Dylan Divorce with Ashley

"Come here Dylan" said Analise with a happy voice. She was happy because she's marrying Dylan today.
"What's the matter?" asked Dylan. he didn't know he was marrying.
"We're marrying, Dylan!" answered Analise.
"What! Married! I can't because I already have a wife!" said Dylan.
"Can you just divorce? I bet she's not kind as me, right? Where is he?" said Analise. She was worried. Just then Dylan and his wife Ashley were knocking on the door.
"Analise, meet Ashley. Ashley, meet Analise." They started to grab each other's hair.
"Stop!" said Dylan. Now he had loved Analise. He asked Ashley to divorce. Ashley was unhappy. But she divorced with Dylan and he married Analise. She kissed his cheek. Analise and Ashley became friends that never fight. Analise once had called Ashley for dinner at their house. Ashley said that the house wall was pretty. They thanked her. Analise understood Dylan and Ashley's love now.

This little story is from one of our favorite 1st grade students, Barbie. She is an incredibly articulate, smart little lady. I gave her advanced 1st grade class a dialogue assignment and this is what she turned in. Apparently you can't indent on Blogger but her assignment was practically perfect with three-finger indentations whenever a new character began to speak. We are so proud of this girl and her excellent English speaking abilities - we're very excited by her drive to constantly read (she checks out three or four English books from our sad little library everyday!). This is just another undeniable reason that reading is beyond important for children.

We were also quite amused by her thoughts on marriage and divorce. Just a few weeks ago a coworker and myself were having what we thought to be a private conversation on marriage and what attracts men and women, when Barbie casually shared her two cents on the topic "yes, married is a little bit hard because when you marry, you lay a baby." Thank you six year old for your thoughts :) It just makes me wonder what she learns from Mom and Dad about what makes a happy, successful marriage. How discouraging it is that a baby like her can have such an apathetic view of divorce. Just another case in point example that children soak up all that they see/hear. This pushes me even more to strive to be one of the constructive role models our children deserve.

Well, we know she has one thing right, you have to be "kind".