Could Your Son Please Watch the Cartoon Network???

I'm in trouble with my son's Preschool teacher. You might be thinking, "Big deal, it's Preschool and your wife is after all, the principal". I thought those things too, but this time it's not a bad thing I'm in trouble over. Actually, it's funny and his teacher was laughing about it when she told us. The problem lies in the fact that I am raising myself, and I am showing up through my son on a daily basis. Confused? I'll explain:

My little boy is fascinated by war as I have been all my life. Be it cowboys and Indians, infantry duels, or my personal favorite, tank battles, he is all over it. Almost every night, there is a battle of some type in our living room floor. I wrote post about one our epic battles in August, and I must say that they only gotten better, and more interesting as he learns more about all things military.

Case in point- He asked me if ships could fight each other. I explained how they fought and told him about my favorite movie on this subject 'Master and Commander'. He was excited about seeing ships battle, so we watched it together and he has been hooked on Naval history and warfare since then. And, I remind you, he's 4 going on 5...

Along with all of this, I've watched his creative energy flow into his drawings and colorings. It's nothing for him to take a plain white sheet of paper and entertain himself for 45 minutes drawing, working, and asking me strange questions such as, "Dad, what color is France's flag?" and "What are those things called that hold the sails on the tall ships?"

This leads me to being nicely and jokingly reprimanded by my son's teacher. It seems that they have a portion of their class time devoted to free drawing. When each child is finished, they sit in a circle and the teacher holds up each drawing and tells the class what it represents. Usually the kids will draw a tree, or a dog, or something that resembles a house, you know, something normal...

The other day, my son's teacher came to my wife's office with one simple request:

"Could you please let Will watch the Cartoon Network?"

Marci asked what she was talking about. She went on to tell Marci that all Will draws are ships, tanks, flags, and he gives each one of them a particular war or battle that they are in. For instance, one was Custer's Last Stand while my personal favorite was a picture of two ships slugging it out ala Master and Commander. The problem she is having is that she has to write on the picture what it signifies such as, 'This is France's ship and this is England's' and 'This is the cross of St. George and this is the dragon'. The other problem is when it's time to explain each child's drawing to all the others in the class. I guess it would be kind of hard to explain what his drawings are all about in a way that 3 and 4 year old kids can understand.

So tonight, I guess we'll try some Cartoon network and maybe a smattering of Spongebob Squarepants. I'd rather be watching something about the Eastern Front 1944, but we'll have to save that one for another day. And as for the drawings, if asked, I'll advise my little boy to do what I do and that is that you draw (or write) whatever it is that God puts on your heart. It was God that wrote the quality of warrior on every man's heart and there is no way to keep it from coming out from time to time. I just never dreamed it would at 4 years old...