The Solar Eclipse!

Who would have thought that such a simple thing as a solar eclipse could cause such a big commotion! Well, here in Morocco it does! All the public schools were cancelled because of it and I only had 11 kids in the beginning of the day. I eventually got up to 14, but that's still 7 kids absent because of an eclipse!
In trying to explain an eclipse to my children, I quickly learned that what they believe is so hilarious. It took me an hour to explain to my kids that the moon doesn't have light on it's own, it's not a star like the sun. And that it's not any more dangerous to look at the sun during a solar eclipse than it is any time of the year. It's always bad to look at the sun, you just normally don't do it because it's so bright but during an eclipse you try to see it more. At 9:00 this morning my kids were literally fearful, like they thought some sort of laser was going to shoot out or something. Even the mosques did a special solar eclipse prayer today. It was definitely a day of interesting cultural information!