It's not just the 6th grade GIRLS...

Last night Tom and I were privileged to have Tyler's first "sleep-over" (that wasn't family). The very first friend Tyler ever made (BEFORE he spoke English) was Caleb. He considers him his best friend -EVER. And, of course, Caleb moved. But he only moved to Danville. But we still didn't see him often. Turns out this year, Caleb is on cross country for his junior high...and of course, so is Tyler. So we saw him at the first meet (And he won first place and ran like the wind!) Tyler started talking about having Caleb come up...and talked and talked and talked.

Well, Friday night was the Cross Country COW CHIP meet in Chrisman. Yeah. And they MEAN cow chip. They run in a field that cows typically graze and...POOP in. After it was over, Tyler found Caleb. So, mom, what are we doing tonight??? Can Caleb come over??? And we said yes. That began our evening with 6th grade boys(and one 5th grader...Zach). Average age=12. We started at Monical's where there were 3 girls from Rossville. As they went to wash their hands, "Hey...HE wants to go out with you...HE thinks you're cute..." I don't think I have EVER seen 3 boys eat so little and talk so much. Tom looked at me and said, "Oh my gosh, Lois. When I was substitute teaching, I always said I wouldn't teach 6th grade because the GIRLS are just too nutty. They talk all the time and they say nothing. I had NO idea that the BOYS were the SAME WAY!!!" It's true. It's not a girl thing, it's a 6th grade thing. We finished up and the boys loaded in to the car while I went to the restroom. Three minutes later, I opened the car door to the stereophonic sound of faux farting through the palms of their hands. The fartfest continued for the next 25 minutes until we got home. The rest of the evening was, I'm assuming, normal 12 year old boy stuff.

There are a few things you can learn from 6th grade boys, although I am not too sure how applicable they are...for instance, when playing Nerf darts, make sure you take your shirt off before the dart war begins. It HURTS worse with your shirt off.

Yeah, that one isn't too applicable to me. It was am amusing and enlightening evening, to be sure.

JUST when you think they "get" it...

It's funny, the boys speak remarkably well when you consider they have only spoken English for a little over 2 1/2 years. I remember when they had been here for about 10 months, I wrote down some of their "mis-quotes" because it was kind of like their first words. I remember when Tyler came home and he said that there was a new boy at school. We asked him what the new boys name was and he said "I not know...maybe Breadstick? Turns out, his name was Brett. Later that week we asked what they were playing in PE and he said "Oh, FUN! We play FUDGE ball!" Hmmm. Could that be DODGE ball? Zachary was just as creative in his use of English. One time after Tom explain to Zach what "annoying behavior" was and...to not HAVE annoying behavior, Zach took it to heart. Tom was playing around with him early one morning and Zach had enough and said, "Papa...you're ANNOINTING me..." Another time, Zach came home and said his music teacher said he could earn extra credit if he came home and looked up Bosh on the internet. Bosh...Bosh...music teacher...OH! You mean BACH? They amuse us with their strangled English at times...but it has gotten SO much better. The biggest issues we have now are "dis" and "dat" and "da" instead of this, that and the. Dey don't use der "th's" very much. They are capable...but we are constantly correcting them on it.
Last week (a whole week in to school) Zach brought home his first week worth of corrected papers. He had two D's (and we don't DO D's in this house). The math D was somewhat understandable - timed test, review on division, moldy summer brain...I get that. But the other D was in Reading and Zach is pretty good at reading - he actually LIKES reading (unlike Tyler). I started reviewing the paper and could immediately see the problem. The story was about Nina who was Latino. The second question on the test was, "Nina is Latino. What would you say you are? A. Latino B. American C. African-American or D. Caucasian." Well, you guessed it. White boy Zach...is African-American. I asked him what he thought that meant and he didn't have a clue (and really...why would he?) I explained that Barack Obama is African-American. And Zach is not. Zach is caucasian. "Oh!"
Sometimes it surprises me what they don't know. I think what surprises me is that I assume they DO know it. We still have to slow down and remember - 2 1/2 years...not long at all! Then again, I still have to remind them to brush their teeth EVERY night...and they have been doing that for 2 1/2 years straight! They are SMART...and TYPICAL.
I got the school newsletter last week and made an interesting discovery...the SCIENCE teacher is NEW! This MAY mean that I have cryogenically processed insects in my freezer for NO reason! I keep telling Tyler to ask the teacher if they are going to do a bug collection. I would be willing to give them a proper burial...and I would LOVE to get them out of my freezer. Could this be the NO Illinois scrapbook all over again? Hmmmmm....