Yes, well, Columbus Day, whatever that means these days. Henry asked what it meant, and I of course gave him the ultra-P.C. explanation. For some reason I felt the need to refer to Christopher Columbus as Cristoforo Columbo (is this even his name, or just my ridiculous Spanishization of it?) and about halfway through my explanation I felt like such an idiot. I left out the part about the smallpox blankets, but I think I did an okay job of explaining how the discovery of America wasn’t necessarily a discovery.
Henry made this Christopher Columbus paper-bag puppet in kindergarten. When I asked him what his teacher had told him about Columbus Day, he said, “She just had us make these puppets, and then color in three ships red.” When I told him what the ships were called, he thought it was a joke. “Ha ha ha, Santa Maria!” he said, shaking his head and walking away, clearly thinking, “My mom is a loon.”
I was just reading through my diary and it made reference to Nana telling how on Columbus Day when they were visiting us, you climbed into bed with her and Boppa and told them all about Columbus. So your kindergarten teacher must have been a bit more thorough than Henry’s.
Or maybe you were the one who told me all about Columbus!
To be fair, I quizzed Miranda about Cristoforo Colombionioniousio today and asked what she’d learned about him in kindergarten. I think our kids are safe if not intellectually sanitized by the school system: she said that he sailed in a ship with a few other ships and then he “noticed” our country. And of course when I told her the names of the ships she thought they were pretty, and was not even casually disbelieving as Henry was.
p.s. What a beautifully painted puppet! Go Henry!
I was wondering how to explain this holiday to Jaya, but he is just so darn happy to have a day off from school he never asks any questions.