The reason 5 year olds should not learn about Helen Keller....

When I was a kid I really loved the book, "Helen Keller". I read it over and over. I was in the fifth grade when we were going to act out characters from books we liked. I told my mom I was going to be Helen Keller.
My lovely mother explained to me that while it was great I took a such an interest in her life that acting out her life but come off as, "making fun" of handicapped people.
So I moved on to something else. I don't remember what else I was but I learned a little about tact.
Helen Keller however, is becoming a bit of a common thread for me.
Last year when we arrived, for the first time at our new Unitarian Universalist church we saw a banner that read, "Life is either and adventure or nothing" a quote by Helen Keller.
I read the banner to Johanna and told her who Helen Keller was. Just a bit about her being deaf and blind and than learning how to communicate.

So each week Johanna would ask me to tell her about Helen Keller.

So I thought it would be a good idea to get a Helen Keller book out of the library.
please remember that I also thought it was good idea to teach my daughter the song, White Rabbit and I also thought reading the real version of the Little mermaid was good idea. so you know my track record is sort of marred.

Well I take out the easy reader version. We read it several times..and my daughter now pretends to be Helen Keller. At 5 I don't think she would understand how this might appear as "making fun"
I don't think 5 year olds fully comprehend, "tact"

She isn't trying to hurt anyone's feelings by closing her eyes and feeling around to be blind. She's just doing what she does with all her favorite stories. She acts them out. It's just when she announces in public, "I'm Helen Keller" that certain uneasiness fills me.

When someone commented on her "Alice in wonderland" dress in Stop N shop Johanna asked me, "why didn't you tell them I was Helen Keller ?"

I just said, "well with the dress I didn't feel like getting into a whole conversation. "

So for us dear Helen, these are the adventures!