crosby stills nash young, and anyone else who wants to sing harmonies.

Senor Onion likes to eat these fruit yoyo snacks. (dried fruit rolled up. Pretty basic) They come with these country cards you can collect in each packet. It is kind of cool because they have some pretty illustration on the front and then a little bit of information on the back. It is the fun thing to collect if you are in his social set.
The other night he got the Iran card for the first time. The card mentioned how it wasn't just hot and dry in some places, but there were also beautiful mountains. He asked about Iran, and I told him that I have known people who visited there and said that people tended to be really welcoming and were quite friendly, and that the food is really good. I have eaten Persian food, and I really enjoyed it. He said, "Wow, friendly people, and good food, it must be the perfect country." (I like how he thinks.) I said, "Well... not exactly. It's a complicated place." I explained that they don't have the best relations with America and things are a little strained with the UK as well. He asked why and I wanted to frame it so it wasn't "oooh they are baddies." so I told him that America used to kind of control things in Iran, there was a revolution, and some people didn't like the way the US had done some things, but Iran didn't do some unkind things as well, and since then the US and Iran don't exactly get along. And that the UK and the Iran had some unkind words with each other later on. Explaining this to a seven year old can be interesting because I don't want to lay in on the traumatic stuff just yet, nor do I want to him to view a whole country as a black and white place. I went on to say that the country's government has a lot of rules about how people can live, and it can be very hard on some people; especially women. He thought it was silly that women had to go around covered up because the government said so, and that you aren't allowed to share your own opinions about how things work. I did make it clear that people do have lives there. That women go to university, have jobs, and do important things, but that it is a complicated place, and that good people can live in complicated places. I think he understood.
I think the lesson I hope he gains from these conversations, is that the government isn't always the identity of the people, there are a lot of good kind people in places that may not seem friendly, and not everyone is all good or all bad. That first lesson in the moral grey area of people.
It seems timely considering some of the stuff going on in Israel. It makes me think about the qualities of mercy and forgiveness and how to teach that to children.

Yesterday Miss Biscuit had another taster day in Reception. They have done some afternoon sessions where they go to the big school and see what it is all about. But yesterday they lined up on the playground with the other big kids and walked in. Miss Biscuit totally had this. She knew where to hang up her coat, she immediately went in and sat down on the carpet. Nothing phased her. I said good bye and she just waved and turned to talk to one of her classmates. Okay kid. Guess I am done here. Even her preschool teacher said that Miss Biscuit is incredibly confident and ready. I am glad, but there is that wistful sense of, "oh... well this phase will soon be over." I look forward to what is next but it is funny to realize the phase of tiny kids/babies at home will be done.

Now though? I have to wrangle two children pretending to be cats.