The Granny

Read with a squirrelly little firstie today.  We'll call him Squirrel.  This kid is absolutely cantankerous and drives all of us out of our minds.  I had no confidence that he would consent to a reading test with me this afternoon, but he did.  At first he tossed the book and asserted all the usual flim flam about not being able to read.  After the flim flam jimmy jam, he finally started reading. "This is my brother.  We like to make sand castles.  This is my sister.  We like to sing.  This is my grandma.  We like to go boating....Well, SO DO I YOU OLD GRANNY!" I burst out laughing and so did he.  A fun, bonding moment, which is pretty rare with this kid.  He's usually screaming out all day at the top of his lungs stuff like, "Stop looking at me.  I'll punch you in the face! SHUT UP!  You are an IDIOT!"  The kid's not much of a charmer, but he's not all bad.  During the test, he held a TRANSFORMERS pencil the whole time.  He refused to tell me where he got it, when I asked politely.  After the test, he ran into his big brother's class to give it to him.  Luckily, Big Bro's teacher was okay with the disruption and the exchange was pretty sweet.  When Squirrel came out he said, "I had to go give that to him. He loves Transformers." I fear he may have stolen that pencil from a classmate, but what can I do about it now?

I read Dear Mr. Blueberry to the kinders yesterday and then we wrote books about our own pet whales.  Little Red Head decided to name his whale, "Little Red Head."  He said to me, "Whales live in lakes."
"I think they live in the ocean," I told him back.
He screamed at the top of his lungs, "THE OCEAN!  That's called the BEACH!"

These little boys.  They slay me.