Your favorites from his list of the basic rules included these: Play fair, Don’t hit people, Clean up your own mess, Flush, Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody, and Share everything.

Years ago, I got you the book by Robert Fulghum, ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN. And just for the record, to make up for my mistake that night, I read aloud to Mom for another hour, but only from the chapters that made her smile.Īs Andrea Koehle Jones wrote in THE WISH TREES, “I’m planting a tree to teach me to gather strength from my deepest roots.”Īnd as a concluding reminder of the long-term importance of trees, Jim Robbins, author of THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES, wrote this: “Planting trees may be the single most important ecotechnology that we have to put the broken pieces of our planet back together.” She has always loved trees, and by example she taught me to love them, too.Īs an apology for reading about the villagers killing trees by yelling at them-even though it was meant as a lesson for children to always using kind, gentle words-and also in tribute to my mother, I dedicate this post to all of us who love trees. With her eyes still closed she scrunched up her face and adamantly shook her head NO!.Īfter my parents built our house on a large empty lot in 1953, my mother planted 16 varieties of trees (27 trees, total) and did all the landscaping herself. They didn’t chop it down with axes the entire village yelled at the tree every day for a month, and the tree fell over. Mom had been a kindergarten teacher at one time, and before she became lost in dementia, she really enjoyed this book.īut that evening I flipped the book open to the wrong chapter about villagers in the Solomon Islands who had a unique way of taking down a tree. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first workd you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.Last week when I visited my mother, at night as she lay snuggled under the quilt on her bed I read aloud to her from chapters in Robert Fulghum’s ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN.

Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. Remember the little seed in the Stryrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. 'These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten): 1.

Robert fulghum quotes kindergarten