Nano's Four Things

This is Nano, my five year old son.  This photo was taken about five minutes before my wife drove him to school and his first day of Kindergarten.  A few weeks before he posed in front of this Sago Palm in the front yard, Cars lunch box in hand and Alfred E. Newman smile stretched across his face, I made a deal with my son.  Every day, when he comes home from school, Nano needs to tell me the following things about his school day:

1.  Something that was easy.
2.  Something that was hard.
3.  Something new he learned.
4.  Something nice he did for someone else.

My son is a pretty bright kid, and I don't know entirely what I expect to hear from him, except the Truth--the kind of truth that only shines from our souls when we're five, when sweat and tears haven't watered that little seed of cynicism yet, allowing it to grow into adults who contemplate their audience and make adjustments accordingly.

Adding to the mix is that Nano's mom is an elementary teacher--at his school--and his dad is a middle school administrator.  Nano and I are working on this blog together, to document his journey through education.  I don't know how long it will last; heck, I don't know how long my kid will happily come home and answer the "How was school?" question with something more than a grunt and a shrug.  But that Nano shares these things with me is probably a lot less important than him contemplating his answers to those questions.  They are the kind of metacognitive stuff that we educator-folk hope all our students will consider as they leave campus each day.  More importantly, they're a simple model of the things each of us, as life-long learners, should ask ourselves when our heads hit the pillow each night.

So here goes.  If nothing else, Nano will probably improve his keyboarding skills.