Fun Summer Classes

Our town offers Continuing Education classes throughout the year, and both girls have enjoyed taking classes on school vacation weeks or in the summer.  This summer they are once again enrolled for a week of class, and today was Day 1!  Madeleine opted for a "Fundamentals of Basketball" course, which means she finally gets to learn how to play basketball, and Julia is enrolled in a Creative Writing class.  The classes are at different schools in town, with Madeleine's starting and ending fifteen minutes before Julia's, so Julia and I dropped off Madeleine together before going to Julia's class, and then Madeleine and I picked up Julia together.

Madeleine was delighted with her first day, and told me all about how fun it was as we drove to pick up Julia.

ME: Did you learn anything about basketball that was new information for you?

MADELEINE: Yeah!  We learned that when you JUMP UP and the ball goes in, it's not a slam dunk, it's a JUMP SHOT.

ME: Anything else?

MADELEINE: .....Uhhh....

Well, it sounds like she learned something really crucial, at least.  Maybe she just already KNEW everything else and didn't have much to learn.  She did want to be a basketball teacher when she was in kindergarten, after all.

When we got to the school where Julia had class, we had a bit of a wait.  Some classes got out a few minutes early, and Madeleine grew concerned as to the whereabouts of her sister.

MADELEINE: Where is Julia??

ME: I don't know.  I guess her class hasn't been dismissed yet.

MADELEINE: (leaning in conspiratorially) Do you think they killed her?

ME: Nope.  I don't.

Luckily, Julia's class arrived before long and we headed home.  Today's Creative Writing exercises were in poetry, and Julia shared the three poems she had typed out with me.  

ME: Those are beautiful, honey!

JULIA: Which one is your favorite?

I picked this as my favorite:

JULIA: Why's that one your favorite?

ME: I love all the metaphors.

JULIA: Wait.  I used metaphors??

ME: Honey.

JULIA: (reading the poem over) Oh, yeah!  I did!

Maybe it's sign of an excellent poet if she is able to write in metaphor without even realizing it.

(Or a sign of an inattentive poet...let's just pretend it's the first one though.)