Almost but Not Quite

A neighbor of ours is moving and offered us a desk. This desk has a hutch on it with a cork board on the back and a little shelf. We put it in John's room since that is the only place we currently have room for anything.

One day John called me up to his room. He was beyond excited to show me his "shift." He put his pillow and blanket on top of the desk and was pretending to sleep on top of the desk in his "shift." I was confused as to why he was calling the desk a shift. John reminded me that we had read from a book about astronauts that they "slept in shifts" so someone could fly the shuttle at all times. He thought shift was another word for bed. I have tried and tried and tried to explain that a shift means taking turns and is not a bed. He caught on to a shift means taking turns but would not let go of the idea that it is a bed.

He even explained to his sunbeam teacher that astronauts sleep in shifts and that means taking turns and it is also a bed. He had one confused teacher.

Last night John and Aaron got into it over what shift meant. Finally John said, "You are wrong and I am right!" Aaron asked John to put a shift in a tupperware container. John said he couldn't because the tupperware is too small. He also laughed as such silly request. Aaron explained that a shift can't go into a tupperware container because it is something in your head, it isn't an object. John said he got it but I am not convinced.... time will tell.

On the same Sunday that John had taught his primary teacher about shifts he taught me about stuffed animals.

John: Stuffed animals' bodies are too small for a spirit. That is why they aren't alive.
Emma: John, where did you learn that?
John: Primary.

Here is another conversation with John after I had already put him to bed:

John: I need to tell you something.
Me: What do you need to tell me?
John: Wait, I need to look it up in my head....