Ke$ha for Kids?

Abigail's Junior Kindergarten class isn't inexpensive.  It has an amazing curriculum.  The teacher has been in the business a L-O-N-G time and is wonderful with the kids and pushes their creativity and vocabulary.  They teach the scientific method.  Abigail can provide examples of alliteration, she can monitor and adjust her feelings and reactions to setbacks by doing the TURTLE, she can use the words "fiction" and "non-fiction" correctly (something I couldn't do until junior high school, as it was called then), and she can define prototype, H2O, and citizen, and she can find an ossicone on a giraffe, which is an ungulate mammal.

The kids are used to routines and schedules and Abigail thrives in that environment.  Each day during the "centers time" the students can pick what they want to do.  The choices vary from art and writing to family living to computer center.  When I have picked her up early, I have often seen kids dancing (bouncing, really) around the computers to contemporary pop music.  I hadn't thought much of it.  

Until I heard Abigail singing in the bath tonight.  I googled the lyrics she was saying and was amazed to discover that what she was belting was a Ke$ha, sorry, now simply "Kesha" song.  During the course of the lyrics, I learned that Abigail, four and a half, likes to "brush her teeth with a bottle of Jack" and when she leaves for the night she "ain't comin' back."  I was also a wee bit surprised to hear that "everybody gettin' crunk" and "boys trying to touch my..." you know, never mind.  You get the idea.  

We aren't sure if we are going to say anything.  Maybe to some parents, that seems stupid.  I am a teacher though, and I get it.  When the kids are in "center time" the teacher is working with the kids who are still having trouble printing their name or developing journaling skills with the kids.  (Their journaling program is crazy-amazing.  I can't believe how much I have seen into my pre-schooler's thoughts just from her journal and dicatation.)  So if the teacher just hears a thumping, catchy beat and the kids are all dancing and happy, does she hear the words that they are trying to repeat?  Abigail said that the kid on the "front computer" gets to pick the Pandora station and that is how it is done.  We believe her.  It is innocent.  But the stuff our kids are exposed to, is certainly not.

My completely innocent girl,
playing with worms she caught,
before bedtime, in her PJs and cowboy boots!

Biology Lessons with a 4.5 Year Old

Tonight when getting ready for bed, Abigail asked me out of the blue:
"Mama?  Where did Dinosaur [her imaginary friend] come from?  Did he grow in someone's belly?"

My little mammal.

The following conversation ensued:

me:  "No, sweetie.  Only mammals grow in bellies to be born.  Dinosaur is a reptile.  He grew in an egg, like a chicken does."

Abigail:  "Oh."  [thoughtful face, incorporating this into her brain]

me:  "You know, you grew in someone's belly before you were born, since you are a mammal."

Abigail: [giggling] "MAMA!!  I am not a mammal.  Mammals are animals!!  I am not an animal!!"

me:  [ruffing her hair] "You are furry.  And you love milk.  You are a mammal AND an animal."

Abigail: [giggling harder] "Mama!! Huh uh!"

me:  "Well, what else would you be?  Are you a plant?"

Abigail: "No.  I am not a plant!" [I can see the wheels
turning again]

me:  "Well, are you a rock then?  Or are you an animal and a mammal?"
Abigail: "I'm an animal!!"