation, and hotels are fun because the first thing we usually get to do is go swimming, and I love to go swimming."

I loved the teacher's page too: "Happiness is when all my kindergarteners can tie their own shoes!".

In other schoolwork news, a few weeks ago the elementary school celebrated "Grandfriends Day", where the kids can invite their grandparents to school to see their classrooms and attend a singing performance by each grade level. John brought home the following art work that day:

"I like when my grandfather cleans the windows with me". Ha! This is in perfect reference to Scott's dad who is the ultimate handyman around the house. When the Wilsons come to Texas to visit, John's grandfather stays busy by doing all kids of chores that Scott and I neglect. He's the type of guy that enjoys staying busy, so while the kids are playing in the backyard he cleans windows and watches them at the same time. John loves to clean windows (seriously!), especially when he can be in control of the Windex bottle, and he obviously enjoys doing tasks like this with his grandfather.