Of leaf angels and London Bridge

The Arctic Plunge weather has arrived. We had a low of 26°F and a high of 48°F. Tonight is supposed to be colder. It's unusual that the daytime temps don't rebound. The strong sun and length of time the sun is usually out tends to make a warmish daytime even in the middle of winter. Brr, we're in for a chilly night.

It was a very good week at school, and at home. I'm very blessed to have creature comforts, a good job, friends, and my church.

This week at school there were several fun events. It's a fun time of year where there are several things going on. Next Wednesday the cafeteria ladies put on a Thanksgiving feast for lunch, with all the fixins. It is always a delicious meal. The kindergartners wear their Indian or Pilgrim hats and outfits they'd made and we make a parade around the school as we go to the cafeteria.

Sleigh Ride. EPrata photo via JAdams

In December there is a Christmas program. This week our event was we had photographs with Santa. A man dressed as Santa comes in and the children can have a portrait taken, and the parents can choose to buy it or not. The day that Santa comes is a very exciting day in the kindergarten-grade 2 wing of the school. I was on hall duty by the door and I heard the excitement in the pitter-patter of running footsteps, all hurrying, one after another as they entered, to tell of the news that Santa is coming.

One boy came to tell me that Santa was HERE. He'd arrived! He said, "And he didn't come in a sleigh! He came in a Silver Ford F-150 with a front license plate that says SANTA!"

A truck is even better than a sleigh, I'm guessing by the excitement in his voice, lol.

On the playground we ended the week with a sweet moment. I sometimes despair of the life ahead of the children as the movie and television entertainment gets darker and darker with each passing season. Their impressionable minds are so drenched with dark visions and thoughts. The kids play vampire games and play zombies, and even mimic the eating habits of zombis, which of course is cannibalism. Zombies eat flesh. Sometimes the games get rough as the zombie or vampire chases after a victim and tries to catch him. The teachers always put an end to the rough play right away. In past times, I remember on the playground playing Red Rover and Foursquare and jumping rope. Where were those games? Why did they die? Where was simple innocence?

My private cry was heard...because on the last recess of the week one of the boys lining up looked up at me. All red-cheeked, happy and flushed, he said, "We played London Bridge and made leaf angels!"

Awww. Thanks for the sweetness!

Tower Bridge, London, AKA London Bridge. EPrata photo

Drill sergeant on the playground

What a gorgeous day today was! Fall in northern Georgia is just great. No humidity, days in the low 70s, clear night skies with sparkling stars.

I had my car in the shop for a few days and I got it back this afternoon. Just in time, I ran out of cat food and litter this morning. I made a run to the Dollar Store and the local grocery store. The prices at the Dollar Store are admittedly extremely helpful, but it's sort of a depressing place. I wouldn't trade it though, for having to drive to a Wal-Mart or a Target in Athens.

I bought broccoli which will be roasted. I think roasted broccoli is the tastiest vegetable alive. Unless it's spinach salad with boiled eggs, feta and mushrooms. Or a spinacci, a sauteed spinach--lemon-garlic with mushrooms and softened feta stuffed into a toasted pita. All those are on the agenda for the weekend. I already made pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins.

I cleaned the kitchen so it'll look nice when I come home and collapse tomorrow afternoon, lol. I have some books on the docket and I plan to take some walks and look at the sheep, morning glories, clouds, birds, chickens and anything else that crosses my path.

I think I'll wash the car too. It's been five years. It's due.

I was on recess duty today. Usually the kids are like spilled marbles, rolling everywhere randomly, the scene punctuated by the occasional shriek. So when a gaggle of about 8 or so kids lined up against the chainlink fence and looked listened to a kindergarten boy who was yelling at them, I perked up. I nudged the other teacher on duty and said, "Hm, something is going on there."

The lineup of kids was toward me and the drill sergeant boy was back to me. He was gesturing fervently and saying something loudly. Then they all saluted the drill sergeant boy! After that, they all broke into a run around the pavilion. They were doing laps! The boy was drilling them.

I asked him later,

"What were you doing?"
 He said, "Training them. Making them exercise."

I thought about it this evening. Can I get 8 or so kids to stop what they're doing, at recess, line up, look at me, listen to me, do what I say, AND salute me?

No. I cannot.
Well played, young boy. Well played.

First day of school!

Today was the first day of public school in our county. I help in the kindergarten area, so the kids I see come in young, cute, and scared. Some weren't scared, though. They had taken the opportunity offered last week to come to three days of a mini-kindergarten. This is a new program that helps kids acclimate in advance to be ready for their first day of school. It's called KinderCamp. There are no other students in the building at "KinderCamp" and they spend three hours doing mini-rotations of all the things they will do during regular school day. It's a great program. The kids who participated are used to the school when they come on the first day. The parents are also relieved. And it helps the teachers, we know the children's names on the first day! Most of our kids took part, so that was good.

It's 91 degrees so needless to say I'm exhausted, grungy, hot, and overstimulated. I came home and shut the windows, and turned on the air conditioner. I closed the curtains. I took a looooong shower as cold as I could stand. I ate my Subway sandwich.

Phew!!!

Some of the cute things:

I saw one little girl in first grade who I knew last year in kindergarten. She was having lunch. I said,

Hi! How is first grade? Is it hard?
No! It is not hard. I tried it!

Another little kindergartener was waiting to be picked up in car riders line with her older brother.

I said,
"Well, you're going home now. You can tell your mom and dad about your day and all that you learned."
She tugged at her brother and said,
"Guess what? I ate a burger with ketchup on it and I like ketchup now!!

Now for a nap. I've got to put my feet up. Me old dogs are barkin'.

The imaginary restaurant

Kindergarten kids often have a chance to 'play' at centers. I said 'play' because each station is stocked with academic games and learning things, but they think it is play. Some of the centers are academic in nature and others seem social but are actually teaching skills and imagination. Once per week they get to play in the Kitchen center, which is very enriching in terms of imagination. The kids love the Kitchen Center.

There was one little boy who was having a good time back there. He was banging pots and pans, dressed in a diner type apron, and was taking orders from the other kids sprinkled around the room at their centers and then bringing them the food.

He came over to me. He had his hand ready in a taking orders on a pad pose, and he said "What would you like to eat?"

I made a show of thinking for a moment, and then I said "I'd like a grilled cheese please."

Pause.

"We're out of that."

I burst out laughing. I said "You're out of imaginary grilled cheese?"

"We don't have that. What else would you like?"

"I'd like a hamburger. And a Coke."

"No Coke. We have Dr Pepper today".

I thought to myself, "Is this the Olympia Diner?"

Anyway, the boy was cute as a button and eventually I got my hamburger and Dr Pepper. It 'cost' $4, which I thought was totally reasonable. For imaginary food, that is.



This is a video of the real diner SNL got the idea from, the Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago.

Five year old strikes again

I was feeling pretty good about my intellect. Then I had a conversation with a five-year old.

You see, I'd heard a joke and I liked it. I was tickled by the punchline, which eluded me until the joke was finished.

A kindergartener and I were sitting at a table, counting Christmas ornaments for math centers. She finished, so I said to her, 

"Hey, what do you call a boomerang that doesn't come back?"

"A stick."

I said, "How did you know my punchline? How did you know that?"

"Cuz ... its easy."

The tone was "duh."

 

She #nailedit

Kindergarten jog-a-thon

We had a jog-a-thon at our elementary school on Friday. I work with kindergarteners so that was the group I went outside with.

The kinder kids find sponsors, and on the designated day they bring back their sheets and run laps around the field. As they pass the tent, volunteers put a hash mark on their tag that is affixed to their back to keep track of how many laps they had run. My job was to stand at the corner cone and make sure no one cut corners across the field. You'd be surprised how many want to do that, lol.

After the first lap all the kids were huffing. Honestly, kids today don't go play outside and run around the neighborhood, running and biking in between all the houses, playing in the brook, and picking at the dump, like we used to 40 years ago. In my day, we'd leave in the morning, our mothers shouting "be home by dark!", and off we would go, on bikes or feet. Nowadays, for obvious reasons, kids are confined to their yards and frankly most of them just stay inside and play video games.

So they were huffing for sure. But after the second lap they all were getting into the competitive aspect, competing with themselves to see how many laps they could do. They'd proudly shout "I did 5!" or "I'm on 7!"

Some kids who I only see all day sitting at a little table and doing alphabet papers in class, really shone with their running. One girl was so thrilled. She shouted as she passed by, "I love running! It's my favorite thing! But I love climbing the tree too!" The tree, lol.

Many of the girls ran hand-in-hand, and that was the sweetest thing! One gal likes to wear wedding type dresses and Easter to dresses to school. She has long flowing black hair and black round eyes. She and another girl were running hand in hand, the girl's hair looking like a model's in the wind machine blowing all around her because she was going so fast, her little satin sash on her flowered dress wafting out behind, her hands clasped tightly together with her friend's and both were smiling. How sweet!!

Of course there were pairs of boys competing with each other, running full blast with tongues hanging out, feet pounding the grass as they rounded the cone, looking back to see where the other boy was. Is he gaining? Am I ahead? Boys!

If I closed my eyes, and just listened and felt the air, I enjoyed the soft spring air on my skin, the birds overhead, and the sound of children running and laughing in the sun. Not a bad way to end a workweek.

"Can we run around?"

We had that wonderful week of no heat on, open windows, warm temps, but that's gone now. We've had several days of cold weather and snow is threatened tonight. And for the weekend, a cold, hard rain.

But that's OK, it is a last gasp. The warm weather will be here within a week or two, to stay for good.

The kids at recess ran around like pinballs on the playground, crashing into each other, red cheeks, and cold hands. They would stop occasionally to scream, "I'm cold!" only to run off again before I could answer, them laughing hysterically just with the joy of being alive and breathing air.

I remember how it felt when I was that age. It felt like my legs were pistons and could pump up and down forever, whether running or on the bike.

I bring a kindergarten class of kids to the gym every day to sit and wait to be picked up by car. A few weeks ago we were the first class in there. So there's this huge empty gym and 8 kids...of course the first thing they did was ask me if they could run around. I said yes.

Today was a time when we were the first class again, and not missing a beat, the first thing they asked was "Can we run around??" Of course I said yes. Seeing 8 little kids running around in circles, laughing hysterically, made my day. We give them playstations, barbie dollhouses, iPads, and all they need is a big empty room...and maybe a box.

If you enjoy quiet, character-driven movies, I watched Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, starring the wonderful Joan Plowright. It was a great little gem out of the UK, and I recommend it. The Rockford Files still has enormous appeal after 40 years and is available on Netflix, and also Youtube I think. My observations: The desert around Malibu is empty and undeveloped, there are phone booths everywhere, and Mr Garner was very handsome at that stage of his life.

This weekend will hold no mystery for me. I am still making my way through Willa Cather's "O Pioneers!" and will make soup to combat the cold rain. Naps, church, and maybe doing a load of dishes and there you have my very important, fancy weekend.

Overheard

At recess today, a kindergartener was eating a Nutty Buddy ice cream cone. Examining the wrapper closely, she said to herself, "I'm nutty. And this ice cream is my buddy. So that fits..."

Another kid...came running up to me, frustrated. Yelling, she said:
--"I went over there to tell those boys to stop wrestling, but they wouldn't listen to me!"
--They didn't listen to you because you are not the boss.
--"But why? Why I am not the boss?"

I feel your pain, honey.

Kids again

I had a great day. The kids made me laugh so hard. In one small group I was hosting, they got done with their math and for the last 3 minutes I said they could play with their manipulatives. We had been counting with little plastic puppies. One boy set them all in a good sized circle, and put one puppy in the middle, and two others were chasing each other around the outside of the circle. I said, "What are you playing?" He said "Duck Dick Goose!"

I get annoyed at the adults of the world. I watch Judge Judy sometimes when I get home. I see adult after adult live off of welfare, tell the Judge that they don't have work, never worked, don't want to work... They lay around their parents' home watching tv...or doing much of nothing. I see this kind of attitude reflected in quotes from people in the newspaper, I see adults in real life being lazy. It's a problem, these adults who slack. It's annoying. Even of the many who do work (and are blessed these days to have a job), they don't have a lot of 'go get um' attitude. Slacking is an art form these days.

I watch these kids, though. They are five years old, entering school for the first time. School is a huge building populated with really tall adults, lots of walking by them really fast. There are tons of kids they don't know. There are dozens of routines, and hundreds of tasks they must accomplish each day. They miss their mommies. They miss their daddies. But most of them, you know, try hard. They work. And most of them are cheerful about it.

I so respect these kids. It really would be similar to an adult's 18 hour day, what we ask them to absorb, and obediently too. For the ones who struggle, they smile and giggle with me as we count the dots over and over and over, or say the alphabet over and over and over. They work. And I respect them all for it.

And on top of the privilege I have to help kids, they make me laugh too.

Life is good.

Curious kids

I had a quiet Sunday. I made my usual meals for the week, this time, pressing and marinating tofu for later grilling, fig compote, a marinated tomato salad for putting on crusty bruschetta tomorrow, and a hearty vegetable soup. Strangely, after all that, I'm not hungry and I'm just sipping a large mug of green tea now.

It was relaxing and nice day with the cats. The cats have had a hard time adjusting this week to my absence, with school resuming and me gone now all day. I was glad to spend a little cuddle time with them on the bed or on the couch.

It sure was a tiring week. Getting back to school hits like a ton of bricks. The kindergarteners are great though. On Friday morning as I was walking the line of them down the hall from the gym to their classrooms, one little guy turned and looked up at me and looked at my summer short sleeved sweater. He had questions.

Is that a sweater you have on?
Yes
Are you wearing anything under it?
Pause. How best to answer that one. ... This sweater IS the shirt.
Oh.
Pause. Then:
Why do you have to walk us down the hall? I can go by myself.
I laughed inside. The little one asking me this is exactly the one who should NEVER be allowed to go anywhere down the hall by himself, being so active and curious. I could just see him going into the custodian's closet and turning on all the faucets just to see what would happen.
Because it is important an adult go with all the little kids.
But I know my way.
I'm proud of you for knowing that already, but grownups still need to be around.
Why?
Because I love you and I like seeing you.
Oh! OK.

I really admire the curious ones, and I like the ones who stand up for themselves and insist on good answers to good questions (without being disrespectful). I also like simply talking with kids. They are interesting.

Well, my weekend is almost over and I get to talk with a bunch more of the little kids tomorrow. I can't wait to see what they have to say!

I'll miss the kids

So I'm thinking this week about how I'll be at school but no kids will be there. That's always strange. I am looking forward to the rest, but I really do like the kids and I'll miss them.

One day a couple of weeks ago I returned to the classroom to find this at my seat:

 I like you too, kiddo. I like you too.

Pic of the day and quote of the day

From My Modern Metropolis:

Caption at My Modern Met: "Does street art get better than this? Found on the streets of Verona, Italy is a pair of unmistakable legs! Surely they belong to the Wicked Witch of the East who was known to wear ruby slippers and striped socks. Morbid? Sure. Awesomely unexpected? Absolutely."

Quote of the day. This is from my life:

My neighbor took her two daughters to the beach for a 4-day weekend. The four-year-old had never been to the beach. They got home tonight as I was taking my laundry out of the dryer in the garage. "How was the beach?" I asked the little girl. "It was fun. There was a lot of sand and a...a...a really BIG pool!"

Funny kid comments- redux

Kindergartener asked his life's goal:
"When I grow up I want to be an animal."
Uh, ok!

In math, a boy was asked, "Can you count by fives?"
"Sure! Five, Five, Five, Five..."
Well, he did what was asked!

Girl dancing during indoor recess in the classroom.
"What are you doing?"
"Spanish dancing in outer space."

Now, there's a creative kid!

But son, I had a dream...

So, my friends in Maine got a dose of April Fools...a heavy snowstorm!! I am so glad I moved to Georgia. I feel for those guys. By April you're really sick of winter. I mean, it's been going on since October! Here's what it looked like this morning up there.

This is what I awoke to:

I had a good day. I cleaned the apartment, and it looks good. I like it when it looks good in here. I went grocery shopping, and got more strawberries, among other things. I'm on my third tray of strawberries this week. Can you tell I love them?!

While I was walking across the parking lot a mom had taken her three year old out of the car and as she walked up to the carts his little face peeked out over her shoulder. He waved at me and smiled. You know how kids do that...they look straight at you, guileless, unabashed. He smiled while looking straight into my eyes, and he waved or the longest time. I looked back and waved at him and his smile broadened. What a nice way to walk into a store.

It wasn't crowded and I enjoyed picking up the few things I needed. At the checkout, there was another mom with a child about the same age, maybe slightly younger. He was obedient but since he was a kid the moment she put him down he started touching everything, the candy, the register at the next station over, the things on the floor. By that time she had gotten the money out of her wallet and picked him up again. She was telling the checkout lady that she has 6 kids under the age of ten, all boys. "The Lord didn't bless me with girls, but I love every one of them very much." The boy was noodling around with her ring of car keys, lost in play. After a pause she laughed and said, "As the only woman at my house it's like I'm Cinderella in my castle!"

The boy immediately perked up, looked at her and shouted, "Bwaaah! Mom, you don't have a castle!"

I burst out laughing. Kids. You can't even have a pretend dream, before they puncture it with pure pragmatism, lol.

With new neighbors, one of the goals for this week was to purchase and then install curtains. The purchase was a major ordeal because I hate curtains and also because I hate spending money. Installing them was an ordeal because I don't have a stool to step on and I have to tiptoe on tottery things like stack of books or a tippy folding chair. Accident waiting to happen.

My windows are big but half of the light is obscured because of the old fashioned metal awnings. I hated to lose more light. I also didn't want to weigh down the room with more fabric. It's small enough as it is.

I was satisfied with getting two long white cotton curtains with loops on top. I got a third curtain of sand color in a kind of silk nylon. After much huffing and curtain rods falling on my head, missed threaded loops...I finally got them up and they look pretty good.

My cats are sleeping on the couch on the freshly laundered throw, and someone next door is cutting the grass in the sunset evening. It's windy and cool, which is great because humid and warm in spring in Georgia means thunderstorms and tornadoes. It is a nice evening and I plan to study for the Faith Group meeting on Sunday. I can only count this evening and tomorrow as the remaining free days of vacation, and it sure has been a great one.

Hello from a neighbor

I had a long week but a good week. Kids keep me going, they are so wonderful. I work at the AfterSchool program so by the time Friday rolls around, I am really ready to get home at 6:00! As I pulled into the driveway, the family that had moved in to the house my apartment is attached to was outside enjoying the 80-degree weather. A working mom, her teenage daughter and her 4-year-old daughter live there, and they were playing on the sunshine-y lawn. Both daughters were in bathing suits and the mom was swinging on the bench-swing under the arbor. It was a nice, domestic scene and I appreciated it for what it was. I turned off the car and opened the driver's seat door.

As I stepped out I was startled by the appearance of the 4 year old. She had padded over quickly, and quietly.

What are you doing?
I'm getting out of the car.
Why?
Because it is time to come home from work.
Why?
Because after you work, you come home.
Why?
So that I can get out of the car and talk to you.
Oh. Hey, do you like my bathing soup?
Yes, I like your bathing soup a lot. It's cute.
Okaybye.
And she ran off.

Isn't that what we all want? We want to understand the actions of the people around us. We want to connect. We want to be noticed. We want a compliment. Kids do it crudely but more honestly. Adults do it  sophisticatedly but less honestly. But it is what we all want.

It was a nice way to be greeted when I got home. What a sweet, neighborly hello.

Wednesday night church kids

I teach bible to first and second graders on Wednesday nights. The kids are 6-8 years old. Wed. night I read them the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:30-35. I read with great fervor and passion.

"Jesus replied and said, 'A man was going down toe road from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side of the road. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.' "

So at the end of the story, I looked around and asked, "Boys and girls, what do you think is the moral of the story?"

Boy: "Never go walking alone and always bring a BB gun."

Heartbreak of the day

Subbing in a kindergarten today was nice. At one point, a teacher came in and got a bunch of kids to work in small groups outside the room, and the remaining kids were playing at centers. The kids were so cute, playing together nicely. One trio of boys was at the trains, another pair of boys at the Legos, more boys at the erector set, a group of girls at the blocks. The girls played happily for a long time, chatting and making gardens and flowers with their colored blocks.

Suddenly one girl stopped. She looked up at me almost in a panic, her face turning white. One barrette had slipped, and her oversized sweater was hanging down below her knees.

She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said: "I'm hungry."
"Come here sweetie, tell me what you had for breakfast."
"Gum and nothing else."
Pause
"What was that again?"
"Gum and nothing else."

I took her over and gave her a baggie of goldfish from the teacher's closet.
A few minutes later, she smiled and said "My tummy's full!" And she went back to the blocks.

It was the gum that got me.

I subbed today...

...in a second grade. I was teaching Social Studies, about Georgia's Mary Musgrove. The Social Studies book showed an illustration of a 17th century Creek village, with huts arranged around a central square. I had read that the Creeks played and met as a tribe in the square. But that was a whole five minutes ago.

I stopped to ask the class some review questions. "What is the place in the middle of the village called?"

The littlest tyke raised her hand, all excited.

"A PLAZA!"

I burst out laughing. "Why yes, it is. It surely is."

I love kids

Resurrecting the cartoon pigeon

I had a great time teaching the two little kids at church last night. We had fun looking at Da Vinci's Annunciation, and learning Luke 1:26-38 when Gabriel comes to tell Mary she will birth a boy and call Him Jesus. Boy 1 loved the Annunciation painting of Gabriel and Mary that Da Vinci did. He fell in love with it, looking lovingly at it for a long time, examining each part, noting Gabriel's wings, the landscape.... His pronouncement: "That guy sure is a good painter."

At the end of the lesson when they were coloring the workbook page with Mary and Gabriel in it, they noticed that two pigeons were huddled on Mary's house's windowsill. "Are they dead?" they asked. "I think they're just sitting there," I said.

Boy 2 said "No, one of them has an X on its wing. That means it's dead, like the fish in the cartoons with X's on their eyes." So then they focused on the dead pigeons, laughing as they colored and making up stories on why they died. Boy 1 stood up then and raised his hands and shouted "Pigeons, arise!"

We all fell over laughing.

It's Good to Be King

by Tom Petty...1994.

Scene: Grad school...I was tutoring two 3rd grade boys in my summer literacy intensive. One was endlessly antsy; the other was defiant and angry. Hence their difficulty in learning to read in a regular classrom during the year. It was them and me in a small, airless, non-air conditioned room on the third floor of Bailey Hall.

I tried everything. They hated to be there, it was sweet summer in Maine, after all. They threw the "baby" books across the room. They refused to try a second grade chapter book. Finally, in desperation, I copied the lyrics to Tom Petty's song onto an easel chart, since "rock lyrics" from a "rocker" was cool. I dragged the CD player into the tutoring room and plugged in, hoping for the best.

Finally, thank the Lord, they learned to read the lyrics and then we moved to books. Sometimes a song is more than a song. It is the key to the kingdom known as literacy.