kids say the darndest things

This week at Talmage's preschool they started talking about getting letters ready for the post office (they will be writing to different people around the world). His teacher is using this focus as a segue into the math concept of money and how we pay for the mail.

Today she sent an email to the the parents that said this: We started with the penny today and we discussed who was on it. I asked them if they knew who the president of the United States was. I had lots of hands shoot up and so I called on Talmage and he burst out as proud as he could "Jesus!" Hudson followed up with "No, the president of our land is President Monson. I explained the difference between the president and the church leaders and told them our president of the country right now is Barak Obama. Kellen piped in "Oh yeah, my mom has said his name and he stops the bad guys...I think like this...(acted it out for us)."

After a few other war heroes did a little re-enactment for us I refocused them and started to explain that Abraham Lincoln was our 16th president from a long time ago who lived before we were born. That is when Lucy stopped me and shared, "Wait, I have seen him though. I have a church book about him so he is still alive." I asked her if she meant Joseph Smith. She responded "Yeah, Joseph Smith. He was our president and stopped the bad guys." I explained the difference between Abraham Lincoln and Joseph Smith and then she concluded, "Oh, I don't think I have seen Abraham Lincoln then. Maybe my mom and dad have seen him though."

I laughed so hard I cried when I read this email. Such a great conversation with a handful of 4-5 year olds!