ministones

The things that will never make it in the baby books and other musings from a stay at home mom

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Missing in translation (or possibly a whole new twist on the Purim story)

I usually get very detailed descriptions of what happens at school from Julia, to the point that other moms sometimes even call me to find out what really happened in class. I know, for instance, that the theme yesterday was George Washington, in honor of Presidents' Day, and that the kids learned all about his adventures with the cherry tree, his inability to tell a lie, and the fact that his face is on a dollar bill and a quarter. (In fact, Julia seemed to know virtually everything about George Washington except for the fact that he was our first President, but that's the topic of another entry.) Despite Julia's detailed descriptions, however, I occasionally know that I simply must be missing something when she tells me about school. Yesterday was one of those days.

J: I noticed today that Miss Janice always brings a friend when she comes for music.

Me: Really? Who did she bring today?

J: A queen. And a king. And another king, but he was very naughty.

Me (thinking quickly): Very naughty? Was his name Haman?

J: Yeah! It was!

Me: Oh, OK, then you must have been talking about Purim, which makes sense because it's coming up. Haman wasn't actually a king, honey. He was just a man, a mean and nasty one. Did you make noise whenever Miss Janice said his name to drown it out?

J: Uh huh.

Me: Sounds like fun. And the queen's name was Esther? And the king was Ahasuerous?

J: Yeah, that sounds right. And it was fun. (pause) I'm not sure why they were all naked, though.

Me: NAKED?

J: Yeah. None of them were wearing any clothes.

Me: OK, well, Julia, their bodies must have been covered with something.

J: Nope. It's OK, though. I think they were probably about to take a bath.

The conversation ended abruptly there and I was unable to get Julia back to it later. I have to assume that her music teacher did not, in fact, introduce the story of Purim to a roomful of 3 year olds using nude puppets as a visual aid, though I may casually ask her teacher for some clarification at dropoff tomorrow, if only to assuage my own curiosity. I'm dying to know how that one got lost in translation. Or maybe it didn't. Purim's supposed to be the happiest, most entertaining Jewish holiday of the year. Perhaps Miss Janice just took the merrymaking to a whole new level.

1 Comments:

At 4:44 PM, Blogger Steph said...

Wow, sounds like an interesting day. I'd love to hear how that really happened ;) Kudos to you for catching on that it was the story of Purim. I don't think I would have been that quick with it. I better hone up before Michelle starts coming home with similar stories from school. At least her teachers send home a monthly calendar so that I know what the topic of the day was, so I can't get too caught off-guard. Still, the most I ever get is that she painted, ate snack and sometimes an occassional tidbit more (usually involving the bathroom lately).

 

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