“Sorry.”

Scooter was horsing around at preschool late yesterday afternoon, and a hula-hoop he was tossing around the gym managed to knock a trophy off a high shelf. The trophy broke, and our attempts to fix it were ineffective: a couple of plastic bits which held some screws on had snapped.

"When there's an accident, and it's your fault," I explained, "you need to do something to make it up and say you're sorry. What do you think you can do to apologize for breaking the trophy?"

"I could say I'm sorry," Scooter suggested.

"No, I don't think that will do. That was a pretty special trophy you broke, so I think you need to do something to really show how sorry you are."

"I could give them all my money."

"This is one of those things where money isn't good enough," I suggested. Besides, the dollar or two (mostly pennies) in his piggy bank wouldn't go far towards repairing or replacing the trophy.

Eventually, we decided to cook a big batch of chocolate-chip cookies and bring them for everyone in his preschool class and the staff. He did most of the work (well, at least 51%), and we divided the cookies into two bags. Scooter wrote two apology notes on giant sheets of construction paper, and I added a translation of his preschool handwriting.

This morning, we took the two bags in. Scooter gave one to the receptionist for the staff, and the other to his morning teacher. Neither had yet heard about the late afternoon incident, so he explained that he had accidentally broken the trophy, and the cookies were his way of saying he was sorry. He also explained in great detail and with much enthusiasm just how yummy the cookies were.

We have learned, if nothing else, that some lessons are tastier than others.