A history lesson

Last Friday afternoon I told the girls a story about a real girl who became a real princess.  Afterward we watched some highlights of the royal wedding and the girls were awestruck.  It was so much fun for me especially because I actually remember watching some of the royal wedding when I was just about Mia's age.  It was a little bit of a geography lesson and some super fun history.

This morning we had another lesson.  I contemplated whether or not I should say anything to them at all out of fear that the information will cause Ana nightmares.  She can be pretty sensitive.  I decided to tell them without a lot of detail.

First I explained that our country is run by a president.  He is kind of like the king but we elect our rulers after they are adults rather than pass down the position like kings and queens do.  I reminded them how fun it was to watch the royal wedding the other night and then I explained that while our world has real queens, kings, princes and princess stories our world also has bad guys just like some of the shows we watch.
I explained that before they were born a really bad man named Osama Bin Laden killed a lot of people.  He was a really bad man and our soldiers tried to capture him, but they couldn't so they killed him.  While we shouldn't be happy that he is dead, we should be happy that he can no longer hurt any more people.

Questions from my preschool class:
Ana: We can't he happy that he's dead?
Me:  I don't think that Jesus would want for us to be happy that anybody had to be killed, but I think that it's very good that we don't have to be scared that he is going to hurt anyone else.

Mia: Was he a blue guy or a red one?
Me: Well...(and thank you Disney)...you know how the Incredibles are good and they stop the bad guys in their show like Syndrome?  Our soldiers are heros like Incredibles and they stop the bad guys too.
Mia: He was a blue one?
Me: Our soldiers wear green camoflage.
Ana: GREEN Camoflage?  (like: WoW, that's cool)
Me: and the bad guy wore mostly brown clothes with a white turban on his head.
Mia: Oh (my visual child.  She is satisfied with that description.)

I know I'm not always the best teacher, but I always pray that God will edit out what I don't need to say and help them absorb the important info.  I know this was a little deep for preschoolers.  That's why I didn't tell the girls that the bad guys used airplanes like missiles and crashed them into buildings that crumbled and exploded like bombs killing everyone around that couldn't run away.  I think it's important to have the real life moments to look back on.  I remember the royal wedding from when I was just a toddler.  I remember when my sixth grade teacher told us, very seriously, that our country had declared war on Iraq.  I remember going to the swimming pool with my aunt and her friend and my aunt told me that her friend's husband was away at the war and wouldn't see their baby be born.  I hope they remember this, but I hope we have more happy memories about real history than sad ones to talk about from now on.

God Bless America.