In our world

For the past few months, I've noticed Cameron using the phrase "in our world." It is usually used to distinguish between reality and fantasy. "There aren't really vampires in our world!" or "Spiderman isn't in our world." I thought it was just an amusing Cameronism. Then, today, I visited Cameron's Montessori class and heard a little girl say, "There aren't really monkeys in our world." Cameron looked at me with a mixture of disbelief and amusement and giggled, "Did you hear that? Of course there are monkeys in our world! Wait. There ARE monkeys in our world, right Mommy?"

So, here's a peek at Cameron's world. Big news in the classroom: ALL of the colors are now available for easel work! In the early days of the school year, I wondered if Cameron was going through a Picasso-esque Blue Period as all the paintings he brought home were, well, blue. Then I learned that Montessori starts out with just one color painting and slowly adds choices along the way. Phew! Cancel the appointment with the child psychologist . . . Cameron now takes full advantage of all the available colors.

Cameron spent much of his time working with the cute little classmate who doubts monkeys exist. The pair built using the Brown Stair manipulative, then . . .

flirted! Oooh, this boy is going to be TROUBLE!
There is a new boy in the class who just sat and watched silently as Cameron did whisking work and tweezer work. For about a week, Cameron has been telling me about Kaufman. "Kaufman is new in my class. Kaufman doesn't talk very much. Kaufman didn't know how to do easel work." Interesting name, I thought. So, today, Cameron introduces me to Kaufman. Only, his name isn't Kaufman. Not his first name, not his last name, not even close to his name. I explain this to Cameron, who seems unconcerned and says, "Well, I call him Kaufman."