He's S-s-s-s-s-scottish

Biscuit's teacher is doing two weeks of lessons on culture and diversity. She sent home a paper for the parents to fill out about ethnic heritage, holidays, food, language, etc.

At first, I looked at the sheet and thought, "Well, we don't have anything out of the ordinary. We celebrate all the regular holidays. We don't eat anything special. We don't speak any other languages. Yep, we're plain jane."

The only thing I could think of was the Scottish stuff on my side of the family.

About 25 years ago, my uncle tracked my Mama's side of our family all the way back to the Scottish Highlands. The bigger families were called clans (my family is Clan Ross), and there were smaller families that were septs to the clans. Septs were families that were too small to stand on their on in battles, so they joined up with clans that lived near them for protection.

Each clan has two tartans -- one dress and one hunting. And they're worn just as you'd think -- dress for when nicer clothes were appropriate and hunting for everyday work and hunting.

There are also special clothes for special occasions, like the outfits worn by bagpipers or Highland dancers.

So because I'm a big dork, and I always loved school projects, and because other than taking Biscuit to the Highland games this past year I haven't taught him anything about Scotland, I decided that I would gather some photos and music to send to day care with Biscuit.

His teacher was really excited to get the CDs I sent. I think she was just excited that a parent was interested in what she was trying to do. You'd be surprised by how many parents don't participate in the kids' projects.

Anyway, I put some bagpipe music on one CD, then I made another CD with the photos below.

So Biscuit took notice of all of this information, and the other night, when he was in the bathtub, I could tell he had something on his mind.

"Mom, that music that you sent to my day care ... what was that called?" Biscuit asked.

"You mean the bagpipe music?" I asked.

"Yeah, bagpipe music," Biscuit said. "Bagpipes." He said "bagpipes" like he was trying to commit the word to memory.

"Mom, where did that music come from?" Biscuit asked.

"Well, do you remember your uncle that plays bagpipes?" I asked him, and he nodded. "He had a CD of bagpipe music, and he let me borrow it."

"But Mom," Biscuit said, "where did it COME from?" Biscuit asked.

"Oh," I said, finally realizing what he was asking me. "It's music from Scotland."

"Yeah," Biscuit said. "Scotland ... SCOTland ... Sssssscotland." He kept saying it over and over, stretching out the S sound at the beginning.

"Mom, can we go to Scotland sometime?" Biscuit asked.

I laughed. "Well, Scotland is a really, really long way away," I told him. "We'd have to get on an airplane and fly across the ocean."

"I'd like to fly on a plane, Mom," Biscuit said.

"It also costs a lot of money to go to Scotland, and we don't really have that much money right now," I told him. "Hey! Do you remember Ms. R, Mama's friend at work?" 

Biscuit nodded his head.

"She's going to Scotland in April," I told him.

"And we're going to meet her there?" Biscuit asked.

"No," I said. "We won't be meeting her there."

"But Mom," Biscuit said. "I bet Scotland is beautiful!"

"From the pictures I've seen, you're right," I said. "Would you like to see some pictures of Scotland on the computer?"

"Yeah," Biscuit said. "That would be good, Mom."

A little time passed, then Biscuit asked, "Mom, do they make bagpipes for kids?"

"I don't know, baby, but I'll check into it," I told him.

Sounds like Biscuit is enjoying having a connection to his heritage.