Can I? Can we?

We encourage our kids to ask these questions frequently, "Can I?" and "Can we?" Can I join your game? Can I help you with that? Can I try reading a more challenging book? Can we climb to the big oak tree today in the woods? Can we share our stories with each other? As often as possible, we try to make these ideas happen.

This past Monday a small group of kids asked me if we could have a student representative to our board. I asked them what that would look like, heard their ideas, and then brought them to the board that night. The board welcomed the suggestion. A number of students had also been asking about the possibility of a class president, and we talked about maybe having two positions that could share responsibilities and alternate going to board meetings. I asked anyone interested in running for the position to write a paragraph that they could share with their classmates talking about what they would like to do as class president. They crafted some thoughtful words and started coming up with slogans. Our afternoon theme work on government suddenly became even more real and important. They're going to be sharing their paragraphs this next week.

I admit that I'm a little nervous about the whole process. An election seems like an opportunity for feelings to get hurt, but when I suggested a rotating position for anyone who was interested, I was shot down. So we're going to go forward with this, and I'll let you know next week how it unfolds.

Some Brief Highlights from the Week

• We talked about Veterans' Day this week and why we think it's important to honor veterans.

• The finger knitting and string games continue to be popular, and Glenn shared his yarn ball maker with us - so cool.

• We have a collection of letters to send to our president, representatives, and town boards about laws that we think should be changed or made.

• Our writers are getting ready for their next publishing party.

• Guest readers are back, and while they have been kids so far, we encourage members of our community to consider coming in Friday afternoon to share a favorite picture book or story. Talk to Tracy if you want to schedule a time.