“What do you think this is?”

This is a question dreaded by many people who work with young kids. The fear of whether or not you answer the question correctly tugs at your heart.

It was a random Wednesday morning. I walked into the classroom and immediately upon my entrance, I was bombarded by a student holding what appeared to be orange Play-doh in her hands.

The Play-doh was shaped into three different sized balls, the smallest two of which connected.

With one grouping in each hand, the student eagerly ran up to me with so much mope in her eyes. As she asked me what I thought the small spheres were, my face immediately went flush. I was caught off guard by the seemingly simple question.

Having no clue what the small object was I simply replied, “Oh my goodness. I love it.”

Luckily, this phrase distracted her from the fact that I had avoided her question. The student then proceeded to explain to me that this was her model of the Earth, Sun, and moon.

Keep in mind, in this class we teach reading, writing, and grammar, so there was no chance that I would’ve been able to guess this correctly. Honestly, situations like this happen a lot more than people would think. Sometimes, that’s just how it is.