button thoughts...

This afternoon, we were getting ready for a wedding and my husband looked at the shirt I'd put on, shook his head, and commented,

"I could never understand why women have buttons down the back of their shirts..."

It reminded me of a conversation I had years ago with one of my kindergartners. At the time I was wearing a long dress with buttons down the back. Our class was getting in line to go outside and there were a few of us waiting by the door for everyone else to finish cleaning. This student, Jaime, looked at my dress, and then thought for a while.

"Miz F?" he asked finally. "Do you live with your mom?"

"No," I told him. "I have some roommates that I live with. They're teachers -- remember I told you about them?"

"Yeah," he hedged and kept looking at my dress. There was something clearly on his mind, and it took a moment or two for it to click in for me. It did just as he asked,

"Then who buttons your clothes?"

I remember telling him that most of my clothes I buttoned myself -- and that this particular dress didn't have to be unbuttoned, but could be pulled over my head, like a shirt -- but if there was ever something I couldn't put on, I'd probably ask a friend for help.

I'd long forgotten this conversation, but it came back to mind today and made me smile because it's another example of the way that children's minds work in such interesting ways. So often, there are these puzzles that they try to figure out, and Jaime was clearly trying to figure out how I got my clothes buttoned when the buttons were in the back. He couldn't figure out who did it so he had to ask.

I think also, because that sort of thinking was so uniquely Jamie, it's a story that I've kept in my mind.

It does make me wish, though, that I'd started keeping a more frequent teaching journal years ago. How many stories have I let go of because I didn't write them down... how many learning opportunties have I forgotten about...

Guess it's a good thing I'm trying to do this now. ♥