In many parts of the country students are making preparations to return to the classroom and the books. My grandson, Trevor, is all excited about going to kindergarten. It is only recently that he graduated from Crayola College. His excitement about going to kindergarten has really rubbed off on his old grandma who lived in an era before kindergarten, and it took me all my first grade to write my long name.

Perhaps some of you have read the book, "All I Ever Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." I'm not sure what year the author was born - he no doubt is a baby boomer who went to kindergarten. Anyway, here are some thoughts after reading his book. "Most of what I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be. I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there on the sandbox at the nursery school. These are the things that I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry. Wash your hands before you flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic. Hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup - the roots go down and the plants go up. And nobody really knows how or why, but we all are like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice, and even the little seed in the plastic cup. They all die. So do we. And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all - Look! Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The golden rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and sane living. Just think of what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk at three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation, and other nations, to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it's best to hold hands and stick together."

I am really looking forward to how much I will learn from my grandchildren. As I will be listening to them tell the rest of the story. Enjoy precious memories listening to the children.

Warm Thoughts from the Little Home on the Prairie Over a Cup of Tea by Luetta G Werner

Published in the Marion Record on August 12th, 1999.

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Till next time,

Trina