The Four Seasons

At age four our daughter, Julie, attended a precious preschool called Little People’s Place.   It was a very special place where learning and play mixed perfectly and Julie loved it.

One day, after dropping Julie off at school, I got a phone call from her teacher, Mrs. Jan; she said she had something she wanted to tell me when I picked Julie up that afternoon.  She left me in total suspense and all day my curiosity ran wild.  When at last I got to the school that afternoon, Mrs. Jan had been watching for me and pulled me aside when I walked through the door.  She said she could hardly wait for me to get there, she had to tell me what Julie had said during their lesson for the day, now my curiosity was really at it’s peak. 

This is the story she told me:

Today our lesson was The Four Seasons of the Year.  As always, before discussing the topic I asked the children if any of them knew the answer.  Julie was the only one to enthusiastically raise her hand, so I said okay Julie, what are the four seasons of the year?  Of course, I was fully expecting spring, summer, fall and winter but Julie stood and recited with exuberance and without hesitation – dove season, deer season, duck season and fishing season.

Mrs. Jan said she almost lost it, and it was all she could do to keep from laughing uncontrollably, but she had to keep her cool to keep from embarrassing Julie.  We both had a big laugh about it – it was so adorable, and so uniquely Julie.

Although I could see how someone outside our family would find this so utterly funny – and it truly was – I thought: “yeah well, –  it’s all she knows!“  Our world revolved around hunting season, and I myself had been conditioned to know that those are the four seasons of the year –  they are in our family anyway. 

I have shared this tale with people who know our family well; they all love the story and can absolutely understand how Julie was so confident in knowing “The” Four Seasons of the Year!