Just Right

We've been reading a lot of fairy tales and folk tales in my room lately--because they're fun and there are so many that are so well done, but mostly because kids love them. It seems like winter has been going on and on and on, and we needed to do something just because we enjoy it. I want my little readers to know that sometimes readers immerse themselves in something that may not push their thinking deeper or teach them something. Readers often indulge themselves simply for the fun of it. So that's what we've been doing.

And while reading Galdone's version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, I may have let it slip that I am in possession of a recipe....for baked porridge. And maybe I let it be quietly known that the creator of said recipe was one Mama Bear.

Imagine the awe, the joy, the hopeful anticipation as one little hand tentatively reached up. "Can you make it?" a little voice asked. There was a collective intake of breath as they waited for my reply.
"Well," I said, "maybe I could."

Then I got sick. For a week. When I came back to school, we continued reading fairy tales. No mention of the porridge until yesterday. "Hey," said J., "weren't you going to make us baked porridge like Mama Bear?"
"You can go to the store on your way home," added A., "and get what you need and then get that recipe and just make it and bring it to us tomorrow."
All those little faces looking at me and nodding and smiling. I'm pretty sure they knew I'd do it.

When the kids got to school this morning, they were greeted with warm scent of cinnamon and this:

We settled in and read Brett's version of the story, then enjoyed the still piping-hot baked porridge. And it was just right.