The other day I was able to spend time with Reese in his 1st grade classroom. They were studying Kenya and Japan. Having a bit of experience with Japan, I was able to help out at one of the stations during their Japanese Cultural Celebration.
After the kids donned their versions of traditional Japanese kimonos (bathrobes and dad's shirts) they sat down to a tea ceremony with rice cakes and goldfish crackers. While they dined on "fake" Japanese food, I gave them a quick language lesson. The salutatory hello and good-bye, please, thank you and such phrases as "my name is", "I like to"...eat, play, go to school, and "I am drinking" tea, or water, and names of various animals as requested.
Kids are funny. Especially 1st graders. They are just starting to be able to handle some bigger kid things and will surprise you at their level of understanding of the world. Then they remind you that they are still goofy kids which makes you shake your head and laugh. Like when in the middle of your sentence, a word reminds them of something and they blurt it out. For example, when I told them to say cat in Japanese, one kid raised his hand to ask a question. I thought it was to request another animal but the "question" was, "My cat is on a diet."
Another kid said "Nuh uh, cats don't diet!"
"Yes, huh, my mom said so. My cat's too fat."
Okay, next question and Jon's personal favorite -
"My grandpa can eat 11 pounds of food."
Oh, great- and how are his arteries??
Any other questions?
"Are you Reese's mom?"
"Yes."
"Who's Reese's dad?"
Are we on Jerry Springer?...
God bless Elementary School Teachers!
missed you and blair today and the whole family but usually i only see you and blair. hope you are well.
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